Raymond Island, Victoria - the best place to see koalas in the bush.

Raymond Island is a small island in the Gippsland Lakes District of Victoria. It is 7.6 sq km and has a population of about 550 people. The only access is by boat or car ferry. In 1953, 42 koalas were re-located there from Phillip Island as part of a conservation program. They took to their new home so well that today their numbers must be managed to prevent over-population. At last count, in 2013, there were 307.

Yesterday we visited Raymond Island. I was in koala heaven. Without a doubt this is the best place I have ever found to see koalas in the bush - and I feel like I have spent half my life looking. The only other places which come close are a few of the campgrounds along The Great Ocean Road.

How to wreck a bike! (part 2).

You might remember from my last post (click - here to read it):-

• We went looking for koalas,
• cycled through a patch of devil thorns,
• got four flat tyres in rapid succession, and 
• struggled to get David's rear wheel seated back into it's cradle.

Tired and stressed and finally  back at our hotel, we decided to deal with the flat tyres the next day. In the morning we woke to discover my rear tyre had joined the party and also gone flat. This brought our puncture count to five.

Griffith, Narrandera, koalas and the destruction of David's bike (Part 1)

We started the morning innocently enough. We are at Griffith, the first stop on our much delayed trip to Kangaroo Island in South Australia. This is third time lucky territory, if we don't make it this time we will give up forever. Griffith and its neighbours Leeton and Narrandera are the three large towns of the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (the 'MIA'). The MIA extends across 1,600,000 acres of land in central New South Wales and has made the area green and fertile - a welcome change from the barren countryside and red dirt of so much of central and western New South Wales. This is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the country contributing billions of dollars to the national economy.With a population of about 17,000, Griffith is the big smoke.

The Hauraki Rail Trail: Cycling in New Zealand (Part 2)

For Part 1 of 'The Hauraki Rail Trail: Cycling in New Zealand' click - here

Thames Coastal Path  - 6 kms round trip

The neat little coastal town of Thames, gateway to the Coromandel Peninsula,  has a rich history of gold mining boom and bust together with