Planes, trains, and automobiles:
My trip to Phillip/French Islands went well. The journey there involved a taxi to the airport, a plane to Melbourne, a bus to the train station in Melbourne, two trains (one diesel!) to a place called Stony Point, and a Ferry across the Western Port to Cowes. I got in around 6 pm.
The first night there I walked a few miles down the beach, which was long and empty and wide at low tide, if not particularly beautiful, ate some of the best fish and chips I have ever had, went to the hostel pub and had a VB or two while watching Family Guy, and turned in pretty early, since I had a long day ahead of me.
The next morning I woke up in time for the morning ferry to French Island. About a dozen people got on the boat, but most of them are going to the mainland. I got off at the Tankerton jetty with one other person, a middle-aged long-haired man carrying the world's third cutest dog (I have loyalties here).
We talked a little as we walked down the jetty. He told me that the general store about 2 km up the road would rent me a bike, and offered me a lift. I declined, since I was on the island to walk. He also told me that he'd send out the search parties if I didn't make the afternoon ferry off the island, which was good to hear.
See, the thing about French Island is that it has no modern infrastructure. There are no electricity lines (all power must be generated at the building, so every structure has a solar panel or a wind tower or both), no running water, no gas station, nothing like public transport. The sum total of the public services is a locked toilet, barrel of untreated rainwater, and phone box at the jetty, another phone box at the general store, a single gravel road and a handful of sand tracks, and, this being Australia, a cricket oval and tennis courts. Fewer than a hundred people live on the island.
I walked inland up the gravel road from the jetty. My friend from the ferry, after filling up his car from the petrol can he brought with him from Phillip Island, drove past me up the road, and I am alone. I had no map of the island, just a memory of a map once seen, but there aren't enough roads for this to be too worrying. I looked at my watch. 2km should take me about 25 minutes. After thirty minutes, I thought I was getting somewhere, only to see the cricket oval and tennis courts on my left (with a couple of koalas in the trees). Another k to go! It was hot, even though there is some shade on this part of the island, and I was already tired. Luckily, a woman drove by and gave me a ride to the general store. On the way, we passed an echidna hanging out by the side of the road and stopped for a peek.
A Spanish couple was waiting at the store for bikes also; it turned out that the store's proprietor is also the post man and he was out delivering mail. They'd been waiting for 45 minutes. We waited about thirty more until the man returned and hooked us up with ungeared mountain bikes with foot brakes and a supplemental handbrake, maps, and helmets, none of which were even close to fitting my head. At least there are only a handful of cars on the island.
I decided to ride down the coast road, because hey, coasts are pretty. I cycled back almost to the jetty, and turned to the right. The first 300 meters were gravel, though the bush. It quickly turned to a layer of sand over a harder level. The sand's depth ranged from non-existent to more than 6 inches. Have you tried cycling in those conditions? It sucks. You get a nice ride up and then you hit a deep patch of sand, slow down rapidly, and the front wheel usually turns to one side. Then you hit the edge of the track (I forgot to mention but this track is actually two tracks, the two tracks left by a four wheel drive. So about a foot wide). Your wheel spins back, you slow down even more, put your feet on the ground and recover. Then rinse and repeat. I made it over 5 k on this road, God knows why, since the views weren't even particularly good. Coast road means 500 meters inland in this case.
Finally I gave up and turned around, thinking that I would go to the campground and see if anyone was around and fill up my water, since I was pretty low. The campground was empty and the water marked on my map was actually an tank of untreated rainwater, so I decided to pass on drinking that. I cycled back to the jetty, but the water there was also untreated rainwater and the toilets were closed too. OK. Back to the general store where I bought some water and Gatorade and got some advice. Take Clump Road inland to the track to the Pinnacles, an observation tower. You can cut through on that track back to the coast road. He told me most of the tracks were good, so I figured what the heck. I made it to the tower (track was dirt mostly, narrow but if you rode on the center raised bit, mostly rideable), and I still had two hours before the ferry and I couldn't face the coast road again, so I took another track, marked but unnamed on my map towards the bog. Unfortunately, after only 100 meters or so it was marked as closed except to walkers, so I went back to Clump Road. I made it to the bog track (which intersected Clump Road), but it was too late to risk riding there, so I turned around and went back to the jetty.
My friend with the dog and the Spanish couple were there also, along with about a dozen people, mostly locals taking produce into market. Olives and wines and wool seemed to be the main attractions. Saw more dolphins on the ferry.
Tomorrow my second day on Phillip Island.
