Phillip Island

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Trip Start Sep 12, 2007 Previous
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  Melbourne, Australia
Monday, February 25, 2008

Wet and windy is the order of the day for Melbourne, and we are feeling quite cold! but hey! We drove passed Melbourne to Phillip Island which is famous for the little penguins who march up the beach on a nightly basis. The Island now connected to Australia by bridge once had beaches full of nesting penguin but sadly the likes of us gawping tourists have scared off the majority. Once there was thousands digging little burrows under houses and roads in most of the bays and beaches but now they only come to summerlands ( that sounds nice!). The rangers do a great job in controlling the spectators and the whole process is a very ordered fashion,and now the birds are increasing. Its a bit sad but has to be when you hear the rangers stories of how dim witted tourists from all nations run after them, try and pick them up for a cuddle, pose with one on thier heads! and even try and take a penguin home.( poor old Toga) The general public eh! (Doh! thats us!) Any way after buying our ticket for $17.80 each we walked down a boarded footway and sat on a concrete step near the beach, the area was roped off from the beach and huge flood lights illuminated the shore

Castlemain home of the Hot Rod

. The majority of tourist were either Japanese or Chinese who sat very enthusiasticly until a few little birds waddled up the beach, they had seen it, so they left! Now with the best seats We endured the cold and persistant rain but it didnt bother us or the penguins. You can pay a bit more if you like, and buy a penguin plus ticket for $30 and sit a bit closer but once the others had legged it in fear of getting wet or being savaged by rabid bird we had a great view. The ranger explained the little penguins will gather in groups on the shoreline with safety in numbers and will hesitate for two or three minuits watching for preditors before making a dash for it! As dusk hit the little birds stood ankle deep( do they have ankles?) and wandered left then right, somehow I thought the penguins were not hesitating because of preditors but more to do with the wembly stadium flood lights and 500 people stood gawping at them! As they waddled up the sand more and more started to follow up to 2000 little fellows and there is always the geedy one whos has eaten so much fish he keeps falling on his belly and resting for a while.

Anyone from the Isle of Wight will feel quite at home on Phillip Island as the capital is Cowes. We had a nice beer in the Isle of Wight Hotel on Cowes esplanade and then spent the rest of the day at Ventnor! I did a bit of research but I will tell you about that later

in the toilet block!

.
From Melbourne we headed north to Castlemain which we thought was home to four x beer! but no. Stranger than that it is home to "Kent" and the largest Chitty Chitty Bang Bang collection in the southern hemisphere and possibly the world!
Kent has been collecting since the age of 9, fourty years later hes still going. He had been following our story and our trip with interest and couldn't believe we were heading for OZ. After making contact and meeting under a clock tower all wearing a pink carnation (not really!.....the other two didn't like theirs!) We were invited up to see his etchings, well more like posters, cars, hats, more cars, bed spreads, photos, models, even more cars, I could go on, and he did, we were there for hours and Carolyn loved it.
He played the sound track on vinal, showed us the 35mm film strip and produced three of only twelve peddle cars ever made. Kent knew more about us than we did from a Chitty perspective and once we revealed our e-bay user name he confirmed he had out bid Carolyn on most of the things she had ever gone for!
Kent was so keen and enthusiastic it made us both look pretty boring, We took him for a ride in Chitty whilst playing the Chitty CD, I smiled, Carolyn smiled and Kent sang his heart out to the words and waved to everybody he knew and the ones he didn't. and you thought we were mad!
We had a great few days, exchanged Chitty photos and he surprized Carolyn by giving her a very rare model car as a gift. Carolyn had bid for one for the last few years and was either out bid or simply stopped as the price went to high. Which isn't surprizing when you see how many Kent has. It was a lovely touch and we are very grateful.

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Kimba was bought here!	Camping by the river	under the boardwalk	Chitty
Kent us and GEN 11	Kimba the Kangaroo	Kent behind the wheel	Cowes and people!
great ocean road	on your left is Chitty chitty....	oh dear! is that the water pump!	everybody get out of here there is a lobster
Burnt leg nearly 60 degrees in cab!

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