Penguin viewing at Phillip Island

We started day two in Melbourne with a cafe breakfast in a nearby ‘laneway’ — pedestrian-only dining and shopping passages with a European feel. We jostled for table space with the enthusiastic crowd who had just finished a half-marathon run past our apartment.

At noon we set off with a small group tour to Phillip Island, about 2 hours south of Melbourne. On the way, we stopped at the Brighton Beach bathing boxes—brightly painted wooden beach huts built in the early 1900s. You can buy one for $300K, but you can’t live in it. They are just for day use. See the sunshine? Much warmer than yesterday’s trip!

Next, we arrived at a conservation sanctuary focusing on Australian wildlife. We sat in on a show & tell about a clever pink cockatoo, a barking owl (should have gotten a video for the sound!), a dingo and a couple of other birds. Wandering through ‘Wallaby Walk,’ we encountered kangaroos and wallabies wandering loose for feeding by the visitors. Cute!

Then it was on to the ‘Penguin Parade’ on Phillip Island, the nightly return of the Little penguins from the sea to their burrows. At dusk, when their airborne predators have gone, the penguins emerge from the sea in groups—safety in numbers—and waddle up the beach to the grassy hills farther up. We had a ranger with us for a couple of hours, and she was so informative and passionate about the penguins. Some burrows are close by, and some penguins have to waddle up to 2 km. They always nest within 40 meters of where their parents raised them.

Since most of this amazing spectacle took place after dark, we had to use some photos from the conservation center’s website. We got the shot of the lone penguin gathering nesting materials. The group photos were very representative of what we saw.Read more