We got up the next morning and decided we needed to take an outdoor run since we had not done that the whole time we’d been on our trip. The bus wasn’t going to pick us up til 9:40 so we headed out. We ran to the actual harbor and saw the beach and several large ships anchored there. We walked out on the pier and then turned around and came back so we ended up with about a six mile run out of it.
We had enough time to grab breakfast beforehand. I found a place close to our hotel called Krimper which had high rankings on Yelp so we headed there. We had a little trouble finding it and finally realized it was behind what looked like a set of warehouse doors. Josh ordered almond French toast and I went with my staple of bacon and eggs. My ears perked up when the server asked what I wanted with my toast. One of my options was “Vegemite”. Josh had been looking for that all trip since he wanted me to try it. He kept telling me (with a sly grin) that I just had to try it. We didn’t want to buy a whole jar so I hadn’t had any yet. This was my chance. I had heard of Vegemite for years in the Men at Work son “Down Under”. When I got my food, I spread a little bit on toast and took a bite. I’ve never tasted anything like it. It was awful and I presume it must be an acquired taste. We left there and stopped at what I’d call a convenience store. Interestingly enough it had (like many of them do in Melbourne) the brand of IGA. IGA to me is a supermarket but not in Melbourne at least. We got to our hotel and prepared to wait for our tour bus. It arrived about five minutes late but we got on and headed out for our tour.
Our driver/guide was named Peter. He asked us all to introduce ourselves. When I said my name and that I was from the US, he told me I had “a ripper of an accent and he loved it”. I laughed about that considering I thought he had a really good one. We took off for our first destination which was the Moonlit Sanctuary. There would be numerous animals native to Australia there. We got there and Peter stopped me trying to apologize about the accent comment. I laughed and said it didn’t bother me at all and told him I felt the same way about his accent. I found out while it was free to enter; you could pay to do various things. We chose to pose with a Koala and then each bought a bag of kangaroo food. We headed out and stopped by the dingo pen to look at them and then lined up at the Koala pen. A young lady came out to tell us about Koalas. She said that the one thing you should not do is touch them on the head. Their eyes are very small and it frightens them when they are touched on the head. We were free to touch them on the back though. Josh and I took our turn touching a koala and each taking a picture of the other. That was pretty neat. The next stop would be the wallaby and kangaroo trail. This was supposedly the place where we would feed them. I was skeptical (as I often am). We saw a wallaby in the woods and it wouldn’t come to us so I grew more skeptical. However, that all changed as I rounded the curve. There were several kangaroos and they bounded right up to us and ate out of our hand! We fed them for a while and then went on to the next curve and there were more! I would say we easily feed 20 to 25 each. Josh we as excited as I’d seen him since he was little. He pronounced this “the best part of the trip”. We used up all of our food and looked at the wombat, emu and several birds. Then, our lunch was ready. We had snags (grilled sausages) with salad and potato salad. They were excellent. We went back out and Josh petted the dingoes and we walked around until it was time to go. We loaded up and headed for our next destination.
Peter told us various things as he drove along about the country. For example, he talked about Keith Urban. I had always though he was from Australia. Peter let us know that Keith Urban was actually born in New Zealand moved to Australia when he was two. We got to our next stop which was Churchill Island. There was a huge farm on the island called Heritage Farm. The island had been farmed since 1872. When we got there, we were offered tea and biscuits (cookies) by our guide. I had to steep my own tea something which I don’t remember ever doing in my life – I’m used to being an iced tea drinker. By the way, I never saw a single place in Australia that offered iced tea. We got to see a sheep shearing (and feel the fleece with its lanlolin), a demonstration of whip cracking and watch a dog round up sheep. We also got to walk around the far and enjoy its wonderful views. We really enjoyed this as well.
We were only halfway done with our tour, but I’ll leave the rest for my next post. We’ll find out that even in Australia, people often won’t listen and do what they are told.
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