Back in Toronto

Back in Toronto and looking forward to seeing all. You will not be tested on the contents of my blog.

There is one last adventure I will have to share verbally, as it involves things that should not be posted. Now, doesn't that sound interesting?

Thanks to all of my loyal readers.

Cheers,
Colleen

Cute Fight!





Located 90 minutes drive south and east of Melbourne, Phillip Island contains four parks: the Koala Conservation Centre, Churchill Island Heritage Farm, the Nobbies Centre and the Penguin Parade.

The island is a not-for-profit organisation that generates revenue through its ecotourism activities.

On the bus tour I took, our first stop was the farm. It was a farm. The Nobbies Centre is made up of a few nobs sticking out of the ocean with seals sitting on them. They were too far away to see with the naked eye and the binoculars weren't working.

Next up, the koalas are most certainly cute, the way they hang in trees, munching. Just check out the baby sitting on his mother's lap in the photo. But as cute as that little guy is, it's the penguins that take home the cute prize.

The Penguin Parade
Take a waddle on the wild side
Little Penguins, also known as fairy penguins, are the smallest in the world. Thus, their name. They build burroughs in the sands near shore to house and feed their young. To feed themselves and their young, they go into the sea each day. To avoid predators, they leave their burroughs before sunrise and come home after sunset. So, they're very much like us, treading off to work each day in the dark and coming home each night. For us, a commute is hell due to the number of other people doing it at the same time. For the penguins, it's the birds of prey that might pluck them as they cross the light-coloured sand. Luckily, there's safety in numbers.

 

Their need to evade predators also creates a show -- or parade -- as thousands of these little guys race across the sand twice a day. To satisfy tourist curiosity, concrete stands have been built on the beach for the show. The public is permitted to watch their evening return, making this our last stop of the tour.

 

From the parking lot to the beach is a kilometre or so of boardwalks built high enough for the penguins to travel under. As you walk down toward the stands, the burrough holes are apparent, as are pathways around and to them.

 

It was 10C the night I went, with a brisk breeze blowing off the water. From my a front seat I enjoyed the sun's light play on the occasional cloud as it set off to our right. First coral, then orange, then fading to grey. All around me, people shivered and shook, huddling to keep warm, wondering how long this would take.

Then, at 8:45pm, silver flashes could be seen in the sea foam. Next, a troop of about 20 penguins began their waddle towards us.

 

These penguins stand about 33 cm, or just up to your mid-calf. Their backs are a dark blue, their tummies white. They seem to waddle in unison as they travel, with one brave soul leading the pack.  

First one group came, then another, then another.

The Penguin Rangers (now, isn't that a great job title?) do a count of these little guys for the first 50 minutes after dusk. This helps them to estimate total population numbers. The tourists... well, let's just say we didn't last that long in the cold. But we didn't have a hutch to sit in, or Canada Goose jackets to keep us warm, did we?

As you walk up the boardwalk, you realize the show isn't just down by the water.

Right below your feet and beside you as you walk on the boardwalk, the penguins charge onward, looking for their burroughs.

The young come out to greet them, squawking for food. Sometimes the little little ones attack a passing penguin they confuse as a parent. The children may confuse the adults, but an adult penguin knows their young, so they march on.

Penguins walked right beside me. They followed me up and up and up, right by my feet. They don't seem to mind us being there, although once in a while they stop at sounds, look around, then off they charge again.

Some penguins were seen waddling up as high as the parking lot. Our bus had to stop for five minutes to let a few cross the road. I started to wonder why they would build burroughs so far away from the sea. Perhaps it's like our suburbs, with the rich penguins taking the seaside spots and the others having to commute. Poor things.

To protect the penguins of Phillip Island, human homes were purchased and flattened, the grounds planted with natural habitat. The roads are closed at dusk each night, so the penguins don't get run over. Scientists monitor them and tag the odd one to see how far they travel on their daytime journeys.

And us, we get to enjoy their nightly parade.

 

One week left

I return to Canada Friday, November 30th.

I have one adventure I still need to post and one next week that may not get online until after I'm back.

Food

Fave restaurant:
The Moat: A small restaurant tucked under the State Library in Melbourne. A warm, bookish ambience, excellent wine selection and serving staff who always smile and know their stuff.

Fave dishes:
Venison carpacio with chocolate paint, schezuan pepper, balsamic jelly, barberry and watercress.

Jamon with creamed blue cheese and tiny figs.

Fast food chains I wish we had in Canada:

Snag Stand: Gourmet hot dogs slathered in surprising ingredients.

Breadilicious / Breadtop:  Two different chains, same basic model. The store is filled with plastic boxes of pastries: Asian sweet buns filled with curried pork; Croissant wrapped sausages; Coconut buns... Walk around with your tray and tongs, pick up a few nibbles and off you go for a picnic.

Pie Face:  Salty and sweet pies for take-away. Peppered steak, curry, stews. You name it, they'll stick it in a pie.

Nando's: Portuguese chicken. Kinda like Swiss Chalet but with heat. According to their website, there is on in Ottawa.

Cool and Funky Melbourne

Some of my favourite Melbourne things.

In Melbourne Central Mall there is a large clock that looks like a pocket watch. On its backside three koalas sit a teeter totter, apparently providing the power to make it tick.

At the strike of noon, a portion of the clock descends to reveal two flutists and birds on perches. They dance as it plays "Waltzing Matilda" and people like me snap photographs.

 

  Things in Melbourne just seem to pop up overnight. This hutch made of twigs appeared next to Federation Square, for instance.

Going inside is a tactile and olfactory adventure. 

Melbourne is having a music festival at present, and they've taken over an abandoned buiding, named it "Where?House" and thrown in a bar, cafe, some eateries and a concert hall. I saw someone dressed like Jack White there. Hrm.

RMIT university building has a digital motif made of what look like metal triangle cut-outs. These cuts out are coloured differently and angled, giving the impression of enlarged pixels, as if it's made of an oversized computer screen. From each perspective the colours change. Each darkened section in the image below is a balcony space with tables where students can study. Inside and outside intermingle in many ways, in this building. The front foyer has a coffee shop that is open to the public surrounded by neon green tables anc alcove. Off to one side is a triangular area open to the sky featuring palm trees. Glass walls expose lecture halls or student learning centres, which then have glass walls to the street. It is a building full of vibrant colours with neon green, red, blue and lots of black. I also like the way the whole facade frames an older Victorian structure beside it.

 

 

 

Adventure's End

Outback Adventure - Part 7
On the start of our trip, the van felt full of possibility.

Now it felt claustrophobic with our bags and their contents thick under our feet.

A drying towel over the back of a neighbour's seat was sending out wafts of mouldy smells. My swimsuit sat damp on the top of the backpack between my legs.

We were looking worn and dirty, too. My ankles were spackled so thickly with red sand they looked sunburt. And if I described how my scalp felt... well, you'd probabaly stop reading.

In the sun department, I seem to have won the sunscreen war. My arms received some tan, the hairs a blondish hue, but no skin was indelibly harmed on this adventure.

On the trip back, our guide Mark pointed out that if we wanted to kill someone, this would be the perfect place in the world to do it. All that's here is sand, rocks, insects and sky. In fact, he went on, many people have been murdered here and never found. We all nodded with feigned interest and concern.

The clan gathered at a saloon named Bojangles with Mark that night, all of us sparkling clean. Some of the girls even wore dresses. It was a lovely evening, but the clan in the city is not the clan in the bush.

I plucked out my iPhone, took it off Airplane mode and re-entered reality.

King's Canyon

Outback Adventure - Part 6
Another 4 am wake-up call and off we went to King's Canyon.

The first incline of our last hike at King's Canyon is nicknamed "Heart Attack Hill." With our requisite 1 litre of water bottle apiece, we stepped up and up and up.

The canyon peaks look like a series of domes made of pancake layers of red rock. It is as if many years ago giants were covered in mud and the wear of time, wind and water have left their bald heads standing.

We were taken through fossil-encrusted valleys, along the edge of a gorge and down into The Garden of Eden, a hidden valley with prehistoric plants and a singular water pool.

We walked across river beds that would have been full of fish where air now stood all around us. In thinking back to that time where water covered these surfaces, I could imagine the pillows and cushions of rushing rapids banking off a rock outcrop over here, spinning into eddies in a hollow there. The splashing spray of falls, both huge and small.

We scaled the cliffs up and down on precarious (to me) steps. At one point we were up in the heavens, seeing the red pancake heads go on to forever. Next we were at the edge of a cliff that fell away 500 metres into trees.

I said "Wow!" so many times, I think I wore out the "w" on my tongue.

Three hours later it's 10 am we were finished our last hike. It felt like 3 in the afternoon.

Remember how it rained the night before this hike? Given that, do you see anything odd in this picture?
Like perhaps, the wee puddle of water left after a good hour of drenching? This earth is like a sponge.