You know you are somewhere special when catching a shark with bare hands is no big deal

You know you are somewhere special when catching a shark with bare hands is no big deal (it was a small one, but still), when you can wave at one of the 3 cops on the island and keep going when they ask you to stop with no consequences, when a 4×4 rocks up on the beach while you surf and you start worrying about the “crowd” (there are only us 2 in the surf at that point!), when you can eat abalone that you’ve caught an hour earlier, when you can buy world class cheese right next to the airline counter inside the tin shed “airport” before hoping on a small plane in which all passengers know each other…since there is only 1300 people on the whole island.

I have already said too much, because what seems to make King island so unique and unbelievably authentic is that it is relatively unknown, there are no tourist bells & whistles – no fancy road/carparks/shops/restaurant/resorts/lookouts/tourist facility/airport… I was fortunate to be welcomed by a local mate & his mum who knew everything there is to be known about the island and gave me a taste of what it’s like to live in the middle of the Bass Strait.