A day on the river

It's now Wednesday evening and today is our last day here in Chiang Mai. We didn't actually spend the day on the river, but we did go for a two-hour cruise. We'd thought of hiring a motor-bike today in order to get out of the city. I would have liked to visit the Hill Tribe Museum which is out of town, for example. Anyway, we decided that it would be more enjoyable to have a day chilling out. We had breakfast in the cafe at the end of our street. I had the ubiquitous Pad Thai - fried noodles - with chicken, along with a glass of fresh mango juice. After that, we went for coffee at 'Zest', further down Moon Muang , where the coffee is only 30 baht a cup, with a free top-up as a bonus. We'd been going to the Black Canyon coffee house on the corner of Ratchadamern and Moon Muang until we discovered the 'Zest' cafe. Black Canyon coffee is good and it's a Thai chain of coffee houses so it's more appropriate to go there than to Starbucks, but the Zest coffee is cheaper and just as good.

We walked to the southern end of Moon Muang after coffee, then crossed the moat which delineates the boundaries of the old city and headed east along Sridornchai until we reached the Mae Ping river. The river cruises leave from a pier behind Wat Chaimongkol. The term 'river cruise' makes them sound very grand. In fact there were four of us, plus the 'skipper' on a very basic boat. We went north up the river for about 45 minutes, then stopped for a while at the Farmer's House landing. Here we disembarked and were gien a brief tour of part of the garden, where Thai plants - herbs, vegetables and fruits - were pointed out to us by our 'skipper'. After this we were served with a platter of fresh pineapple and watermelon each and a choice of cold juice to drink. Paul had lemongrass juice. I chose the tamarind, which was disappointingly insipid.

It was good to get out of the city and to see some different scenery. The river itself is brown and muddy and has a fair bit of debris floating in it. There are quite a few old teak houses alongside the river, although there are also - unfortunately - some modern concrete houses too. The designers of the latter have made little attempt to fit them in with their surroundings. We passed quite a few people fishing and children playing in the river.

Once back in the city we headed for the Warotot Market, intending to get some dried herbs there and look at the fruit and vegetables. We both went on a Thai cookery course yesterday (the same course) and were going to view the market afresh, from a more knowledgeable perspective than when we went there last week. We never did get there though. We took a short-cut through the Anusarn market and got distracted by all the restaurants there. It was mid-afternoon by this time, so we stopped for some food. I ordered some flat noodles and fish balls as I'd had this in a small eating house in the old city the other day and it was one of the best things I've ever eaten! There were several different fish-balls in it - each a different shape, colour, texture and taste. But today, to my disappointment, what I got was noodles and fish.

After eating we continued through the Anusarn Market, then turned right along Chang Klan. This is where the Night Bazaar is held every night, the stallholders setting up on the pavements all along Chang Klan, mainly in the area between the Tha Phae and Loi Kroh junctions. . We were still headed in the direction of Warotot, but never got there. The Night Bazaar was already setting up and - although we'd already done a lot of shopping there last night - we got distracted again in the search for presents for people back home.

Blogged out!

It's Monday evening and I'm in an internet cafe on Sripoom Soi 1 in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. I meant to blog yesterday evening, but by the time I'd checked my emails and my bank account and sorted out booking a flight back to Bangkok on Thursday, the inclination had long gone. To tell the truth, the inclination is a bit lacking now. I'm tired and it's hot, humid and thundery. I spent so many hours bringing my blog up-to-date that last day in Melbourne that maybe I'm a little blogged out!

We are staying in a guesthouse around the corner from here, the SK House on Moon Muang Soi 9. We have a room on the ground floor, next to the swimming pool, which I went in for the first time today.

I arrived in Bangkok last Sunday evening, but the reunion with Paul didn't go quite according to plan. The flight was due in around 10.30 p.m., but was late landing. We were circling the skies above Bangkok for what seemed like ages but was probably only 15 minutes at most. Anyway, the result was that there seemed to be a surge of passengers all disgorged into the airport at one and all trying to get through immigration control. Immigration control were taking their time. By the time I got through immigration control, picked up my baggage and walked out into the main concourse of the airport it must have been getting on for midnight. I was immediately assailed by smiling Thai people all vying for my attention, offering me taxis and hotel rooms and all kinds of other things besides. Then I heard my name being called over the PA system. I presented myself at the information desk as requested, to be greeted by Paul demanding 'Where have you been?'. It wasn't quite the reunion I'd anticipated! Of course he had not bothered to make a note of the flight number that I had emailed to him, so had not been able to check whether the flight was in, or when it got in. When he had made enquires at the information desk he'd been given all kinds of conflicting information.

Bangkok was hot, dirty, smelly and heavy with the fumes from many buses, cars, taxis and tuuk tuuks. Just getting around was difficult, due to continual harassment from people who wanted to either take us to places we didn't want to go to, or to direct us away from places we did want to go to ('The temple is closed today ...') in order to take us to somewhere in order to take us somewhere which might have some financial benefit to them (and cost to us).

So, here we are in Chiang Mai, where we have been since Wednesday morning, travelling overnight from Bangkok on the train, in a 1st class sleeper. Chiang Mai is great!

Leaving!

I'm leaving Australia today! Looking forward to seeing Paul in Thailand before the day is out. I've checked the flight, bought presents, caught up on blog, etc, etc, etc. Yesterday I finally got to see the exhibitions at the Ian Potter Gallery at Federation Square - it was closed - or some of the galleries were - when I went there in February. Mark and I went yesterday.

I need to go and pack, then go on down to the fete at Lee Street Primary - where Jack, Lucy and Emma go to school.

My flight leaves Melbourne International at 16.20, so need to book in 3 hours before that. I arrive in Bangkok at around 22.30 local time. Aaaargh, a nine-hour flight - better than 24 hours though or whatever the flight out was.

I have loved being here and will definitely return. I'll write a brief overview at some point.

Must end for now.

Wildlife pics 2

Dingo at Maru.




Wild kangaroo on Phillip Island











Penguin on Phillip Island (photo taken outside of the centre, without a flash).






Crimson rosella (with ex-bird-phobic friend) on Wilson's Promontory

Wildlife pics 1

Tower Hill - layers of volcanic rock









Kangaroo - a reluctant subject








Swamp (or Brush) Wallaby at Tower Hill












Emus at Tower Hill








Maru wildlife park. Gus the aggressive kangaroo, turning his attentions to Lee.












Molly the wombat, at Maru










Puffer Fish (deceased) on Woolamai Beach

Koala pic

Koala at Tower Hill.

William Ricketts' Sanctuary

William Ricketts' Sanctuary was visited by Billy Connolly on his World Tour of Australia. This is how I came to hear of it, and whenever I mentioned it to other people, they invariably made a reference to Billy Connolly. In fact the attendant in the ticket office yesterday specifically asked if that was where I'd heard of it.

It seemed somehow fitting that this should be almost the last place I visited, since it was about the first place I identified that I wanted to see. I was determined to get there before I leave Australia on Sunday, so I hired a car yesterday and drove out of the city eastwards, into the Dandenongs. After picking up the car I took the Eastern Freeway out of the City, then turned off at Fern Tree Gully to follow the Dandenong Tourist Road through Sassafras and Olinda - beautiful names - and along the winding uphill road bordered by towering eucalyptus forest.

From what I had already seen and read about the sanctuary and William ('Brother Billy')Ricketts himself, I expected to find the place moving. I wasn't prepared for the effect it did have on me. In the filmed interview, Ricketts himself says that the essence of spirit cannot be described in words, but only felt in the heart. I feel a bit like that about the place itself and my whole experience of it.

I watched the documentary about William Rickets life and work, then sat through the video of the interview with him, made when he was already in his 90s. He died - aged 94 - in 1992 or thereabouts. I found it painful to watch the video. He was one of those people who have such passion and belief that it is easy to dismiss them as strange or 'eccentric'. Sitting there in what was Ricketts' home, watching the video, I wondered if the discomfort engendered by the experience stems in part from the fear that I too might be thought just as strange if I were to speak about my beliefs.

Ricketts spoke of all wildlife, and his Aborignal 'brothers', as being the essence of god, or spirit. It was his life's work to give form to that spirit and to create form that was itself a part of that spirit and inseparable from it. He spoke of himself as being 'of the Lyrebird Totem' and did a little shimmying dance to illustrate it.

He reminded me of Thoreau, both in his beliefs themselves and in the passion and conviction with which he spoke of them. Like Thoreau, he found in Hinduism a receptacle for and expression of his deeply-held beliefs.

It was cold in the video room and I was sitting quite rigidly on the low wooden bench, both trying to sit comfortably and also holding in my emotions. I didn't realise how cold I was or how stiffly I had been holding myself until I got outside. I got out the camera to take a photograph of one of the sculptures and suddenly froze in pain - it felt as though a nerve was trapped between my shoulders. The sensation was of that rigid shell across my shoulders which might suddenly crack open. The pain brought tears to my eyes; the pain and the shock of being suddenly plunged back into that place of pain, and the fear that comes with that. For a few moments I thought I wasn't going to be able to move. The pain eased off, but didn't entirely leave me all day. A reminder - of something.

It was wet and cold in the Dandenongs yesterday. By the time I left William Ricketts sanctuary I was cold to the marrow, my fingers white and dead-looking. I got into the hired car and turned the heater up.


Figures in the forest. The sculpture on the right is 'Earthly Mother'








After a late lunch I went on to Healesville to visit the wildlife sanctuary there (see reference in earlier post). There I came across a water rat which seemed to be having difficulties breathing. I was very concerned about it and walked back to the veterinary centre in the rain to report it. Apparently she was found in Victoria Market in Melbourne and has some kind of bronchial asthma. She gets very out of breath on exertion, especially if she has been in the water. A bit unfortunate for a water rat!

Squeaky Beach

Wilson's Promontory is a beautiful spot. It's a granite peninsula south-east of Melbourne and is the southernmost point of the mainland. I would have liked to go and spend several days camping there, but at least I got to see a bit of it. A year ago part of the national park are was badly damaged when a controlled burn-off got out of control. As you'd expect, the damage is still visible.

After breakfast at Amaroo Park YHA on Tuesday morning, I was driven back to the mainland to meet the Bunyip Bushwalking Tour bus on its way out from Melbourne. There were only three others on the trip: Suki from Germany and John and Lynn from New Zealand. It's autumn here now and in another few weeks a lot of the tours will stop operating until the spring.

Sophie, our driver and guide, was a mine of information on plants, wildlife and habitats. She grew up on a farm in south-eastern Australia, but says she only became interested in nature and ecology when she went travelling abroad after university; up until then she was unfamiliar with the diversity of Australian wildlife. She came back from her travels with a new outlook and interests, and a determination to 'find out what's in my own backyard.' Since then she's been doing just that, joining naturalist clubs and leading tours.

We stopped for coffee at a place called Fish Creek (known locally as 'Fishy'), just before we reached Wilson's Prom. Fish Creek is known as the gateway to 'the Prom'. According to Sophie, the town got its present name after the creek flooded in 1951. A lot of the locals took refuge in the local pub. When the flood-waters subsided, they emerged from the pub (so the story goes) to find a giant mullet marooned on the roof. And there it remains, precariously balanced on one corner of the flat roof of the 1930s style building. 'And it still doesn't smell - yet,' said Sophie. Now I looked closely at this mullet - or as closely as I could from ground-level - and I couldn't work out if it was real. I took a photo anyway. As one of the tourist brochures says, it looks quite Daliesque.

The weather was pretty good on Tuesday, although we'd been warned that the Prom would be cold. Monday on Phillip Island was actually much colder. We started out by doing a 7 km trek up Mt Bishop through dense rainforest. We ate our packed lunch at the summit of the 'mountain', with a view across to Mt Oberon and the bay below. Sophie corrected herself every time she said 'mountain' and changed it to 'hill' instead, in deference to the New Zealanders.

Coming back down the Mt Bishop trail, we saw several parrots and crimson rosellas. I also saw my first Gang Gang cockatoo. These cockatoos have grey plumage, with a red comb and are very well-camouflaged in the eucalypt forests.

After Mt Bishop we drove to the car park near Squeaky Beach. There were a flock of crimson rosellas there, being fed grapes by a woman. Suki got out her camera and was immediately pounced on by the rosellas, who presumably thought she was getting out some food. They perched on her head and her arms - which she wasn't too happy about. Then they turned on the rest of us. Sophie took several photos of me ( with my camera) adorned with a crimson rosella on my head, looking a bit startled and not entirely comfortable. I also had one perched on my hand eating an apple core. Not bad for an ex-phobic eh!

Sophie gave us directions for the 3 km walk along Squeaky Beach and Tidal River, then left us to drive the bus along to the end-point of the walk, where she would meet us in a little over an hour. There are some great place names in Australia and 'Squeaky Beach' is one of them! In case you're wondering, the beach really does squeak underfoot - honestly! As we walked along, Suki and I would suddenly catch each others' eyes and burst out laughing, because it was such a ridiculous sound.

As we were leaving the Prom, Sophie suddenly spotted an echidna at the side of the road and stopped the van. It was the first one I'd seen alive. They are a bit like hedgehogs, only bigger, prettier and with longer noses. I've read that they are related to platypus, in that - like platypus - they are 'monotremes'. I think I'm right in saying that what distinguishes monotremes from mammals is that they lay eggs but then suckle their young.

I saw a couple more echidnas yesterday (Thursday) in the Healesville Sanctuary. There was a young one there that had arrived at the zoo's veterinary centre having been the victim of a road accident. It had bare patches on its head and back. As I watched, it tried to climb the sides of the plastic crate that it was temporarily housed in. All of a sudden it feel over backwards, exposing its soft, furry belly, with its little legs splayed out sideways and a very surprised look on its face. It scrabbled about for a few moments, twisting and turning this way and that, before successfully getting right way up again.

Penguins come home!

It's now Friday morning and I'm still updating this blog from earlier in the week. I've finally finished the entry on Tower Hill Reserve, which I'd left in draft form - you can find it several entries back (dated 4th April). I've also just finished the one on Maru wildlife park, which I had also left in draft form.

After Maru wildlife park, we drove on to Phillip Island where we went for a walk along Woolamai Beach in the south-east of the island. I walked along with John, from Belfast, who I'd got talking to on the bus. We found a very peculiar looking dead fish on the beach. I took a photo and later showed it to Lee, the tour guide, who identified it as a Puffer Fish. It was almost circular with a funny little pursed lips - almost like a beak - and a small tail, and was covered in spines - apparently very poisonous. There were also three or four dead penguins on the beach. I took a photo of a dead penguin too, which John thought was a bit morbid. It hadn't been mauled or anything, just looked as if it was lying down on its back. Well ... ok ... so it did look a bit lifeless.
We had an early dinner (4.30 p.m.!) at Amaroo Park YHA in Cowes - where I was booked in for the night. Cowes is the main town of the island and has the longest avenue of Cypress trees in the southern hemisphere. These are loved by the locals for the shade they provide and a recent proposal by the Council to cut them down (presumably as part of the backlash against non-indigenous plant species) was met with a public outcry and petitions. So the trees remain. There seem to be a lot of cypresses on the island as a whole.
After dinner we all (about ten people) got back on the bus to go on to the Penguin Parade in the south-west of the island. On the way, we saw some more kangaroos and some wallabies and viewed Seal Rocks and the Nobbies.

Phillip Island is world-famous for its colony of Fairy Penguins. Apparently, there is a smaller colony in Port Melbourne, but they don't get much publicity. Fairy Penguins are about 30 cm high. They differ from other penguins in that they wait until dusk each night before returning to the shore and to their burrows. They do this to avoid predators. They come in at dusk every night, regardless of the tide or the weather. On the principle that there is safety in numbers, the penguins stick together in groups. They travel in a 'raft', navigating towards the shore by sight. Every now and again the raft will surface to check that they are on course for whatever landmarks they have identified. We saw one such raft from the shore, faintly visible in the fading light as a dark patch on the ocean.

On the way to the Penguin Parade Centre, Lee pointed told us that the signposts to the centre used to say 'Penguin Parade at dusk'. They were changed because non-English-speaking tour guides were forever presenting bemused islanders and others with maps and asking where 'dusk' was.

The tide was in on Monday evening when we went to the Penguin Parade centre, which was beneficial for both us and the penguins. We were closer to the shoreline and in a better position to see the penguins as they rolled in on the tide. The penguins were closer to the beach and didn't have so far to waddle in order to reach their burrows.

At dusk, the ocean is monochrome: black water and white spray. As the penguins too are monochrome (actually blue-black) it is difficult to distinguish penguins from water. Several times I thought I could see a group arriving, but there was nothing but white foam on the incoming waves. Then suddenly there was the first group, a cluster of small figures separating from the spray, shaking the water from their wings and beginning their unsteady waddle up the beach. They looked like besuited office workers, trudging home from a suburban station at the end of a long day.

Being privileged guests - i.e. with a tour - we got to go on the 'Penguins Plus' viewing deck: less people and closer to the shore. I'm hopeless on distances, but I suppose the viewing deck was perhaps 100 metres from the sea. The penguins came waddling up the beach towards the viewing deck and then alongside the boardwalk. Every now and again they'd stop for a bit of a quack or a squawk and a quick preening session. They are nearing the moulting season, so they all looked quite fat. When they moult I think they stay in their burrows, as they would be unable to go to sea then.

As they advance up the beach, they gradually separate off, each heading for his (or her?) own burrow in the sand dunes, greeted by further squawking. Lee told me that the burrows may be as far as 2 km from the shore. Well, it seems to me that by the time the penguin had walked 2 km it would be time to turn around and head back to the sea again, although they do move faster than you might expect for an animal with such short legs.

It is forbidden to take photographs of the penguins, because they get extremely distressed by flashes - so much so that they vomit up their food on to the beach, which means that their chicks don't get fed - with disastrous consequences. At first it was just flash photography that was forbidden, but people went ahead and used their flashes anyway, so now there is an outright ban on photography. The centre has cashed in on this by selling a selection of photographs in the shop, at $1.70 each.

Molly the wombat and Gus the kangaroo

On the way to Phillip Island on Monday, we stopped at Maru Wildlife and Fauna Park - a sanctuary for rescued animals. I made friends with Molly the wombat, who was orphaned in a road accident, rescued from her dead mother's pouch. Apparently marsupial infants often do survive accidents in this way. At one time they would have been left to die, but now they are rescued and nurtured by various voluntary organisations and trusts.

Wombats are amazingly compact little animals, with a hard plate of bone across their haunches which protects them from predators. Lee, the Duck Truck tour guide, described how a wombat will crawl into a hole to escape a predator, leaving just its armour-plated rear end sticking out. Another tactic they use apparently is to crawl into a hole or burrow and flatten themselves against the ground; the unwary predator follows the wombat in and gets on top of it, intending to attack, at which point the wombat stands up and crushes its opponent against the top of the burrow. A car which tangles with a wombat sustains a lot of damage (though not as much as the wombat of course).

At Maru we went into the kangaroo and wallaby enclosures and hand fed them with some dried grasses and grains (purchased from the store for 50c a bowl). I was besieged by Gus, a large reddish-brown kangaroo from Kangaroo Island in Southern Australia. He was larger and heavier than the Eastern Greys, coming up to my shoulder or thereabouts when standing up on his hind legs, and very strong and determined; I've still got the scratches on my arm 4 days later. Whenever I tried to move away, Gus came after me, nose in the air and sniffing noisily after the scent of the food. In the end, Lee enticed him away so that I could feed the other kangaroos. I tried to feed some of the smaller ones that were quietly grazing, but he bigger ones immediately butted in and pushed them away.

Kangaroos don't much like having their ears touched, but they do like having their chests tickled.

I also had a go at hand-feeding the emus. They stab at your hand quite aggressively. In fact, they aren't very lovable at all!

We went round the park in a group initially, but then had a spare 10 minutes or so at the end to do what we liked. I went back to see Molly the wombat. She loved having her back scratched and kept rolling over then to have her tummy tickled, but also kept trying to nip me when I obliged. Wombats are renowned for being grumpy and aggressive. When I turned to leave Molly, she started pacing up and down against the fence of her pen in that sad way that bored, caged animals have.

Amaroo Park, Phillip Island

I'm on Phillip Island, staying in the Amaroo Park YHA, based in an old English homestead in Cowes, the main town of the island. The computer keyboard and mouse are driving me crazy, so I don't now how much I will manage to write. I realize that I've still not [...]

I wrote another couple of paragraphs after the above, only to find that it was suddenly deleted - the mouse decided to select and delete.

So, to continue (this is getting expensive!) I realise I've not completed the blog about the Great Ocean Road and Tower Hill Reserve. Also, whilst watching the penguins earlier this evening I thought of the turtle hatchlings at Mon Repos. Did I ever write about that? I know I put down lots of turtle facts, gleaned from the exhibition centre on the first night I went along, when the tour was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. But I don't think I ever wrote about the actual experience, because it was too late to blog when I got back to Bundy that night, then the following day was the final bit of the diving course, after which I got on a bus up to Agnes Water and Town of 1770 (and the still-remembered hell of Cool Bananas!)

Only 6 days now until I go to Thailand, and meet up with Paul. I'm missing him quite a lot - in fact more and more of late. I do feel like I'm hanging around now. There's an 'end of holiday' feeling in the air, partly due to the sudden change in season here - partly the weather and partly the ending of daylight savings time. When I remarked (half in jest) to Mark yesterday that it felt like time to move on to warmer climes, he said I was a 'fair weather friend' (are you reading this Mark?) Too right! I've been aware of the onset of the familiar symptoms of S.A.D. thes past few days: I feel very drowsy and keep wanting to sleep; I've also been craving carbohydrates.

This computer is driving me mad, so I'll stop for now.

Off to Wilson's Promontory tomorrow.

Map of Great Ocean Road

The road runs between Torquay and Warrnambool (actually ending 12km east of Warrnambool). I travelled back to Melbourne along the A1, Princes Highway, through Colac.

Twelve Apostles

In answer to your question Aisha, the Twelve Apostles are one of the much-publicised highlights of the Great Ocean Road.

According to the tourist blurb: 'These giant rock stacks are a central feature of the spectacular Port Campbell National Park. The forces of nature gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs which became arches and when they collapsed, rock islands as high as 45 metres were left isolated from the shore.'

The rocks are giant sandstone monoliths which rise out of the sea ('majestically' I think the blurb is wont to claim). The tallest is about 45 metres high. The rock stacks have been carved into wonderful shapes by the wind and the waves. No-one seems to be clear as to how many of them there are remaining, or if they were ever twelve in number. What is clear is that some have collapsed into the sea over the years. The are a stunning sight when they come into view around a bend in the road, against the backdrop of cliffs and ocean. Even through the rain they were striking. It was raining heavily when I turned off into the car park and I waited for a few minutes for the rain to ease off, before getting out of the car to follow the path down to the viewing area. I managed to get down there and back without getting too wet, getting back to the car park just as another downpour began.

The Parks Victoria page has a couple of photos - copied below: 'The coast is slowly changing and there are frequent small rock falls. There are also infrequent major events, the most recent occurred on Sunday 3 July 2005 when a large stack collapsed. The before and after photgraphs, taken by a visitor who witnessed the collapse, are shown below.'

Tower Hill Reserve

I've already mentioned the rain on Friday. This put a dampener on the day and I felt that the Great Ocean Road trip had gone downhill after Apollo Bay.

I had enquired about the sea-kayaking at Apollo Bay, but there was no trip scheduled that day as no-one else had booked. In view of hope the weather turned out it was just as well.

As I've already written, I turned off the road at the sign to the Otway Cape Lightstation. After stopping to see the koalas (not a lot of action there as they were asleep, but I got some more photos - see example below) I carried on to the Lightstation. This is the oldest Lightstation on mainland Australia, but was taken out of service in the 1990s and replaced by a solar-powered light. It marks the entrance to the Bass Strait, which was notorious for shipwrecks.

Sleeping koala on Cape Otway.

A whole section of the coast along here - I think the bit from Warrnambool west to Port Fairy, but I may be wrong, it may start at Cape Otway - is known as the Shipwreck Coast. The name is self-explanatory. Warrnambool, where I spent Friday night is actually the capital of the shipwreck coast. Apparently there are 80 wrecks known to be on the sea floor between Port Fairy and Warrnambool and 29 of these are in Warrnambool's Lady Bay.

It was certainly a miserable day on Friday. The rain was cold. It reminded me of nothing so much as a wet day in England. This impression was reinforced when I stopped for a late lunch at Port Campbell. This was like an English seaside town on a wet afternoon. It's not a big place anyway. Most of the eating places were closed and of those that were open, most were only serving coffee or tea and cakes. I wanted a sandwich. In the end I got a pie and a horrible, bitter cup of coffee from the bakery, where the woman serving had a face and manner like a wet English afternoon.

I almost didn't bother to go to Tower Hill as this meant going on through Warrnambool (where I'd rung on ahead to book accommodation) albeit by only 15 km. The information I had about the place - from the tourist brochure - focussed on the activities of the Worn Gundidj information centre. The opening times given said it closed at 5.00 p.m. without making it clear whether this referred to the whole reserve or just the information centre. I'd decided to make a decision on whether to visit the reserve when I got to Warrnambool, which I did, deciding on the spur of the moment to drive on to Tower Hill. It was dry in Warrnambool - the rain arrived in the middle of the night.

It must have been at least 5.30 p.m. by the time I got to Tower Hill. The reserve nestles inside a dormant volcano and you can see the striking rock formations as you approach it from the main road - the layers of volcanic ash have formed twisted striations in the rock. Turning into the reserve, I immediately got the sense of being inside the hollow formed by the volcano. I followed the one-way road through the reserve, down to the Information Centre - a low, circular building in the middle of the reserve (which was, of course, closed) and back out again. The area was declared Victoria's first national park in 1892, but by the 1930s the area was bare and barren with little wildlife remaining, due to clearance by settlers. The revegetation project began in the 1950s and the area is now well-stocked with native flora and fauna.

I'd only been driving for a few minutes when I spotted a small group of three or four kangaroos watching me from the scrub at the roadside. One had a fair-sized joey in her pouch. I stopped the car to try to get a photograph. They watched me get out of the car then immediately scarpered - fast! Eastern grey kangaroos are smaller than the red kangaroos that live in central Australia.

I drove on a bit further and saw another, much larger, mob of kangaroos and decided to park the car and go for a walk up a track to the left of the road. This took me up a hill to a viewpoint - around 30 minutes walk in all. I did get a shot of one of the kangaroos as it leapt away out of frame. On the way up the hill I met a couple of wallabies and got within about a metre of one of them, getting some good photos. Unlike kangaroos, wallabies seem to be lone foragers. Lee, the tour guide on the Phillip Island trip, said that wallabies are more timid than kangaroos, but I have found it easier to get close to the wallabies. I also found a koala asleep in a tree on a hilltop. At first sight it looked like some big fibrous fruit or growth attached to a branch in the treetop. What was odd was that the tree didn't appear to be a eucalypt.

I loved Tower Hill Reserve and being there more than made up for the general shittiness of the day. It's the kind of place where I could happily spend a day just wandering around, although - having said that - there wouldn't be so much wildlife to see earlier in the day as kangaroos and wallabies sleep during the day. After my walk, I drove on the the central area, near the information centre, where I met several emus and saw another koala.

Info on Tower Hill Reserve from Visitvictoria.com

See also the Tower Hill State Game Reserve page on Parkweb Victoria. This page also gives the link to the Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Cooperative who manage the Visitor Centre.

Saturday

Got back to the car rental place at 11.40 a.m. Not bad going since I got a bit lost coming back into the city centre and only ended up on Flinders Street by chance. I know the way from Flinders Street.

I left Warrnambool at 8.00 a.m. I slept badly, having discovered that the hotel bar stays open until at least 1.00 a.m. on a Friday night/Saturday morning. It may have stayed open later but I fell asleep. Unfortunately I woke in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep again. I felt pretty drowsy on the drive back and had to stop and get a can of energy drink, which only worked for about 15 minutes (a short hit!). What really annoyed me last night was that I had left my ear plugs - of which I have several pairs - in Melbourne. I tell you, some of the music played in that bar was so painful that I felt like howling!

I got a tram back from the city. Now I need to change my clothes, get some coffee, eat something and then have a nap.

I've just read all my emails. Thanks for all the blog comments.