Matt Down Under

As usual I got up with the sun, probably around 6am. Since I got to sleep early, always around 8 or 9pm already since you can’t do much at night except fighting mosquitoes, I didn’t mind. I took my camera and walked around the old farming grounds behind the campsite. You can find a lot of wildlife there and old farming equipment, a nice walk before breakfast.

Everyone was packing up and leaving except me. It was Monday and most people had to be back at work on Tuesday, so they went back to Darlington the catch the ferry in the afternoon. I didn’t have to be back at work until Thursday, so I was planning to stay another day. My plan for the day was to check out the convict cells near Encampment Cove and then walk to Haunted Bay at the northern end of Maria Island. Depending on the time when I get back I was also thinking about walking to Robey’s Farm, an abandoned farmhouse about 2-3h walk from French’s Farm.

So I said goodbye to everyone and walked the small circuit track at Encampment Cove to the old convict cells. The weather once again was beautiful, very nice bushwalking weather, lots of wildlife. There wasn’t much left of the convict cells, but what was left was impressive, the cells were quite small. A very nice area around there, camping at Encampment Cove also seemed to be a nice spot. Many of the yachts had already left.

I walked along the beach at Shoal Bay to the other end. From there a track leads to Haunted Bay and another one to Robey’s Farm. I went to Haunted Bay which turned out to be a beautiful forest walk. I reckon it can also be done on bicycle, but it’s very steep at times.

The reason behind the name of Haunted Bay apparently is a colony of fairy penguins living there which seem to make spooky sounds at night. I wasn’t able to verify it, while I noticed several penguin holes and lots of feathers they are usually in the water during the day, so I didn’t see any actual penguins.

Didn’t really matter, it was still a spectacular place to be. A track leads down onto the rocks of the bay, fascinating formations, with some rocks coloured deep red, probably some sort of fungus. I had lunch there while watching the water clash with the rock formations, but after an hour or so the wind started to become a bit chilly so I climbed up the track again.

On my way back I spotted a group of Yellow-tailed black cockatoos in the treetops above me. I love them, the sounds they make are funny and it’s amazing to watch them flying in groups. They have a very fluid way of flying, it almost looks like slowmotion, very fascinating. To me as a European where birds like cockatoos can only be seen in zoos, it’s very beautiful to see them in the wild. Same with kangaroos.

It was too late already to walk to Robey’s Farm, so I moved it to the next day and decided to have a comfortable dinner instead. When I walked back I chose to walk along the beach at Shoal Bay again instead of taking the isthmus track. There I had another amazing encounter, I suddenly noticed something was moving in the water, maybe 10m from where I was standing at the beach. I turned around and it seemed like a dolphin first, but then I saw it’s head and tail and it actually was a seal! A seal swimming and diving in the shallow water, exactly at the place where I went swimming only 24h before, wow!! I had heard there was a seal colony on a small island somewhere off the coast but I wouldn’t have expected to see one so close in the shallow water. That really made my day. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo since it was diving and I never knew where it would appear next.

On my way back I stopped at a small bridge near French’s Farm to put my shoes back on, I had walked barefoot along the beach. While I sat there, a wombat appeared. Wombats often seem to have their own trails where they walk every day, I have seen this a few times before. I was sitting not far from where a wombat trail left the bush and suddenly a wombat appeared. It was a very shy one and when it noticed me it stopped and watched me. We probably stood there for 15 minutes, me with the camera hoping the wombat would move, the wombat watching me, probably hoping I would go away. At some point I lost patience and tried to come closer, but then it disappeared. Maria Island is such a great place to see wildlife.

Back at French’s Farm everyone was gone, only my tent was left. I cooked dinner and enjoyed a quiet evening. From inside the house I could watch wombats around the house. I remembered the previous night had been very cold, and because of that, my tent had been quite wet on the inside in the morning - condensation water. My plan for the following day was to pack up early, store my big backpack in the farmhouse and then walk to Robey’s Farm, then back at French’s Farm pick up the backpack and move to Darlington.

Because I was afraid of having a wet tent again, which would take time to dry in the morning (I hate packing up wet tents), I thought about packing up and sleeping in the farmhouse on the ground instead. I didn’t see any signs that prohibited sleeping in the farmhouse so I quickly moved all my stuff into the house and slept on the ground.

Later I woke up by a strange sound outside. I got up and met Russell from Byron Bay outside in the darkness, filling water bottles at the tank. He was camping with friends somewhere nearby and cycled here to get water for the next day. I had actually met him and his friends earlier at Haunted Bay, I probably wouldn’t have noticed in the darkness, but he recognised me. Nice talking.