Paddling with the Platypuses

Keith’s friend Donald has been visiting us from Canada and he also has a love of the canoe.  When we were talking about what he wanted to do while he was here he sent me a link to a tour where you could go paddling with the platypuses.  The platypus is Cian’s FAVOURITE animal (as I’ve mentioned before) and he was too young to go on this trip since platypuses come out at dusk so we had to be a bit hush-hush about our secret paddling plans.  We drove out to Forrest, VIC on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.  The sun was shining and I didn’t have to corral kids (and all the associated paraphernalia) into the backseat.  It was a beautiful drive full of lots of trees and patches of farmland.  Forrest is a little town with not much more than a General Store and a brewery.  We had a Canadian slice - it was a maple/chocolate dessert they had and it seemed unpatriotic not to try it  - and waited for our guide Bruce.  Bruce is a mild-mannered quiet Australian man who seemed to have the appropriate demeanor for a platypus guide.  He guided us out of Forrest into the Otway National Park up to the intake for the hike to Lake Elizabeth.  It was a meandering road into this lush mountain park – it felt almost like a rainforest.  Donald laughed at the immediate “Beware of snakes” sign knowing my deep love of slithery reptiles.  It was ok though because I had my big hiking boots on.  I realized that I have had those hiking boots for 15 years and they have served me incredibly well.  There was a pretty decent hike up to Lake Elizabeth.  We passed a billabong, which is a pond that is left behind when a river changes course, and passed many treeferns and beautiful scenery as we hiked up the path to the lake.  There were only 8 of us including the guide and everyone was around the same age and interested in platypus canoeing so it was a pretty relaxed group which was very peaceful.  We got up to this gorgeous mountain lake and there were 2 canoes that Bruce lashed together.  I thought we would be paddling but he actually paddled all of us around the lake.  At first I wasn’t as happy about that but it made way more sense because platypuses are very shy.  I’m sure too many people splashing around the lake would have terrified them.  Camera clicks and paddle dips were already scary and we had to be quiet to even catch glimpses of them.  It was so fun because everyone was really invested in seeing them but we all knew we had to be quiet or they would dash away.  Bruce had such a calm voice and would tell us little platypus facts in between trying to spot the bubbles that meant we were close.  Platypuses are not very big (40-50cm) so you really had to pay attention.  It was silent on this gorgeous lake with only the occasional grunting noise which we found out was the mating call of the koala.  The water looked like glass and with the setting sun it was the most peaceful spot I’ve been in a long time.  Bruce served hot chocolate and biscuits in our little raft just before the sunset as we kept our eyes peeled for platypuses.  We saw quite a few with the closest about 4m in front of the raft.  After we docked the boats we walked down the path and the cliffs were covered in glow worms.  Glow worms are larvae that make webs and then sit behind them and glow to catch food in their traps.  We didn’t even need a flashlight to get back.  Once we got back to our car we set back on our way home.  We were about 1 km down the drive when there was a koala on the road.  We were the last to travel out and it just say there so we waited and he crossed right in front of our car and then climbed the tree right beside Donald’s window.  He could have reached out and pet it.  It was crazy.  Then we went another 500m and a wallaby jumped across our path.  Then we met up with another koala and he stayed with our car for about 15 minutes walking in front of us on the road and trying to climb a little eucalyptus tree and then thinking better of that decision and foraging off to find a bigger tree.  It was insane to see them in the wild like that.  We couldn’t have asked for a better experience.