The Penguin Parade on Phillip Island

I got up as late as possible today, having had a good night at the bar last night playing some pool (although that weird guy turned up again, but luckily enough didn't have the stupidity to try and talk to us). Had a quick shower and a delicious but hurried breakfast of coco pops and a cheese toasty, then sat outside at about 11:20 to meet our Phillip Island tour bus. It didn't come until much later, which set us back for the day really. Apparently the first pick up were given the wrong time by their agent and they weren't ready. They would have to still be in bed really wouldn't they? Lazy gets.

Anyway, once out of the city we made our way down the South Gippsland Highway, stopping at Wildlife Wonderland for dinner which, to my delight, was also the site of the Giant Worm Attraction, something I'd read so much about in Bill Bryson's Down Under. I scoffed down meat pie and chips for dinner (when am I gonna get meat pie and chips again on this trip??? Might as well savour the taste!).

Next we had a wander around. We walked through Wombat World, where there was only one wombat, hidden in darkness. They're incredible creatures really. You can tame them as babies but as soon as they hit around 2.5 years old they go wild, and if you try to pet them they'll bite your hand off. Their only defence mechanism is their cartilidge plate on their rump. If a predator such as a cat, dog or dingo chases them into their burrow, they'll stop and square up so that the predator will run into and headbutt their hard backside, hopefully think it's a dead end and go away. Alternatively, if it's not fooled, The wombat will lower itself so that the predator sticks it's head further down the burrow, then stand up, crushing the predators skull against the burrow or suffocating it. Pretty gruesome stuff. Wildlife Wonderland actually rescues baby wombats from the pouches of dead parents who have been victims of road accidents, as wombats tend to freeze in the path of oncoming headlights. Being nocturnal, they are afraid of bright lights. We actually got to hold one who was about 20 months old. Her name was Wilma and she was gorgeous!

At the wildlife centre we also got to feed kangaroos, saw emus, dingos and koalas, and also came across some weird llama type creatures, which looked like brown-wool sheep-giraffe hybrids. They were called Alpacas, and although not native Australian animals they're bred for their wool. We also met Sam, the Talking Cockatoo. At first he was pretty silent, probably with stage fright at the sight of so many faces! Then as our tour guide, Jude, walked away saying: "Bye, Sam", it came out with this little "Bye!". It was amazing. He also had some choice phrases including "Hi", "How are ya?", and "Come back!" which he squarked when you walked off, sounding just like Kate Winslet in Titanic when the lifeboat's sailing away. It was adorable - you didn't want to leave him when he said that! We also saw the Giant Worm Exhibition, which was weird. They basically had a tank full of dirt, with a few tunnels in it, and some preserved worms which, in fairness, were pretty big at around 50cm long and 2cm fat. You could also walk through a model worm gut and hear the gurgling noises of a worms stomach, and poke your head up into a hole and see what life is like for a worm. Unfortunately, there were no live worms on display. The last exhibit was a preserved Great White Shark, which was put down after it ventured into a tuna farm, and attempts to release it back into the wild were unsuccessful.

Next we got back on the highway and made our way over the bridge to Phillip Island, home of thousands of seals, little (fairy) penguins and the Superbikes at the Grand Prix Circuit on April the 1st. We miss everything!

We drove first to Pyramid Rock, which does exactly what it says on the tin. It's a rock in the shape of a pyramid. We had to walk along the coast a bit to see it, and it was incredibly breezy! I was freezing in my t-shirt and shorts! There was also an abundance of Shearwaters living there, birds which migrate16,000km every winter from Alaska to breed in Australia. It's amazing how they know where they're going. We could've walked to our next stop, Berry's Beach, but since we were running late we had to drive. The beach was lovely, if a bit windy and cold. We explored the rock pools but I didn't see any crabs or anything. Then we drove to The Nobbies, which was another rock formation in the sea. However, this was not the main attraction. Firstly there was an eyesore of a visitors centre, being an unfinished project it really did look a mess. Then, more pleasingly, there was the moulting penguins hiding underneath the boardwalk. They were so cute! Also, you could put $2 into the binoculars and take a look at the seal colony living on a nearby rock. There was hundreds of them, and some of them were playing in the sea!

We drove over to the main township, Cowes, for a takeaway pizza tea by the beach, which was absolutely delish! I only managed three pieces they were that big. At around 6:45 we made our way to the Penguin Parade, where hundreds of Little (or Fairy) Penguins emerge from the sea at dusk and waddle up the beach to their burrows. They actually close the road between sunset and sunrise to stop motorists running over the little critters. We got front row seats on the beach, then walked up to the visitors centre. We purchased a couple of photos -despite their extortionate price - because there is absolutely no photography allowed at the parade. This is because the flash photography causes damage to the penguins' eyes.

Once we came back down we were saddened to hear that we'd missed one, but soon enough they started coming out in groups of about six. It was really funny, cos if there was only two of them, they would wait in the surf until a couple more turned up and they plucked up enough courage to walk past the seagulls. And they would start waddling up the beach, then the one at the back would get spooked, run on back to the surf and the rest would follow! One group got halfway up then changed it's mind, another took about eight attempts to get across! Then there was one lone, fearless penguin that walked straight across our viewing area, about a metre away from us. It was incredible.

At around 9pm we set off walking back up the boardwalk and followed some of the penguins up. Because it's moulting season at the moment, some of the penguins had fattened themselves up to prepare for long stints on the land. Watching them walk up was hilarious. They would waddle for about ten steps then flop onto their fat bellies for a rest, resting for longer than they waddled for! Unfortunately we had to pull ourselves away at about 9:30 for our two hour trip back to Melbourne. It's been an absolutely cracking day!