Bird Island – DHI Part 5

So after an amazing but terrifying experience at Turtle Bay, we headed back to the shack to sleep the night. Knowing that in the morning we would finally be going somewhere that doesn’t involve steep cliffs or scary sand dunes.

In the early morning, we were woken again by the sun as it shone through the broken old shack. After a quick breakfast and a pack up rush we were all set to go. We had almost everything we came here with, everything but the annoying trailer that caused us a dreadful journey. This time we were not going to spend a whole day attempting to travel 40 kilometres.

With no trailer to worry about, we were able to drive freely once again. It was a much more enjoyable experience, apart from the banging heads bit, that’s not so pleasant. When you’re four-wheel driving with my dad on the wheel, it would be a good idea to bring a helmet with a couple of pillows tied to it.

The absent trailer was proving to be helping. We had made it almost half way and we had only been on the road for about half an hour. Half an hour sounds like a lot for 20km but it is a lot better than almost two hours. At this rate we would be at the homestead in time for another adventure.

Another half hour and we had made it back to the homestead. We threw our swags into the hut that we were staying and the car was briefly unpacked. We keen explorers had no time to unpack, we were going to explore the famous Bird Island.Dirk Hartog Island - final weeks 154Dirk Hartog Island - final weeks 156Dirk Hartog Island - final weeks 167

An island of an island doesn’t make much sense but you would understand if you saw it. Bird Island is barely an island, when the tide goes out you can walk across the sand bar without getting wet. The island is right out the front of the homestead and its name explains it all. Colonised with birds, all painted white and smelly, really smelly.

The walk was short, even though the tide was up it wasn’t yet knee deep. The second you step on the island you smell the disgusting odour of bird droppings. Bird droppings that cover the whole island almost a centimetre thick, and sometimes ankle deep. YUCK! Though it was hard to tell the difference between mud and poo, I guess it didn’t matter once your ankles were covered.Dirk Hartog Island - final weeks 169

The smell was awful but it didn’t deter us. We explorers were determined to discover new things, especially what lived in that nest that was as tall as Dad.

Slowly we squelched across the island, stopping at every step to look at something different. Sadly, every couple of steps ended in seeing another dead corpse or skeleton. A depressing sight but not a surprise considering the large population of birds who lived there.

Eventually we made it to the massive nest. As I got closer to it, it seemed to grow until it towered above my head. Being short, I didn’t have an idea of what was sitting on top. Grace and the others were gasping at what they could see, even Audrey who was sitting in Mum’s arms was amazed too. But I couldn’t see a thing.

Finally, some attention was drawn to me and Dad gave me a lift. Much to my surprise, a bird was in the nest. Wait, that’s not surprising. It was a baby bird accompanied by two other eggs. Apparently Mum and Grace had seen the mother bird leave the nest before we came for a look, we had to be quick before she came back.Dirk Hartog Island - final weeks 164

After we had a look we quickly made our way away from the large nest, hoping that we wouldn’t upset the mother. We had another quick squelch around in the mud which Audrey and I found quite amusing while Mum and Dad looked at us in disgust.

Soon enough we were headed back to the homestead, we had enough of the revolting smell of bird droppings and our stomachs were calling for an afternoon snack. Dirk Hartog Island - final weeks 173

Though we were travelling Australia we needed to keep educated. We opened the massive school work box and hit the desks. With our Mum as our teacher it was our third year of home schooling.

As the day came to an end we were gifted with a beautiful show in the sky. The sky was painted with colourful rays of light before it was engulfed by the night. How special Dirk Hartog Island was, made our holiday a whole lot better, it wasn’t just luxury, it was paradise.

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