30 November 2008 - Philip Island and the worlds smallest penguins!!

22nd November

Nobody rushed to get out of bed this morning, the weather is really starting to get us down, as we pretty much cant do anything unless we get absolutely sopping wet!! I poked my head out the window at 8.45am to see if Sarah was awake, she was but wasn’t quite prepared to get wet yet!! WE had a shower, went back to camp and started packing up, the rain was back with a vengeance so we decided we would have breakfast in the café just up the road, at least that way we would stay dry, some of our clothes were still wet from the night before so we didn’t want to run out of dry clothing.

Breakfast was divine and did a great job of cheering us all up a bit, the rain had subsided so Dan took the opportunity to check the oil in the van, it was running low so good job he did. We left at lunch time and drove north west as we were now heading to Philip Island.

En-route we stopped to do some food shopping so arrived at Philip Island at about 3.30pmm, we found Sarah a hostel straight away and after a look around Dan and I also stayed in the hostel grounds, it was very expensive here just to park up a van!!

We made some dinner and then set off again to see the penguin parade, the main reason for coming to Philip Island. There is a colony of the worlds smallest penguins that live on the west tip of the island, they used to live on all sides but they were killed off over the years by humans and animals.

Our luck hadn’t changed, the weather was atrocious, so we were all dressed up in order to keep warm, there was no doubt that we were going to be soaked by the end of it. When we got there we walked along the board walk to the sea front where they have built stone steps to watch the penguins from. We sat down and huddle together using Dan’s poncho as a wind and rain shield.

After 10 mins or so waiting, I spotted them in the sea, although we did think they were little birds as they were so small. IT was very comical to watch them coming out of the sea, waddling up the sand, stopping and then running back into the sea again! Apparently that is there most vulnerable time when they are on the beach getting to their nesting places!!

The group of penguins we were watching continued to waddle up the beach and then rushed back into the surf again, it must have taken them at least 10 tries before they were brave enough to make it the whole way!! Mean while we were getting wetter and wetter no to mention very cold, so we walked back to the board walk to watch the little penguins waddle underneath them to reach their tiny little burrows. There are well over a thousand penguins that live here and each one returns to its own borrow every night!

Even though we got soaked and were now freezing it was well worth seeing the little penguins, unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures of them. We got home and warmed ourselves up before going to bed.