Phillip Island, Australia – March 7

so close, and active!

Overcast with some sunny breaks in the PM, 19 degrees

Wildlife was the name of the game today. Our ship was anchored a 20 minutes tender ride away from Philip island where 10000 people call home.

I like the koala style!

In the morning we visited Philip Island’s koala conservation centre. This is a 64-hectare reserve where koalas roam pretty much freely, are being cared for and released into the wild. Many koalas injured from the recent fires are also here, we didn't see any as they were too damaged for that...wow :( There are between 20 and 30 koalas in this area. We saw about 10 koalas. While it was fascinating to see them, they don’t do much. Apparently, they spend 20 hours a day sleeping, 1-3 eating and 1-3 moving. We managed to catch one eating, scratching and

galah bird (pink and grey cockatoo)

walking. I learned that koalas don’t drink water, as they get all they need from the eucalyptus trees. I’m not really sure how big 64 hectares actually is, but we walked and walked for what was about 5km and didn’t see the whole reserve.

We also saw plenty of brightly coloured birds and wallabies. We were told to be on the lookout for echidnas but didn’t see any of those. The weather was just about perfect for walking through the wilderness.

We had time for a bit of lunch at the

another galah

conservation centre cafeteria…we didn’t really need this. We had a sausage roll and finally found a meat pie, both of which were good, but we didn’t need a lunch stop. We frequently have tours that go over lunch time and don’t stop for food.

Anyway, with full bellies, we proceeded to a wetland area just off the island’s coast. The only wildlife we saw and here were birds, but they were pretty cool birds. We learned how to spot the call of the kookaburra bird…almost sounds like a monkey call to me. We also learned to recognize wild spinach…we ate

wallaby

some…tasted like…spinach.

After our wetland walk, we headed right back to the ship for a nap and some room service. We had a few hours before we were to meet again

reclining wallaby

for an evening tour. Evening tours are very rare and even more rare as we will have to tender back in the dark.

Phillip island has a colony of little or fairy penguins. There are 32000 of these 33 cm high penguins. Each morning they head out to sea to feed and return to their nests each night to feed their chicks. The same ones don’t return each night – about 1000 return each night, this is called the Penguin Parade. There is an interpretative centre set up for viewing these penguins returning from the sea. There are concrete and steel stands set up for viewers to sit at the edge of the sea. Tonight was very windy, had we known how

wetland walk

windy, we would have brought our toques!

At just about dusk, you could hear murmurs throughout the crowd that someone had spotted the first emerging penguin. Was it a penguin, or just a bit of seaweed…who knows, it was getting dark. But then…it was obvious…penguins! One would emerge, fall over, get sucked back to sea, to emerge again followed by a bunch of his buddies. This happened a few times before we became just frozen enough to

cool looking trees

decide to go.

As we headed back to the interpretative centre we really saw some penguins close up. The stands are built so that the penguins go under them to find their nests; they find these nests by listening for their babies’ calls - which we could totally hear. There are also boardwalks built so that penguins can go under, as we walked back to the interpretive centre we spotted a few toddling through the dark. If it wasn’t for their white bellies, they

giant grey geese

would have been impossible to spot. We were wondering where the 1000 penguins were that we were told come up each night, then we saw them…who knows how many, but a ton…toddling up, stopping, toddling again – over and over…it didn’t matter how cold we were, we were mesmerized!

No picture were allowed, but I borrowed a few from their web site.

penguin!

And just like that our day was over…that is, after a tender ride back to the ship in the dark. I’m always amazed and thoroughly impressed with the tender guys. They are always patient

penguin!!

with people who make me want to

more penguins!!!

snap most days and inspire a ton of confidence. Tonight I was more impressed because one of the guys had to stand on the front of the tender for the whole 20 minute ride – I think this was because of the dark. He got soaked and would have been frozen – impressive.