Giant worms and little penguins

The title is somewhat misleading as there are no photos of either giant earthworms or little penguins, but they were certainly the purpose of the trip. Following a tip in the Bill Bryson book 'Down Under', we set off for 'Wildlife Wonderland', the main attraction being the Gippsland giant earthworms, the largest earthworms in the world that can grow up to 3m long. Wildlife Wonderland wasn't very popular, we almost had the run of the place but it was really good. Almost all the animals were very friendly, we scratched a dingos ears through the cage, made friends with some hungry kangaroos, chatted to Sam the cockatoo and teased a lively wombat through the glass.

Sleepy koalas



Evil looking snake



Hungry roos...



...that were quite content



As for the worms, they didn't have any live ones and even if they did we probably wouldn't have seen them. They had a couple of preserved specimens in long test tubes which were rather disgusting but the highlight of the worms display was the repeating video of the live capture of a giant worm - pretty invigorating stuff.

We continued on to Philip Island and there was plenty for us to do. We went for a walk after lunch along the coast and up to the highest point on the island.

From the highest point, looking down the Island.



The Peninsula



Following a quick stop at the local chocolate factory, we cruised past the Grand Prix circuit on the way to the 'Nobbies' - a popular spot for seagulls and seals.



Then it was time to head to the penguins. We were a bit slow down to the beach and got a poor viewing spot but it didn't matter as seats soon became available as penguins came in. Although penguin numbers weren't high (about 500, it gets up to about 1,500 in summer) it was still very popular and there were thousands of people. The penguins are tiny, they grow to about 30cm tall and they can trek up to 1km inland to their burrows. They were quite noisy and aggressive if they mistakenly tried to take someone else's burrow. It was well worth seeing but just seemed to be over too soon.

Rail Trail to Warburton

The forecast for the weekend was excellent and a good opportunity to get out and about. Kelley had heard about a rail trail from Lilydale (last station on our line) to Warburton in the Yarra Valley. We set off on a sunny Saturday morning but our planning wasn't so flash, the trains weren't running so we had to ride to the next station, not too far away.

The start of the Trail was quite difficult to find but once we were on it, the riding was good and the surface was excellent.



We took it pretty easy, we later found out we'd been on a slight uphill for the first hour and we were grateful for a couple of short stops and some sustenance.



Woori Yallock bakery - superb steak and cracked pepper pies.



We arrived at Warburton early afternoon and checked in to the Alpine Retreat, an old hotel that hadn't changed in any way for about 50 years. Warburton was a sleepy little town with a main street containing trendy cafes and some craft shops and not much else. A nice setting though, next to a river between the hills.

Warburton main street.



We had some fish and chips for lunch, said hello to the local ass (below)and just wandered about.



After some deliberation (concentrating on whether the Ashes would be on downstairs) we ventured down to the bar for dinner and were treated to a great night - a tremendous feast, Australia smashing England in the cricket and some interesting conversation where we learnt the following points:

- there was no water in Ballarat Lake (repeated several times)
- if we'd driven up, we'd have time to walk up the mountain
- we should get a cat, or a dog - it would put some love into our hearts

We were up and away early on Sunday and powered back along the Trail to be home by lunch time, 100km of riding done over the last 2 days, a good start to hopefully plenty more trips in the summer.