October 24, Friday
Today was rough, especially for Mark. It included 10+ hours in the car as it was a long drive from Canberra to Phillip Island. It involved gassing up the car in Canberra which was not as easy as you'd think, especially driving on the other side of the road. Another issue has been getting Car Play to work with navigation. It seems we either get a map on the screen, but NO sound - or we get sound with NO map. It has been frustrating and everything we try to do to solve it has not worked - yet.
We were on a motorway for about half the way, but then, navigation said that the fastest route was to get off the motorway. Ugh - poor Mark. The roads were narrow and twisty with a lot of hills. And, they went on for hours. The last 45 minutes, we were back on a motorway, but so very tired after the long day.
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| Sulphur-crested cockatoos |
We arrived at Oak Tree Lodge in Rhyll, Phillip Island. And, - what a great place it is. Max, the owner, greeted us and showed us into an entire apartment! We expected a King Size bedroom and a kitchenette with partial seaview. We have a living room with a magnificent sea view, a kitchen/dining room, separate bedroom and a large bathroom. It is so unexpected.
We were tired and hungry and, just before arriving, we stopped at a tiny convenience store and Mark got a cheeseburger and we got Wonder bread (all that was available) and peanut butter and jelly. We thought that would have to do for dinner.
But, when Max showed us around the apartment, he also told us that he had stocked us with - milk, orange juice, crackers, bakery bread, bacon, eggs, cereals and yogurts! So, we did not go to bed hungry!
October 25
Today we woke to a chilly, but partly sunny day. Mark made bacon and eggs for breakfast and then we went for a walk down to the water at the end of "our" street. We identified a few birds including black swans, Cape Barren Geese, purple swamp hens (which look to us like moorhens).
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| view from one of our rooms |
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| Outside Oak Tree Lodge, Rhyll, Phillip Island |
Then, we went to a pharmacy in the biggest town on the island - Cowes. We needed to get toothpaste etc, plus a knee brace for Mark.
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| Australian White Ibis |
Then we were off to the Koala Conservation Centre which was great. We saw a lot of sleeping koalas in eucalyptus trees. Koala sleep for about 20 hours per day and, while they eat some  |
Koala Cuteness!
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other leaves, they have to have eucalyptus for their survival.  |
| Eucalyptus |
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| Magpie Lark |
We also saw lots and lots of birds. The ones we identified were: Eastern Rosella Parrots,Galahs (lots of them), Kookaburra, Bush Stone Curlews (in an enclosure), black-eared miners, more Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and a Wattlebird, but we didn't know which type. The birds here are so colorful and many of them are really loud!
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| Galahs |
Then we drove to the Penguin center to make sure that our tickets for the evening Penguin Parade were squared away.
We drove home via Cowes and shopped at Coles. Mark made grilled cheese and ham sandwiches for lunch on the bakery bread. It is nice to eat at home.
After lunch, Barbara took a walk along Rhyll Inlet and saw more birds, including a cooperative sulphur-crested cockatoo who wanted to be photographed.
By 6:30 we were at the Penguin Parade building in a big group; in fact, the event was sold out. We had the mid-level choice, called Penguins Plus which gave us a much closer view of the penguins working their way from the beach to their burrows.
It was cold - about 51 degrees and we put on as many layers as we could. We had seats in the front row of our section and we had a blanket from the Oak Tree Lodge. No photos were allowed after sunset, so all the photos were provided by their website.
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| Penguin Parade |
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| Rhyll Inlet |
We waited from 6:30 - 8:15 when the first group showed up - probably about 50 Little Penguins. They emerge from the water and literally run across the expanse of the beach. They stay in a tight bunch, called "rafts" for safety from predation. When they got near us, they rested as it takes a lot of energy for them to hustle. More and more groups emerged from the water as the night went on - for over an hour. It was really an awesome sight. On of the magical moments was when other penguins emerged from right in front of us- they had been in their burrows all along and all day, sitting on eggs. They wait for their mates to bring them food and some were impatiently calling for their mates to hurry up!
Amazingly, these Little Penguins kept going far up the dunes around us, even up a steep hill to get to the burrows they return to every night, all year long. They estimated about 1,000 were on parade tonight which meant that there were about another 1,000 waiting. (Not sure if the video will play on this site) Other facts - they are slightly smaller than a bowling pin and weigh under 1 Kilogram. They estimate 40,000 live on and around Phillip Island with about 20% protected by the Penguin Parade.
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| A "raft" of Little Penguins |
These penguins can spend weeks at sea and spent 80% of their lives in the water. Both males and females care for the eggs and the chicks for the first months of their lives.
It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
