Melbourne/Phillip Island - 24th December

We were awake early and I had a Christmas Eve run along the sea front and back through St Kilda.

After a shower we walked back to the area we were in last night for some breakfast in a small cafe. The coffee so far had been excellent wherever we've been.

From here we popped in to a butcher for some breakfast provisions for Christmas Day and then into the supermarket for some other items. We caught the tram back to our apartment and dropped the things off after which we walked back down to the sea front and along the pier to see if we could see any penguins. Sadly we couldn't as they were all out fishing so we returned to the apartment to prepare for our day tour to Phillip Island.

Just after 12 we walked back in to St Kilda to meet the tour and after a few stops in the CBD we travelled about an hour to our first stop, the Moonlit animal Sanctuary. The sanctuary is about 40 years old and tries to focus on an environment which is as close to the natural habitat as possible. The pathway leads you past lizards, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, an echidna, a Tasmanian devil, dingos and numerous birds.

The koalas in the tree were particularly cute and whilst they didn't get that close to the edge of the path, the wallabies and kangaroos were not actually fenced off.

From here we drive another hour or so to Phillip Island. We stopped first at Cape Woolamai beach, a bay on the southern Ocean (next stop Antarctica) and saw the impressive waves, driven by a strong breeze coming in off the sea. Next we stopped at the main town, Cowes. The island itself looks remarkably like the Isle of Wight and shares many of the place names. After a quick drink it was back on the bus to visit penguin parade.

Before arriving there we drove around the headland and saw geese and wallabies in the wild, hiding the the long grass. On arrival at the penguin parade visits centre we joined the throngs on visitors (sell out show this evening) in grabbing food and looking at the centre before the main event.

The fairy penguins (the same as the ones in St Kilda) come ashore at dusk and in groups for safety. We walked along the boardwalks, past penguin burrows, to the viewing area. The rangers explained the rules which included no photography with either cameras or phones because the light affects the penguins.

We watched for almost an hour, despite the chilly conditions, as the penguins made their way in, sometimes turning back for the water if something spooked them while they waddled up the beach. The only downside was that despite the requests, many visitors insisted on taking photos with their phones and we told more than a handful of people to stop!

At around 9:40pm we made our way back along the boardwalks where we could see penguins that had made it up the beach and were heading towards their burrows. There was a lot of noise from the penguins as they called to each other and there were other penguins who emerged from their burrows to welcome the returning birds.

We were back on the bus for the 2 hour journey back to Melbourne and were eventually dropped off back in St Kilda at the end of a long, but rewarding day, just before 1am.Leggi altro