Yanks are Coming

We had our first American visitors recently. That's right. You other folks better get on the ball! Mark's cousin, Paul Butler, and his lovely wife, Cheryl, made the trip over many ponds to see Australia and us. We were probably a side benefit, but they were nice enough not to point it out.

During the 10-day stay we were able to make it to Phillip Island and The Grampians National Park. Both have a plethora of wildlife to offer and are within three hours drive of Geelong. Phillip Island is renowned for its Penguin Parade, which means that groups of penguins come in from two weeks out at sea and waddle into their burrows every night. The Grampians yielded some amazing hikes, more kangaroo than you can shake a stick at, Aboriginal art work from around 5,000 years ago, and some great dinners with the Butlers (ask them about the sticky date pudding)!

The highlights of both trips, however, were the unexpected events: the wildlife reserve where we were able to hand-feed kangaroo, pet a koala, and see an orphaned kangaroo joey that makes its home in a pillowcase until it is old enough to move out of the "pouch", a great winery lunch at Red Hill Winery on the Mornington Peninsula, and the experience of driving down a 4-wheel track in the Grampians to be inundated by kangaroo and wallabies that were tame enough to observe closely. We even saw an emu or two!!