Two Dates to the Prom

Here ends the stories of buildings and begins the tails of kangaroos.

Two weeks ago, my first mate arrived. She was my first and only mate at the company before I joined. Nicki Spencer, who was always someone I looked up to in my college sorority and in the GT ISYE department, was the initial reason I interviewed at Amdocs. I was so proud to show her around Melbourne and the office when she first arrived, and I am personally very happy that she is here with me. Even though I have been here for over two months, she has already proven to be a valuable mentor to me and obviously a great friend. (She is also keeping a blog at http://www.peachdownunder.blogspot.com.)

Three’s company in this neck of the bush. Nicki and I didn’t even think about planning an excursion out of the city without the fearless Carson Powell, fellow Georgia Tech grad and future executive. The winter weather does not compare to how cool the members of our crew are. I don’t think more highly of anyone on this project than Nicki and Carson. And frankly, we were all excited to leave Melbourne for the weekend to experience landmarks other than bars!

Last week, a Friday recommendation from a local co-worker gave us a good idea for a Saturday/Sunday destination. He suggested that we head down to Wilson’s Prom[otory], which is a national park 4 hours from Melbourne and also the southernmost tip of mainland Australia. His wildlife sighting guarantee won us over and we immediately started planning our trip (of course, not through e-mails at work). Friday night, we found an available beach cottage online that overlooked Warratah Bay. Saturday morning, we rented a smooth-running Corolla, threw some clothes and blankets into its compact trunk, and attempted to follow our hastily-written directions down Princes Highway.

Twice, we saw signs for Melbourne pointing in the same direction we were going. Once, we dead-ended into a dirt road adjacent to a pasture. Thrice, we were fooled by our pitiful map that did not extend past Koo Wee Rup. And more times than I can count, we drove ‘round roundabouts that served as main attractions for population-50 towns. We did pop off at Warraton to ask for directions and buy Pringles, and the entire town came into the general store to help us. The store owner and his family told us that they “liked accents” and that we were “headed to Sydney”. Being the driver, I let the navigators embarrass themselves while I shopped around the one-aisle store with my grocery trolley.

At 6 pm, we made it to Warratah Bay, starving and ready to get out of the car. There were no restaurants or stores in sight, but the beach was beautiful and Carson swears he saw a “real big rabbit”. And our cottage made the trip worthwhile: for once we had to rough it with a gas stove and lack of furnace. We all said a prayer of thanks when I found a box of noodles and can of pasta sauce that we had thrown into my bag at the last second ‘just in case’. After the best sea-salted spaghetti in the whole world, we reverted back to fifth grade and told ghost stories all night, completing the sleepover with snacks and a stack of movies. Mostly, Nicki and I snuggled up with our blankets on the couch while Carson enjoyed every minute of scaring the hell out of us. We had to draw all the curtains before going to bed at 10!

The morning came lightly and the three of us walked down the beach to enjoy the scenery. The first wild animal we encountered, besides Carson's bunny, was a red parrot. I'd seen these birds in the country before, but I was tickled to see them hanging out on a tree next to the beach!

Our next destination was the Prom. Directions were clearer on this day, a lot like our minds...

After paying a few coins (by the way, two dollar coins are the smallest and easiest to lose) to enter the wildlife-promising peninsula, we drove the half hour stretch to the Tidal River. Nicki was driving for the first time and watching the road, Carson was navigating and goofing off in the front seat, and I was crouched in the back with my head craned out the window, on Koala Watch. Sadly, we found out later that koalas were rarely seen in the area. We also kept wide eyes for 'hoppers', but had no luck during the first leg. We did find some wild emus, but some other Aussie tourists got there first and they were already far away. By the time we reached the Tidal River and visitor's center (which is the center of the Prom) I had a sinking feeling that we wouldn't be seeing any cool animals at all.

It turns out that my disappointment was pecked away a bit by some red parrots after lunch... click on these links to see the videos!
Parrot Lady: http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-7301980631027636592&hl=en-AU
Pirate: http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=6584330647681129969&hl=en-AU
Nicki Parrot:http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=692050310503827107&hl=en-AU

We had two hours until take-off to the penguins on Phillip Island (the penguins come out at a certain time, and there was no way we were going to miss it!) so we asked a ranger what we could do, with the interest of seeing kangaroos in mind. She suggested hiking or heading to the air field off the main stretch to look for the animals. After reading the map and adding things to our 'To Do Next Time' list, we decided that Lilly Pilly Gully was so well-named that we had to hike through it. When I think of the word 'gully', I think of a childhood movie "Fern Gully", and this movie proved to me last weekend that it really is an animated version of the real thing. There were dinosaur-aged flora and fauna, beautiful trees and rocks, and perfectly moist air. There was a man-made boardwalk inside the gully, about two kilometers in (part of which we ran), and the whole experience was just refreshing.

Lilly, Pilly, and Gully got back in the car and slowly made our way out of the Prom in search for more thrills (roos, please?) We were all more and more certain that no wildlife would be seen; I think this may have been the reason for the gully. Then, Carson made me turn around because he thought he saw another "real big rabbit". We parked off the side of the road where the road was not surrounded by trees, and sure enough there was a field full of tall grass and camoflaged kangas.

At first we saw one and we all squealed with excitement. It was no more than 4 feet tall, grey, and hunched over eating grass. From the shoulders up, it looked like a deer eating grass, but down to its haunches it looked like an oversized bunny rabbit! It was about 50 feet away.

Then someone saw another one behind it, and another one in the distance. Then, I'm not sure if one of us made a loud sound or not, but all of the sudden, 25 hoppers rose out of the tall grass. They stood erect (6 feet, abouts) and stared at us. They were all shapes and sizes, but mostly little for kangaroos. One started hopping, and then they were all hopping across the field, right in front of us. We got closer and took a couple of videos:
Kangas: http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-8711552630929537529&hl=en-AU
More Kangas: http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=-7882102648129499554&hl=en-AU

Dumbstruck, we pranced back to the car to continue our adventure out of the Prom. Don't ask me how, but Carson found the air field, which is behind the trees lining the road and guarded by a 'do not enter' gate. There were literally hundreds of kangaroos hanging around in the field. We did what anyone else would do in such a situation: we pretended to be kangaroos! (Especially in pictures. Enjoy!) We also hung out with a couple of funny wombats roaming around.

Pictures from the whole weekend: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/anna.lane.clark

The ending of our adventure was at Phillip Island, where we witnessed little penguins waddling for their lives in little groups at dusk, as part of their daily 'coming home' ritual. It was cute but a cold, rainy, touristy experience!