The whistling murderer and other tales

Two days ago we got up early and took Yvonne out for her longest ever spin to the Great Ocean Road with Sam and Maddy. The day was an amazingly sunny (if slightly windy) day and we made the most of it. We repeated almost exactly what we’d done with Rach’s parents (The great, the ocean and the road) after all why spoil a recipe for success. Perhaps one of the major changes was diet. We pioneered the use of pickle, cheese and bun on the go and not only this but we also sampled the delights of musk flavoured sticks. As one wise and truly brilliant man said upon their being tasted, “It’s like an old ladies underwear drawer shoved in your mouth.” If you can possibly imagine such a thing.

It was a great day, although we did almost take off in the wind at the Twelve Apostles which made it a little more interesting than last time. Sadly though Maddy’s last day with us drew to a close and it was hard watching her walk off to the train station, onward to Singapore.

So with just the three of us remaining, we three musketeers planned our last adventure before Sam had to travel on too. We decided to head out to the Mornington Peninsula and check out the forts and scenery around the East tip of Phillip Bay. We got there a bit later than expected and so dived straight in to exploring the area starting off with a site that had at various times been an immigration centre, quarantine area, holding point and army officer training academy. It felt a bit empty as we were the only ones there and whilst it was interesting wandering through the buildings, it did feel a bit surreal feeling the abandoned spaces all around.

We headed back out and after a very late lunch set out for Fort Nepean on the tip of the peninsula. The walk took longer than expected and so it was dark by the time we arrived at the first buildings. Not only was it dark, it was also a little creepy and we were even more spooked when a bird flew at us from the dark as we made our way up to a gun emplacement. More than a little freaked out we decided to continue onwards anyway and so arrived at the main fort to find that, thankfully, it was lit on the inside. As we set foot inside though an eerie whistling pierced the silence. The girls told Alex to stop pulling a practical joke and quit the whistling. The only problem was though that it wasn’t him. Alex shouted out several times but had no response, just the disembodied whistling. By this time the girls had legged it leaving Alex with no choice but to follow as we practically sprinted the 1 ¾ miles back to the car, each step thinking there was a psychopathic murderer on our tails. We didn’t let out a sigh of relief until the doors of Yvonne were firmly locked and we were well on our way.

This morning before a sad goodbye to Sam, she phoned the Mornington Peninsula tourist info centre and asked about the whistling. Turned out it was an automated feature after all.

Rex’s Rules of the Road

• If you do hear whistling at Fort Nepean, no worries, it’s supposed to be there.

• Great Ocean Road is good enough to do twice, it hadn’t lost any of its magic.

• Get to Mornington Peninsula as early as you can as it’s shit scary once the sun goes down.

• Read Rach's review of Mornington Peninsula here