The Melbourne Cricket Grounds! Oh, how I wanted to see an Aussie Rules game there. Guess that just means I have to come back.

I'm not sure when the sign was put up, so the tree in the next photo is at least 200 years old.

Warrook cattle farm.

Spoonbill

This little guy followed me the whole time I was walking around the farm pond. He was a character, cocking his head to look up at me every time I looked down at him. He was probably looking for a handout, but he was still good company ;-)

We stopped off at a koala conservation center where there were (of course) a bunch of koalas, as well as a ton of birdlife and kangaroos (or were they wallabies?).

We weren't allowed to take photos of the Little Penguins when we were down on the beach, so this shot through the view-tube into the burrow was all I could get. In the end, that was ok. The sight of the Little Penguins popping up out of the ocean, dodging from rock to rock to stay as hidden as possible, waiting for a critical mass of other penguins so they felt safe enough to start for home, and then making a mad dash (umm, waddle) across the open beach to their burrows in the dunes and grassland 200 feet away was just the most amazing thing to witness. And they did all this in complete silence. Until they got to the edge of the grassline, when their whole demeanor changed. They took their time to find the entrance to their "highway" home and, once they found it, just calmly meandered to their burrows. They got really vocal, too. They called out to each other in duck-like squawks, rattling purrs, and other vocalizations. They were down-right loud!

I knew on one level that October was spring in Australia, but it wasn't until I smelled the lilacs that I really knew it was spring. If I take a deep breath even now, I can smell the sweet, soft scent.

G'bye, my friend!

And off he goes!