On Thursday Martyn had again offered to
take me further afield than the Melbourne area. This time the plan
was for me to meet him from work and to drive out to Phillip Island
to watch The Penguin Parade, which starts at dusk.
The drive there wasn't quite the
expected 90 mins, as there had been an accident on the freeway, which
added an extra hour to the journey. So folks, long delays are not
just the provenance of the M25 and M1. All this meant was that
instead of having dinner at a beach town near to our destination, we
joined everyone else at the resort for a mass catered meal. Which I
have to say was far better than offered at similar places in UK.
Phillip Island is a wild life haven,
and famously has a large colony of Little (or Fairy) Penguins, which
are no more than 12 inches high. At dusk they return from the sea to
their burrows on land, marching up the beach and through the dunes a
good few hundred metres. This happens every night, and they dont
seem at all fazed by the presence of human spectators. In the dunes a
possum and a wallaby also popped up to say hello to us, again the
penguins didn't mind.
We took our seats and waited,
marvelling at the bad behaviour of a whole load of orientals -
Korean? The stars of the show were expected sometime around 9 pm, but
at 8.30 one little joker appeared and waddled a short way out of the
water looked around and then ran back. He did this several times
much to our amusement. It was about 9 when the beach landings began.
They penguins seemed all black and sleek when they first emerged,
however, later when we saw them on land they were fluffy and cuddly
looking, more grey than black. To be honest the emergence from the
sea was not in the flocks (Actually the group name for penguins in
the sea is a raft.) I had imagined.
After watching them for a bout 20 mins
we took to the board-walks to watch their progress through the dunes.
This was much more like it, and you were able to get very close to
them, but not that close to touch. At one point we were halted by
the rangers as one fluffy Pingu had decided to leave his track and
walk across the board-walk. Penguins have priority here and the
wardens make sure they can get where they want to in safety.
The sky was so clear, and I love being
by the sea. The whole evening was magical.
After a coffee we returned home, this
time without any hold ups. Tomorrow late afternoon I would be leaving
for Adelaide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_Island
No comments:
Post a Comment