We headed over to the Enterprise office at 0900 and went through the usual rigmarole involved with car hire. Finally we were done and the lady pointed to a line of cars across the way and handed me some keys. For the life of me I couldn't see a VW Polo anywhere, all the cars looked huge and it turns out the lady had upgraded us to a brand new Hyundai I10 which was considerably bigger than I wanted to drive. I explained, very nicely, that I ordered a small car because I want a small car to drive, not because I want to save money by ordering the cheapest and secretly hope for an upgrade! She was crestfallen as she'd assumed she was doing something nice for us, but agreed she should have checked with us in advance. So another half hour whilst she found us a suitable car, the VW Polo having mysteriously vanished overnight, and redid all the paper work and finally we were on our way in a Toyota Corolla which was still bigger than I wanted but actually easier for the suitcases and a nice enough car to drive as it's an automatic.
The drive south to Newtown, a suburb of Geelong, took just under an hour and we went straight to see T, J & E and what a delightful lad E is.
We've rented an Airbnb about 10 mins drive away and so at 1400 we headed over to check in and do some grocery shopping. This is Cockatoo View which overlooks the Barwon River and very nice it is too (photos from the lettings portal).
A couple of their frequent visitors, the eponymous Cockatoo and a Kookaburra, which we'd just love to see.
The place is adequately equipped but, as usual, not quite as spotlessly clean in places as I would expect but that's the danger with dishwashers and I've just put the grubby stuff at the back of the cupboard.
We're here for 5 nights and we'll do as much as possible with the family so just a few non family photos with comment where I can remember.
Sitting on our little balcony with our morning cuppa and the tree opposite was full of Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, a bit too far away for a decent photo though.
Rainbow Lorikeet
Red Wattlebird (second largest species of Australian honeyeater)
White-faced Heron
Australian Magpie (juvenile, I think). These birds are known to be rather aggressive and do actually attack cyclists, so much so that the cyclists often wear special helmets with spikes on to keep the birds off their heads. They do however have a rather lovely call/song (the bird not the cyclist).
An Australasian Swamp hen
A couple of f. Mallards
And finally, an Australasian Darter perched on high in the middle of the lake.
