20 Jan 2023
Today is an exciting day! I've been looking forward to Maria Island for a while. I prepared two peanut butter and honey bagels, one for right now, and one for tomorrow's breakfast so I again wouldn't need to cook. My ticket was for the first ferry that morning, and it instructed me to get to the ferry half an hour before departure. I was given a detailed map and information page, and given quite a bit of extra intel about the island that I hadn't seen online, such as the inland track on the way to french's farm being too overgrown for safe cycling. Also, there is water at each campground on the island, it just needs to be treated before drinking, Darlington has bike hire and information centres, and there are a few buildings on the island outside of Darlington. It suddenly seemed like there was a lot more to the island than I realised, and maybe I should have allowed more time for the island than just two days. I was told I needed to clean my bike before going over to the island, but there wasn't enough time to do so, and I hadn't known earlier that I needed to clean it for the island. I did clean it before bringing it to Tasmania though.
The ferry over took 30 minutes and was very smooth sailing, with a lovely view. There is also a cafe on board. Upon arrival, I took a while to sort myself out as I needed to make a few calls, and by the time I was ready to go, I was the only one left on the jetty. In a great dumb moment of mine, I saw a hose that was presumably the bike cleaning station, but couldn't figure out how to use it as I've used a hose maybe once in my life, half a lifetime ago. No, I've never really done any gardening...
I had a look at the cement silos, and registered my walk at the information centre, before going to Darlington. I asked a park ranger about the bike cleaning, and she said since I'd already ridden to Darlington, if I had any infected dirt on my bike then it would have already fallen off onto the island so it didn't matter at this point... But I also realised that night that my ground sheet for my tent is also quite dirty, as well as my hiking poles and shoes. If this is an important thing for the health of the island perhaps it should be policed better to help people identify what might need to be cleaned. Perhaps helping people figure out how to use a hose is only me-specific, but more and more people are living without gardens and backyards nowadays so who knows, there might be more of us.
I thought I'd take a look around Darlington before riding off, and was surprised to find many information sheets and pamphlets that could take up a good amount of your time to read. Almost every building in Darlington had a display in it to do with a different aspect of the history of the island. I glanced through each of the buildings, but stayed for the whole audio presentation in the Coffee Palace, which was a recording that starts playing when you enter the dining room of the building, simulating a dinner party. There were also some Maria Island themed books in the reading room that you can read inside if you wish. Some day I would like to come back and read one of them, as well as all the plant, fossil, and wildlife information.
After feeling satisfied with my exploration of Darlington, including already seeing a very furry wombat appear in front of me, and eating lunch it was already 12:30pm. I left my panniers in Darlington and rode down the fossil cliffs track to get to the bottom of the Bishop and Clerk hike. Unfortunately the walking track section of the fossil cliffs was closed due to damage so I couldn't walk down and see close up. Still a great view though.
Just after this cliff is where most people leave their bike to begin the hike. The hike was very nice, and I found the rock scramble at the top quite fun, though slow. I didn't go all the way up as I was starting to run out of time to get to French's Farm, my campsite for the night. So I climbed up the rocks for about 10 minutes until I got a satisfying view, had a bit of a rest while soaking it in, and went back down to my bike. Finally put my hiking poles to good use this trip! The ride back to Darlington was all down hill and very fast. I picked up my panniers and went on my way, away from the surprising sense of civilisation.
The ride to French's Farm took me just over an hour, partly due to hills, partly due to the fat bike, partly due to my tiredness. There were some great beach views on the way of the painted cliffs, and the four mile beach. I got to French's Farm around 5pm. There are two buildings there, a farmhouse and a woolshed. The farmhouse is in much better condition. It felt so homely to me, I think because it reminds me a lot of my grandparent's house they built in country Poland on a hobby farm plot of land.
I was absolutely famished at this point so I eagerly set up my camp stove to boil up water for my dinner. It was fairly windy so the flame kept blowing sideways, which I think made it cook 2x slower than I was expecting it to. Although, my stove may also be damaged because it seems to keep being less efficient. I will have to investigate further when I get back home.
I must say, this outdoor gourmet meal was quite nice, just like a previous one I had tried earlier this trip. I think this brand may be a winner for me. There were a few tents already, and people had apparently decided to really spread out. I set up my tent similarly far away and wandered to the nearby paddock. Along the way I saw many pademelons and wombats. I stored my food inside the farmhouse just in case, and went to sleep pretty early, at 9pm.
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