Kind of on the fly we decided to go to French Island National Park. We had made this attempt before. It involved a 2hr train ride with a negative outcome. We went to purchase tickets for the ferry to cross over to the island. Due to a possible afternoon storm, they couldn't guarantee us a return trip back to the mainland. This was a serious disappointment as you could see the island just across the channel. It was only a 15min boat ride. However, for this attempt we had a car and a positive forecast, so we decided to go for it.
All went smoothly except, upon arrival we realized we might have made a mistake by not booking some sort of tour. The island was small, but the general store was 3k from the docks and all the other stuff was passed that so...we were in for a long day of walking in a short period of time. We only had about 4hrs to tour. As we made our way to the general store, van passed. We got a little further and the van was coming back our way. We joked about getting a lift. Miraculously, the van stopped. A small, weather-worn, oldish woman jumped out.
Mumbling and barely audible, she said she could take us to her farm. She promised koalas (koalas!!) and a tour. She never looked us in the eye; she just organized the back seat of her van and gave us the gesture to get in. We all looked at each other with bewilderment. What do we do? Considering the population of the island in approximately 60. We figured it was safe to proceed with her plans for us. We hopped in and buckled up. Lois, was 4th generation islander and lived on the family farm, which housed a chicory kiln.
We drove by the general store. She took us by the school for primary aged children. It has 3 students. She stopped and dropped us off for a short nature hike that ended at her farm. There, we stopped for lunch. We saw heaps of chickens, a few sheep, 2 horses, cows, a pretty rainbow colored bird, and a ferret.Jim and Kevin performed some minor manual labor, like moving a log and relocating a huge saw. Lois showed us the koalas on the trees around her farm. She gave us the lowdown on the chicory kiln (Chicory was a coffee substitute. You can still find it in some coffees and teas). She recommended we head down the road and see more koalas and offered to give us a lift back to the docks in time for our boat. You see, a camper that she was picking up, missed our 12pm boat and was now coming on the 4pm boat. Thank you for missing your boat, Miss!
Once we left the farm on pursuit of koalas, we looked at the park flier and realized that our Lois, was actually the Lois Airs, who pretty much is the voice of the island. Her name was all over this piece of paper. If you have and questions, it's her mobile number that is listed. Lois is one of 3 people to do island tours. If Lois hadn't picked us up, we wouldn't have seen anything worth while that day. We totally lucked out. 
a short ferry/boat ride
a short ferry/boat ride
The Historic Chicory Kiln Farm
The rainbow, fruit eating bird
Lois schooling us on what chicory is all about
a horse
a sign
a tense moment. we thought he was going to jump on Jim's face
trying to hurry and get a photo before he gets to aggravated
I was just telling a student of mine a story of breaking down, in a van, on a road in the middle of Australia with 8-10 Aussie students and just walking down the road. It was one of those "what the fuck" moments... I miss those. Glad to see you are carrying them on!
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