TUESDAY 3RD MARCH
Today we’re going to Phillip Island to see the ‘World Famous Penguin Parade’; they’re world famous because they’re only about 12-14 inches tall and that’s tiny, even for a penguin.
On the way we visit Gurdies vineyard, so named because a Hurdy Gurdy (merry-go-round) fell in a ditch and was stuck there for about 3 years. The Aussies are really imaginative with the naming of stuff!
Next up was Maru Wildlife Park. Hurray. At last, after 2 and a half weeks I get to see some of Australia’s indigenous wildlife, and they’re alive. Wallabies, Kangaroos (including 4 albinos), Tasmanian Devils and Emu’s: despite what many people think Emu’s are not blue and orange like the one Rod Hull had. And while we’re on the subject cows aren’t purple as some people believe i.e. the Dutch who have never been out if the city.
We arrived on the island around 16:00p.m and headed for Woolamire beach. Here we hoped to see some seals and get a sneak preview of the penguins: the ones at the opposite side of the island don’t come up until dusk. We didn’t see any seals and there were only a few penguins seen, as most of them were hiding in their nests.
After the biggest and saltiest bag of chips ever we headed off to the main ‘Penguin Parade.’ The weather had been pretty kind to us so far, although it had been pretty grey the rain had stayed away, but when it comes to standing outside on the beach the heavens opened. We waited patiently for the penguins to surf on to the beach (They really do surf!). Firstly two or three of the ‘Generals’ come on the beach and have a bit of a look around. When they see it’s all clear, they give the signal and the rest of the group come waddling along the beach. It’s one of the funniest things ever to watch, the penguins are going as fast as they can, some of them fall over; others just keep their heads down and go as fast as they can to their burrows. This happens for about an hour or so with each group sending out the leaders and then following when the coast is clear, literally. At one point there was a kangaroo hopping along the bank (Typical, I waited 16 days to see a live ‘roo and then after seeing about 40 at Maru I then see a wild one at night.), unsure what to do next all the penguins just freeze, hoping they won’t be seen. They must be used to the tourists as there were 60 of us sat at the beach waiting for them to come out of the sea and only one out of 400 even stopped to have a look. You’re not allowed to photograph or film them as the flash scares them; we did try sans flash but got caught and severely reprimanded by the ranger. The pictures didn’t come out very well in the end so the bollocking was without reward.
WEDNESDAY 4TH MARCH
Today was our last day in Melbourne and it pissed down all day so we stayed in, watched crap TV and ate crap food. The lad who put the window through still doesn’t know how he did it.
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