So, plan was to meet up at Unisity at 8.30 ‘cause Elly and I are the only ones going that aren’t from Student Village. Waited there like almost 45 minutes and didn’t get enough sleep so I thought I was gonna be shooting myself in the head at the end of the day.
Eventually everyone turned up in 2 cars. One was rented by a covered girl from Indon. It was an Innova because Eric’s Ford Falcon X6 could only take 5 people. We had breakfast at McDonalds and to my chagrin; these guys had no idea how to get there. At least Eric had a GPS navigator and everyone had brought their fair share of geographic tomes and maps. Fantastamistic.
Eventually we hit enough key words in the tomes and managed to get the GPS (which we had earlier dubbed as “Uncle” since our near fatal fishing trip to Williamstown Beach – Read Gone Fishing) to show us the way. One of us also tried getting the directions to the place with Google Maps. Pretty handy, that. So anyways, off we went.
The other car got lost twice. First time was ‘cause the driver was driving with just one contact lens on. Smart fella. 2nd time was ‘cause it was... uh, it was a girl driving. Yes, sue me. Live with it. Real troublesome altogether. 1st time we got separated in the city. 2nd time we took an exit and those 8 people in the car can’t see our car take it and they went on ahead. 14 eyes and not one can keep up. Amazing, innit? We had the worst tag-a-long car in the history of driving.
Took us awhile to get them to spill the information the 2nd time round ‘cause we were around the Clayton-Dandenong area. Even stopped a postman to get some info but that white boy knew nothing. Postmen and taxi drivers are pretty much useless. You’d expect them to be pros of the area they’re assigned but it’s far from reality. Taxi drivers without their GPS are useless, I tell you.
Eventually we found them, got back onto the highway and it was smooth sailing all the way to Philip Island. Since Eric’s car was all dudes, we were talking shit and pretty much bored shitless so we started pointing at random shit and going “Ooooo...” Yeah... so it was like, “Look, McDonalds... Oooo...” Yeah, real mature but was funny as hell!
Travelling on the freeway there is a huge difference from Malaysia. Instead of trees surrounding you and mountains in the background, the whole place is all flat, grass, cows grazing on the plains and bare hills in the background. Plains can stretch as far as the eye can see.
All of sudden while navigating, the girls called one of us and told us to take a U-turn ‘cause they wanted to go to a ranch called Warook ranch. They were quite far behind us (damned driver can’t keep up when we’re just touching the speed limit) and we had to go quite far ahead to reach a U-turn but eventually we did and met up at the ranch.
Huge ranch it was. They had ducks, emus, kangaroos, cows and sheep there.
Can you see those roos there?
The lady in the office offered us a tour of the place. 200 smackers for 90 minutes. Not half bad. I initially voted not to stick around but when some of the chicks made faces and said that the penguins don’t pop up until the sun sets, I decided “What the hell... might as well.” So off we went into one stinking wagon hooked to the back of a pickup truck. 1st stop was a sheep shearing place. Seen all that shit while I was at Gold Coast the last time round.
Like lambs to the slau... I mean, shearer
Bob and Gerry with the shearing gear
After that the tour guide showed us the whips. Usual jokes came up... Heh heh heh... It was the kind of whip not really meant to put the animals in line but rather to freak them out so it’s just used to make that “crack” sound. She showed us how to do it flawlessly and some of us went ahead to try. I didn’t try ‘cause I knew I would definitely hurt myself.
Needless to say, everyone who tried didn’t get it right the first time and started to hurt themselves. Eventually I figured out the formula to do it watching the tour guide do it. Just swing it over your shoulder until the whips over your back and swing it forward. The little thingy in the front is much more flexible than the whip so as the whip’s doing it’s thing, the thing will swing around faster than the whip, breaking the sound barrier in the process and making the “crack” sound.
Later she, the tour guide showed us the sheep dog. There were three of them. The old one was Sparky, I think, brown, deaf in one year and plagued with arthritis. The one in its prime, Tomoe, was black and white, in its prime and was obviously the best there was at the ranch. The youngest one is Tomoe’s kid and was still in training so she only brought out the oldest ones to show us how they do their thang. The sheep dog were absolutely obedient and only answered to the tour guide. Friendly too.
After that we fed some baby lambs. Cute little fellas with huge appetites.
Needless to say, everyone who tried didn’t get it right the first time and started to hurt themselves. Eventually I figured out the formula to do it watching the tour guide do it. Just swing it over your shoulder until the whips over your back and swing it forward. The little thingy in the front is much more flexible than the whip so as the whip’s doing it’s thing, the thing will swing around faster than the whip, breaking the sound barrier in the process and making the “crack” sound.
Later she, the tour guide showed us the sheep dog. There were three of them. The old one was Sparky, I think, brown, deaf in one year and plagued with arthritis. The one in its prime, Tomoe, was black and white, in its prime and was obviously the best there was at the ranch. The youngest one is Tomoe’s kid and was still in training so she only brought out the oldest ones to show us how they do their thang. The sheep dog were absolutely obedient and only answered to the tour guide. Friendly too.
After that we fed some baby lambs. Cute little fellas with huge appetites.
Feeding a little lamb. Mmm... gotta grow big and strong to make good mutton chops!
Next up were some calfs. Baby cows, for those that are half an idiot. Nothing interesting there but the tour guide debuted a baby kangaroo for us and it was so freakin’ cute! Didn’t get shots of it because it was still kinda afraid of people so it just wouldn’t be right to flash a camera at it. Later, she led us to a feeding enclosure near the entrance where we were given some grass feed to be given to the animals inside. The ducks and geese were the most wary of humans so we had to lure them over with the feed before they ate out of our hands. The kangaroos were more than obliged to eat straight out of our hands. Damn man, those kangaroos have huge ass claws! I rather get punched by one of them motherfuckers than get slashed at.
Itching to get some memorabilia from the souvenir shop, we went back to the office and found out that they closed for the day and the restaurant as well. Damn. So off we go again, back on the road where the girl driver showed us why women drivers sucked. Couldn’t even back up properly. Sure it was a huge ass ride but I drove an Innova before and it ain’t that tough.
Stopped at some koala place for a bit but skipped it ‘cause we were all really hungry and that place didn’t have proper food.
As we drew closer to Philip Island, started to drizzle a bit, no biggie. Lasted for fewer than 20 minutes. The road also reduced to 1 lane only and because of that, the sucky driver behind us lagged and eventually got cut by a few more cars. Fearing that they would get lost, we, as good Samaritans messaged them with instructions.
How did they repay us? Easy. They ditched us and went for dinner themselves once we hit Philip Island. These dudes got pissed and shit. I was a bit ticked myself but I see both sides of the coin and thought that we were all equally at fault. So I opted not to go ape shit on them if I got the chance. Hence, us dudes went for dinner and then suddenly Palm got a message from Elly saying that they hadn’t had dinner yet and were coming over. Catch was that we were having dinner at a Chinese restaurant, therefore and obviously not halal so driver girl had to bounce over somewhere else to get her chow down.
Finished dinner, parted ways and I found myself with Daniel, Eric and Bob heading to chill by the beautiful beach of Philip Island.
Itching to get some memorabilia from the souvenir shop, we went back to the office and found out that they closed for the day and the restaurant as well. Damn. So off we go again, back on the road where the girl driver showed us why women drivers sucked. Couldn’t even back up properly. Sure it was a huge ass ride but I drove an Innova before and it ain’t that tough.
Stopped at some koala place for a bit but skipped it ‘cause we were all really hungry and that place didn’t have proper food.
As we drew closer to Philip Island, started to drizzle a bit, no biggie. Lasted for fewer than 20 minutes. The road also reduced to 1 lane only and because of that, the sucky driver behind us lagged and eventually got cut by a few more cars. Fearing that they would get lost, we, as good Samaritans messaged them with instructions.
How did they repay us? Easy. They ditched us and went for dinner themselves once we hit Philip Island. These dudes got pissed and shit. I was a bit ticked myself but I see both sides of the coin and thought that we were all equally at fault. So I opted not to go ape shit on them if I got the chance. Hence, us dudes went for dinner and then suddenly Palm got a message from Elly saying that they hadn’t had dinner yet and were coming over. Catch was that we were having dinner at a Chinese restaurant, therefore and obviously not halal so driver girl had to bounce over somewhere else to get her chow down.
Finished dinner, parted ways and I found myself with Daniel, Eric and Bob heading to chill by the beautiful beach of Philip Island.
Philip Island beach
Me, Eric and Bob chilling
Daniel pondering whether to scare the birds or not
Daniel and Eric hanging on the beach
Guys only pic
After settling awhile, sampled the alleged Melbourne’s best fish and chips, we headed off to the Penguin Parade, the only reason why people bother with Philip Island. This is how it works, you pay 20 bucks, minimum. Extra gets you other places in the place. Not interested in the penguin themed stuff, thank you very much. So yeah, 20 bucks gets you the souvenir shop, small little theatre and of course, the main attraction, the Penguin Parade itself. So the main area, consists of bridges surrounding the natural (or manmade) habitat of the fairy penguins, which are holes in hills. Then the main stage of the area is like a spectator stand area, facing the beach where the waves wash in the penguins rolling in.
The little fellas wash up in 2s and 3s and sometimes wait around for other pals and walk back home altogether. Platoons of them usually amount up to between 10-25 penguins.
So after looking at those fairy penguins and making good use of the souvenir shop. It was time to head back... but not before goofing off a bit!
The little fellas wash up in 2s and 3s and sometimes wait around for other pals and walk back home altogether. Platoons of them usually amount up to between 10-25 penguins.
So after looking at those fairy penguins and making good use of the souvenir shop. It was time to head back... but not before goofing off a bit!
Apparently penguins will hide under your car. Hmm...
Messing around with penguins
Group photo at Penguin Parade
Palm took over in the driver’s seat and I slept throughout most of the journey.
Eventually got back to Footscray faster than the other car ‘cause they went off fucking around so we hit the pub at Footscray Hotel 1st. There, the “3 second checkers” game was born! Not gonna go into detail about that ‘cause I’m sleepy as hell now.
Eventually got back to Footscray faster than the other car ‘cause they went off fucking around so we hit the pub at Footscray Hotel 1st. There, the “3 second checkers” game was born! Not gonna go into detail about that ‘cause I’m sleepy as hell now.
Palm, Bob and Eric playing a game of "3 seconds checkers"
So yeah. That’s it. A lot more happened between then and now. Easter Party at CQ. Fishing up a shark. Yeah... Let’s leave that for some other time.
Peace out y’all.
Peace out y’all.
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