French Island - Mosquitto Attack!

Background

Well - It wasn’t actually so much a hike as it was a “Bird watching tour”. The Mornington Peninsula had the Bird Watching Festival on and as part of the Festival, a guided tour on French Island was offered. Unfortunately we were only able to procure 3 of the 4 tickets we required, so last minute we decided to cancel the guided tour and just book the ferry to wander around the island by ourselves (hence the “hike”).

The Hike

We took the ferry at 7:40am to set over. At the landing on the island, we were greeted by a parking lot full of cars with no license plates. Apparently there are no road rules (or “proper roads”) on the island - fascinating. But were also greeted/attacked by Mosquittos the moment we stepped on land. Something that did not stop until we got back to the boat 4h later. Incredible.

The hike itself was rather uneventful and mainly along flat 4WD tracks. We were expecting lots of wildlife (koalas, birds etc.). We saw very little. Probably the path we took was just not ideal.

But it was interesting to see all the shrubbery and the swamps - definitely looked like an animal paradise. Ultimately we walked for 2h to the Pinnacles (some sort of Pyramid that looked like it was out of Far Cry 3). And then we walked back. Emi took pictures and looked for birds.

High Points

When I almost stepped on a snake in the middle of the road. We were so super vigilant for most of the hike, but towards the end we were just chatting away and suddenly there was that snake. We believe it was a Tiger snake (venomous) but it probably was equally frightened and just slithered away. My pulse was certainly high afterwards!

Low Points

THE.FUCKING.MOSQUITTOS. I mean, like seriously, there was just no reprieve. The moment we came to a rest, even just for 10 seconds, we were attacked relentlessly. It didn’t matter where we were. The mosquittos where everywhere. Dry, damp - no refuge. And they were thirsty. Emi got stung through her top all over. Insane! We were thinking to camp on the Island one day, but I can’t see that happening anymore.