Thursday, February 14, 2008

Monday 4th February
Headed into Frankston to find Internet access and post the blog.

Tuesday 5th February
Hung out at Aunty Vera’s with a trip to the local shopping centre – hey, back in suburbia you have to shop.

Wednesday 6th February
Borrowed Aunty Vera’s car and drove back into Melbourne for a Carol hair appointment, pick up the rest of our stuff from Tony & Margaret’s and have lunch and a couple of jars with Tony at ‘The Local’ – yes, that’s what it’s called.

Thursday 7th February
Took a trip with Aunty Vera’s grandson for a job interview. He got the job.

Friday 8th February
Phillip’s Island is not far from Frankston and is a must do trip for anyone who wants to see penguins in the wild. On the way we stopped in Wildlife World and had some interesting encounters such as this one with kangaroos

and wallabies

and my favourite, a wombat called Millie

Unfortunately you are not permitted to photograph the penguins as they come ashore. It’s dark and the flashes would frighten them back into the water. So I’ll do my best to describe what it was like.

We paid for the ‘Penguin Plus’ experience where you sit with about 150 people on bleachers, some of which face the sea and some of which face the path that they take to go inland. To get to the spot, about an hour before sunset, we walked down about half a kilometre of boardwalk along with hundreds of people going to various other spots. It was a cold night and we as we’d been advised to dress warmly, we did exactly that. As it started to go dark the ‘ranger’ assigned to our group gave us a lesson on penguin behaviour and statistics on their survival rate such as the fact that only ten per cent of them make it to two years old. As the sun set on the shore you could see one or two birds popping out of their burrows in anticipation of their home coming mates and parents. When it was almost too dark to see the breakers we started to see a small group of little white bodies at the water’s edge about 300 metres away. Slowly the tiny group of less than a dozen made its way directly towards us, stopping periodically to look for predators such as Pacific gulls that eat these little guys that are only a foot tall. Eventually they waddled their ungainly way right up to us and on past. By this time more were coming ashore and in larger and larger groups and it became a steady stream passing by us on their way further in land. (The night before, a count of 613 birds made it ashore.) After an hour we were asked to make our way back to the visitor centre and as we walked back the penguins were everywhere around and under the boardwalk and some of them were even in the parking lot hiding in the bushes.

Although we didn’t get any pictures that night, earlier in the day we had been out to ‘The Nobbies’ close by and in addition to spectacular scenery

we got a picture of this little guy just sitting out completely unconcerned.

Saturday 9th February
As we were planning to leave on the Monday, we took a last opportunity to say goodbye to Aunty Vera’s children and grandchildren and went to a seafood restaurant in nearby Mordialloc for supper.

Sunday 10th February
Did some shopping in Frankston to prepare for the upcoming trip to Adelaide and then Sydney.

Monday 11th February
Took the train from Frankston into Melbourne to pick up the rental car from Europcar (half the price of the big names like Hertz) and then headed back to Aunty Vera’s to load up our stuff and set out on our way to Adelaide. The car we were supposed to have had malfunctioning air-conditioning so we lucked out and got a newer vehicle, (an automatic Subaru Impreza with cruise, electric windows and locks and working a/c). Not bad for 14 days unlimited mileage and a drop off in Sydney for 540 Aussie dollars.

We could have driven back through Melbourne but decided to take the ferry that cuts across the outer part of Melbourne harbour. It leaves from Sorrento and arrives in Queenscliff. It was a beautiful day and a pleasant trip on the catamaran ferry.

We made it as far as Torquay that night but failing to find a Fawlty Towers we settled for a caravan park cabin.

Tuesday 12th February
Breakfast in Torquay and then off we go down the Great Ocean Road, built by servicemen returning from WWII, past the incredible structures called the 12 apostles (one fell down last year so now there’s only 11).


First though we visited the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk where someone built this incredible steel structure that’s 600 metres long and permits you to walk at tree top height in a forest of monstrously tall trees.

Ended up in a cabin in Port Campbell with all mod cons.

Wednesday 13th February
Breakfast in Port Campbell and then on, hugging the coast towards Adelaide. Man these Aussie cities are way further apart than New Zealand cities.

We saw more spectacular coastal scenery formed by erosion in the form of London Bridge

The first span fell down so they don’t allow you to walk anywhere near things now.

the Grotto



then the Bay of Islands

We spent the night in Beachport which doesn’t have much to recommend it except for a very long jetty

Thursday 14th February
Back on the road for Adelaide through the dry and dusty Courong National Park and past this roadside artifact.


We spend the night in the St. Francis Winery in Noarlunga south of Adelaide. It’s really just a gambling place but since it was St. Valentine’s day we didn’t have a lot of choice of places to stay.

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