We woke up early, i jumped on the back of Robs bike and we head to the Stradbroke ferry from my sisters in Mount Cotton.
For a car, return is $140. Pretty pricey for a two hour ferry there and back i thought. For a bike ticket when purchased online its $44. Better.
The ferry ride over is lovely. Very busy as its a weekend.
We wanted to explore the whole island so with our map in hand that was given to us by the lovely ticket lady we head to Brown Lake.
A warm brown lake. It didn’t really appeal to us as a swimming option when the ocean is so close, so off we went quick smart to a beach that 4 wheel drives have access on. Rob of course takes the opportunity to see what his KTM 990 is really made of.
I happily get off and watch him go over the sandy dune to the beach in full steam. By the time i have removed my boots and jacket and walked over, the bike is bogged. Haha funny..
Very easy to do as the sand was very soft from all the 4 wheel drivers that weekend. He managed to dig out some bits and tell me to put sand in other bits and the bike was out. A lot of strength required from Rob, my Hercules.
We relaxed in the sun and swam. Strangly we came across lots of Salp that had washed up onto the shore. I wasn’t sure what they were until i found myself googling for about 30 minutes . Thank goodness for google. They were the strangest little things, a small, clear, jelly like substance with a small dark dot on the inside. There was hundreds that we could see if not thousands washed up in total.
I felt so inquisitive, like a small child again, kneeling over and staring at these foreign creatures loosing myself in time.
From the beach i walked back over the sand dune to meet Rob on the other side. Rob powered over like he was in an off road adventure challenge competition. We dust the sand off, put on the bike gear and start riding. About 50 metres up the road we spot a seagull sitting in a puddle of water by the road. I had spotted the seagull by the road on the way to the beach. That was a few hours ago though and it was a really hot day so there must be something wrong with it. I tell Rob we need to stop it could be hurt. Hot and flustered in full bike gear he asks if I’m going to keep talking about it? I say Yes! We do a u-turn at the end of the road and drive back. He says ive got five minutes to catch it.
Running around fully clothed in motorbike gear, helmet and all would have been pretty entertaining for him i’m sure but i manage to catch it.
We ride into town with me holding onto nothing else but a seagull. Harder than it sounds when your riding uphill.
We pull over and make a few calls hoping someone can help our new birdie friend on a Sunday. Success! There is a man on the island that knows a bit about animals who is connected to a wildlife group. We dropped the bird off with him. Lovely old man. He will take it to the ferry for the RSPCA pick up the next day.
Our guess was that he had a broken wing.
We head towards all the restaurants and have a late lunch. Nothing too exciting but an enjoyable burger to say the least. We then head across the road to the Gorge walk at Point Lookout, thats a pretty one. The intricate colouring of the rock, the sounds of the water splashing through a rocky blow hole and the view, completely breath taking with Hercules by my side. Living the dream.
We rode and ferried back with a magical sunset on one side and fierce thunderstorms on the other making its way slowly towards us.
It was exciting riding back to my sisters with the thunderstorm chasing us, i almost wanted to be right underneath it, staring into its belly. The inquisitive child is still lingering. We made it back, just in time.
2souls2wheels 