One hundred and forty-five days ago, I was on a ferry travelling across a small section of water, to a lunch stop before heading to Mostar.

On that Ferry, I met a girl called Mathilda.

( Go back to read Entry 34 for that story.)

In brief, Mathilda was going to be studying nursing at Monash in Clayton.

Well, I have just spent 2 of the most enjoyable days that I can remember having for a very long time.

I'm not sure if it was because Mathilda is just such a delight ...
Or if it is just so much fun taking someone to see a tiny corner of your country that they might not have otherwise seen.
Either way, it was simply wonderful.

We saw ...
The Nobbies.
Baby penguins waiting for mum to return from the sea.
Huge waves.
Black rocks.
The Blowhole.
A snake.
Walked Smith's Beach.
Watched waves crash with huge white caps.
Saw Uncle John and Auntie Meryl's house and Attic.
( "Holdie Handies In The Attic.")
The Penguin Parade.
Ate cooling fish and chips sitting on concrete steps surrounded by fun people.
A very unhappy mother penguin attacking every other penguin who had the misfortune to have to squeeze past her and her nest and chicks on a 12 inch wide path.
( Even the chicks gave up on mum ever giving them a feed and retreated to the burrow.)
Ate in Cowes Main Street in wonderful sunshine, twice!
Chatted to almost everyone on the Island.
Patted kangaroos.
So many kangaroos.
Saw joey after joey after joey, hanging out of pouches every which way.
( A leg here, a tail there ... Bit of manoeuvring ... and a head would pop out.)
Dodged emus ... ( Just too big!)
Saw koalas asleep in trees.
An echidna that desperately needed a back scratch ...
And enormous birds with bright green beaks and a huge wing span.

So, here I am, once again blogging.
Sitting on the couch comfortably with Ida.
( The 'I' is pronounced 'E' as in egg.)
But more about Ida later ...

Mathilda and I had a couple of emails and messages back and forth since she arrived in Australia.
She was coming to lunch one Saturday, then realised that she had double booked with a day at the races for Melbourne Cup.
And, really, a chance to experience The Cup racing, not to be missed.

So, later, we messaged and I asked her if she had seen any koalas, kangaroos or fairy penguins.
So it was decided.
Off to Phillip Island ...
My special place with lots of Australian things to see.

So Mathilda arrived by train to Berwick Station at 11am on Sunday 6th November.
I was the smiling Australian lady standing by the little white car.

"Hi!"
"Hi!"

So easy.
So back to take the tour of The Folly and see my house and gardens.
Meet Dash.
And see Bella.
Smell the roses.
Check out the goldfish ...

Into the car and we are off.
An easy hour and a quarter to the Island.
Into Seaview Holiday Park.
Quick trip to the Ladies, then onto the intercom to John to get the key to our cabin.
Lovely chat with John and, while I unpacked some of the car, John had a chat with Mathilda and gave her a map of the Island.
Unpacked, beds made up and into Cowes for lunch on the Main Street.

The weather was magnificent.
Sun out and lovely and warm.
We sat at an outside table in the sun and Mathilda had a healthy, delicious chicken salad and a cup of tea.
I had a magnificent toasted sandwich and the best chocolate milkshake of all time!

Onto The Nobbies.
This is a rugged stretch of coastline that faces out to Bass Straight ...
So we drove past the Penguin Parade entrance, almost the full length of the Island
Stopped at Summerlands to watch somer surfers trying to catch some waves.

Summerlands has the ruins of an old wooden jetty and, beyond that a 'V'cut into the huge sand dunes so the Ladies in their long, fancy dresses and the Gentlemen in their fine suits would have an easier path to the old Summerlands Guest House back in the early 1900's after they had sailed to the Jetty from Melbourne.
The Guest House is no longer there.
And the jetty was almost completely demolished during WW2, fearing a Japanese landing.

So, at The Nobbies, enormous waves crashing over spectacular black rock formations.
We walked the wooden boardwalks and gazed out over the crashing waves.
Mathilda spotted a baby penguin just at the edge of a burrow and a snake sunning itself on the colourful pig face that grows everywhere along the edge of the cliffs.

Beautiful sunshine so it was so lovely to be there in that weather.

After walking The Nobbies, we decided to check out the Penguin Parade and exhibition and purchase tickets for the parade that night.
The exhibition was very disappointing I thought.
I remembered a lot more on display from perhaps 30 years ago?

But we had fun in the shops.
Talking to one poor lady who was trying to look after 2 shops at once, and they were a fair way apart.
We both loved the soft toy Penguins and I wanted to get something for Mathilda to remember the trip....
So a beautiful fluffy penguin it was!

Mathilda fell in love with a beautiful pair of tan sheepskin gloves, made by UGG.
After a little bit of consideration and 'think' time, back we wandered to get them.
They are simply beautiful.
So watch out Sweden, Mathilda has some very classy gloves!
( Now just has to get a beautiful, warm coat to go with them!)

Tickets purchased, it was off to Smith's Beach to see the surf.
Poor Mathilda got the whole story of where Uncle John and Auntie Meryl lived ...
The story of all of us sleeping in the Attic when we stayed there ..
And the tradition of 3 very small children, in the Attic, holding hands with Mum and Dad...
'Holdie Handies in the Attic' ... And a family saying was born!

Smith's Beach.
A beautiful afternoon.
Surf.
Sun.
Friendly people looking for treasure.
Friendly dogs...
And beautiful sand and red rocks.

Back to the Cabin for a short while.
Ordered fish and chips from the Pink Penguin.
And we were off again.

Arrived at the Penguin Parade a little after 6.45pm and waited with a lot of other people for the doors to be opened to allow us to race to get the best spot for penguin viewing.
We put our heads together and tried to queue jump, but it was really a bit obvious!
Fish and chips cooling in the bag while we waited!
But, while we were waiting, I shot off to buy a fluffy toy penguin for myself.
I knew that every time I looked at her, I would grin and think of Mathilda at Phillip Island.
Yep, that is exactly what's happening.

The doors opened and off we raced.
Got a great spot on the concrete steps, on the right hand side, right on the edge.
Put the folded rug on the concrete to sit on and hastily devoured the fish and chips.
Bit cool by this stage.
And Mathilda had her first taste of a potato cake and a dimsim.
In the excitement of me kicking the poor man sitting in front of me, I forgot to ask her what she thought of them.
Mathilda, they are better when they are hot!

So we sat.
I kicked the poor man a couple more times.
But he was in the spirit of the night and the steps and the seating, and laughed along with us.
He took several photos for us and had us laughing at his technique!

The little penguins started to appear in the surf.
The girl sitting next to me with the young eyes and great vision spotted them first.
They would appear on the sand, then think better of the whole idea and dive back into the safety of the water.
We watched a few bunches of them make their way up the sand and then, we decided to head up to the boardwalks and watch them as they made their way to the nests and their chicks waiting for them.
There were hundreds.
Apparently, over 2400 came ashore the night before, watched by over 2000 people.
We saw fluffy chicks, lots and lots of tiny blue and white penguins waddle past the boardwalks.
Each single mindedly on their way home.
And the very angry mother penguin not letting anyone past her nest and chicks.
Attacking every penguin who had to get past her on the very narrow pathway past her burrow.

We actually didn't like her very much.
And were amazed at the traffic jam she caused, as tiny penguins banked up, knowing they had to try to pass her but, really, not wanting to!

As we walked back to the main building, a ranger had stopped all the humans as penguins waddled over the pathway on their way home.

It was a fun night and we will remember the very strong smell of those sand dunes for a very long time!
So many penguin droppings, not enough rain!

Back to the cabin.
Bed.

Next morning, I was up after 8.30.
The young one was up before me.

Packed the car and off about 10am to the Phillip Island Zoo.
When we bought the tickets, we were given a brown paper bag each with food for some of the animals, and instructed that, if we kept the bag hidden, the animals might come up to us to say hello but would soon leave us alone if food was not forthcoming.
If we wanted to feed any of them, just to have food in our hand about our knee height.
Off we went.
Saw a small lot of wallabies in an enclosure.
Then 3 koalas happily asleep in the trees.
But then into an open range area with quite a few wallabies.
And then, we got so exited to see a joey in the mum's pouch.
We were hand feeding and patting the wallabies.
It was lovely.

Saw an echidna furiously trying to scratch his back!

Past several aviaries which neither of us liked very much.
Sad to see the birds contained.
But I was reading that most were either rescued birds that couldn't be released or pets that had been in small cages.
At least the aviaries were really big and they had lots of room to fly.

We loved a cocky that had obviously been someone's pet because he kept saying 'Hello' to us.
And 'Bye' when we moved on.
Bit sad.

Then off into the big paddock.
The Zoo is 60 acres so this paddock had lots of grey tea tree and many areas of water lakes and islands.
Here we had a lovely time with the grey kangaroos.
And there were joeys in pouches everywhere,
Great idea to be here in the Spring!

It was so funny to sometimes see only the 2 large feet of a joey extending out from the pouch.
But then a hasty bit of manoeuvring, and a small head would poke out of the pouch!

Back up the hill, and a 'Will we? Won't we?' moment at the gate to the Red Kangaroo paddock.
There were quite a few very large emu just waiting for us to go in.
Mathilda was brave and in she went.
I followed, quite a safe distance behind.
But, basically, they followed us for a little while but gave up once they realised that we were not going to feed them.
Into the wonderful green paddock.
Red Roos eating, resting or just checking us out.

It was lovely here.
Got to feed and pat a lot of the kangaroos and admire their babies in the pouches.
Dodging the occasional emu who wanted to join the party.

Back out past the dingos and back into town to sit in the sun and have another lunch.
Walked the shops but, really, nothing there in the off season.
Even the gelato shop was closed.
Across the road to walk the pier and the Cowes foreshore.
Nope.
The clouds were gathering and a very strong wind was trying to blow us sideways on the pier.

Back to the car and headed home.

I have to tell you that Mathilda changed the time on my clock in the car!
It now tells the correct time.
Now I just need her to come back when daylight savings finishes and fix it again!
Although, Mathilda, I was looking at it on my drive into work this morning and repeating your instructions in my head.
I'll let you know how I go in March next year!

Quick stop at The Folly and then onto Monash Uni at Berwick for Mathilda to catch the bus to Clayton Monash.

Huge hug.
I cannot believe how sad I was to say goodbye to this wonderful girl.

What started with a half hour conversation in a far away land, ended with a marvellous 2 days and waving goodbye.
Simply wonderful 2 days!

But, back to the fluffy, soft toy penguins....
Mathilda's is named Caen, a family name for me.
And mine is named Ida, (the 'I' is pronounced 'E' ... I've got it now!!!)
Mathilda's first name, or second name, depending on which country you are in ...
Long story.

So Ida has been sitting with me while I write this entry.
And I do look at her, and grin.

Mathilda, I had the best time and am so glad we could get together and do this.
How lucky was I that 145 days ago, you sat down next to me on the ferry!

Have a wonderful, wonderful time back home in Sweden.
I will watch with interest any news of Sweden.
And will watch the weather over there and think of you.

Happy Travels.


"The Girl on the Ferry."