Sunday 28th November 2010 to Wednesday 1st December 2010

I'm writing it like this because it's one mini adventure over a few days so it's easier.

Sunday 28th Nov

Organised tour of Phillip Island with Tracy and Tom from Scotland and Sam and Lauren from Essex and other randoms who were on the bus. It was a day of spectacular coastal scenery, charming heritage and an abundance of wildlife.

We visited Toorand Village, quaint little place with a random dog, had lunch here and it rained a bit.

I visited a wildlife park called Funa or something like that. Here I fed a baby roo, a kangaroo, a wallabie and an emu (i'm not an emu fan, they are scary when they peck at you). I saw wombats, tamara wombats (big ugly rats), tasmanian devils (boring animals that do very little), a lama that wasn't a lama but I can't remember the name as it was long. I saw a goat, a sheep, a donkey, a pony, dingoes (so cute), crocodile, cockatoos that laugh and say ello and some other birds. It was an amazing place.(some pics on facebook)

Next was churchill Island, we went to Swan lake (like an RSPB place). Up until recently there was hardly any water or wildlife at this lake due to the major drouts. However the past couple of months Victoria has had ridiculous amounts or rain and the drouts are going. The aussies are doing alot of moaning about the weather as it should be about 30 degrees by now. I saw some wild wallabies in the countryside, this was so weird to see them bouncing around.

Next was the nobbies centre, a place where there are some penguins hiding under sidewalks (wooden path off the floor). I saw lot's of seaguls, some of which were dead, not sure why but i'm sure there are too many seaguls in the world anyway. we saw the Nobbies rocks which are two rando rocks in the sea witha gap in the middle. In the OLD not so OLD days people used to walk/climb these rocks and fish or whatever. looking at them you wonder how that was possible as you could be drowned when the waves cover the rock, this could be why 30 people a year used to drown at nobbies rock. This is proabbly why you can't climb them or the blow out hole anymore. (blowout hole - cave that waves hit and then are thrown back to the sea twice as dangerous). Walked around a bit saw random weird people trying to scare the little penguins.

Next was Phllip Island Grand Prix, there was a race on of some kind but I couldn't tell you what, i saw some old cars though.

The big event - The penguin parade

The Penguin Parade is Australia's most popular wildlife attraction and home to the largest Little Penguin colony in the world. Every sunset, over a thousand wild Little Penguins emerge from the sea and march across the beach to their sand dune burrows.The Little Penguin is the world's smallest and cutest penguin and the Penguin Parade is the best place to experience this completely natural phenomenon. It truly was amazing and well worth freezing on a beach at 8.40pm to see these animals appear from the sea and cross the beach to then walk back to thier burrows, they walk miles and some were even walking around the roads leading away from the carpark. You are not able to take photos etc as it will scare the penquins, but i bought a picture instead.

Dinner was at a place called Cowes and we had pizza, I had a kangaroo and crocodile pizza. It was weird but nice.

Monday 29th November 2010 to Wednesday 1st december 2010

Went on a train from melbourne central to Southern cross station, then caught a train to Geelong where I got a bus down the great ocean road to Aireys Inlet. Margaret and Gary picked me up to drive to Moggs Creek where they live inbetween Lorne and Anglesea seaside resorts. I met this couple at the airport in Hong Kong. I took my dirty laundry to save a bit of money lol and because well why not take advantage of a normal washing machine and outside drying area. My clothese smell normal for once and do not look worse than when they went in the machine..bliss. Their house is beautiful, on one side is the Great Otway National park and on the other is the beach, it is surrounded by wildlife and the only noise is natural noise. I really enjoyed the simpleness of their home, they have no mail boxes, no sewage or water supply except for a tank outside and the road is not even a road like at home. It has about 8 houses and is more of a sand/dust dirt track, it's great. They took me on a short hike in the park, told me about the area and what to do if a fire comes - RUN, only thing is there isn't really many places to run too. The last controlled fire was 2 years ago and this got out of control and the last major fire was 27 years ago. Not only that but in the middle of the bush I saw a sign that read "emergency fire exit only", made me wonder how exactly you would exit from a bush?! They cooked me gorgeous homemade meals, decent wine which obviously i had to drink or it would be rude of me. They had decent teabags and coffee and fruit. I had a double bed on my own floor, it was just heavenly to have space and peace. They took me all over Port Phillip Bay and back to some places I saw on my ocean road trip, I saw wild Galahs and rabbits and a dead fox. I'm yet to see a real live fox, but apparently they hate them just as much as we do and are trying to kill them. Poor foxes. We met their friend wendy and her mum for morning coffee and went to the cheapest and coolest morrocon trade warehouse (KYO, pronounced kee-yo) Kathy Meigh, you would have loved it, it is definately your sort of store. I bought a purse, a little purse that I intend not to lose out here. we had lunch at their friends house out on the verrandah overlooking trees and they had a cute border collie called billie. We went into geelong and walked around the prom, they have a massive sports type swimming pool that is free and random decorated statues all over the city. Geelong is the second largest city in Victoria after Melbourne. I am going to go back again when i've more time to do sighseeing and it's a bit warmer so i can go swimming. (It is safe to swim there). Wednesday they drove me into geelong to catch my train, it's free parking at the train station, but there are no spaces as people like to use it all day. At the train station, I listened to people moaning about the rain, it's still warm and they've had no rain in 9 years so one would think it is a good thing to have some rain.

Thirsty Scholar - Drive thru liquor store - i visited one of these in Anglesea. Remember, you should not drink and drive, but you can go to a drive in alcohol store. Awesome place, Slab of beer anyone? (slab = crate)

They also have drive in movies like in the films - not been to one, theyre too far out

Also, drive in expresso places, perfect when you want a coffee on the drive to work, England should get in on this craze.

Real Xmas trees - Geelong is the only place i've managed to find that's sells them.

Tatty bye for now