Fim Fam - Day 2

(Outside Chateau Yering: Michael Lowe)

Day 2: June 20, 2009

0830 Check out and transfer to Chateau Yering

0930 Site inspection & breakfast at Chateau Yering Historic House

(Chateau Yering's classical Victorian interior and vaulted ceilings: Michael Lowe)

The cool thing about Chateau Yering wasn’t the historic Victorian style or the original 18th century paintings, but the stuffed animal cat that comes with each room instead of a flimsy, plastic “Privacy Please” sign. Simply place the cat in front of your door and, voila. Pretty inventive for a nearly two hundred year old property.
www.chateau-yering.com.au

(Do not disturb: Michael Lowe)

1100 Transfer to the Dandenong Ranges 1130 Visit William Ricketts Sanctuary

(Aboriginal child molded onto the rock at William Rickett's Sanctuary: Michael Lowe)

This story is pretty wacky and cool. This guy, William Ricketts, fell in love with Australia’s aboriginal culture and sought to portray them in art – specifically clay. Unfortunately, depiction of aboriginals was against their culture so Rickett went to the Dandenongs and, from memory, set to work recreating their likeness and molding it to the environment around him.
www.parkweb.vic.gov.au

(Clay gateway molded by Rickett: Michael Lowe)

1230 Transfer to Sassafras

(Handmade marionettes in the small mountain town of Sassfras: Michael Lowe)

1245 Enjoy lunch at Ripe

1400 Transfer to Phillip Island

1530 Check in
All Seasons Eco Resort
www.theislandecoresort.com.au

1630 Ultimate Penguin Experience

We were ushered into vans after being outfitted with weatherproof jackets and a backpack containing radios to hear our guide and night vision goggles. The door swung open and crisp, cold air swarmed into the van. We were on the beach. It was cold.

Down to the beach we marched as the sun melted into the horizon. For as long as scientists have been recording, penguins have been coming and going from this beach on Phillip Island via the Southern Ocean. Floating in groups called rafts, thousands of penguins have made the trip out to sea in search of food spending as long as three weeks at a time at sea swimming up to 50km a day.

The sun was all but gone and the beach began descending into darkness when our guide instructed us to put on our goggles and sit in a line.

The first penguins slid onto the shore hidden in the waves squeaking rather than chirping. As we sat on the beach in silence with the guide speaking through the radio, the penguins stumbled awkwardly along the sand head swiveling looking for predators. Only about 3 feet tall, they arrived in hundreds, regrouping at the water’s edge and waddling up the sand dunes into the coastal brush where they find their mate and hole themselves in their den. Romantic, eh?
www.penguins.org.au

(Little penguins head aswivel on Phillip Island: Phillip Island Photography)

1845 Transfer to the Esplanade for dinner

1900 Dinner at Harry’s on the Esplanade

2300 Return to All Seasons Eco Resort