Unfortunately after the 36C heatwave yesterday today the weather has changed and the storm they were talking about has definitely arrived. The main problem is that this area is pretty much all about going for walks and being outside so there are limited things we can do here so with possibly more optimism that we should have and our waterproof shoes and coats we set off to see what we could see. The first stop was the Nobbies, a series of rocks quite close to the land, the waves were crashing over the rocks and although they were quite nice it had started raining when we arrived so we waited for a while to see if it would move off but it didn’t so we drove on to our next port of call which was the Koala sanctuary, this was set up about 50 years ago as Koala’s had virtually become extinct on the island through lack of habitat. This was in part due to it being cleared for crops but also because the population expanded and they ran out of food! Koalas tend to sleep for 20 hours a day as the diet they have is so inefficient they have to rest that much then spend the four hours they are awake for eating perhaps I was a Koala in a previous life! There are two main areas that you can walk round the first is at ground level but we saw six koala’s high up in the trees a couple of them just looked up every now and again then went back to sleep again. We then went to the other enclosure and saw a few more but in this area one of the Koalas was not only awake but eating away almost directly in front of us. We stood watching her for ages even though it had started raining again! Most of the Koalas were up trees and curled in a ball trying to stay out of the rain, they must wonder what is going on, a heat wave yesterday and cold and wet today, all that and they have to wear a fur coat! After about an hour of watching them we decided to move on so drove to the Coal mining town of Wonthaggi but it was raining so hard by the time we got there we decided against going for a walk so instead we went in search of something to decorate the room with for Christmas as we haven’t brought anything with us. We went in a couple of shops but either the Australians don’t decorate their houses or everything has sold out! In the end we actually found a few really nice things, we now have a tree, a Santa and Rudolph and some lights which we can put up they are really good and look great in the room. In the end we decided to head back to the cottage and just relax for what is left of the afternoon which is exactly what we did, we put on the fire, put up the decorations then sat and watched some trashy TV while the rain lashed down outside, just like being at home at Christmas!
