On the Bottom Half

Little Penguins, Long Bike Rides

The best part of last week was spent on Phillip Island. If you've got an atlas, look south east of Melbourne on the other side of the Mornington Peninsula. Phillip Island is a reasonably small patch of land inhabiting the southern mouth of another bay.

It was a wonderful trip. We started on Tuesday at about 1200 across from Federation Square in downtown Melbourne. The tour bus was ful (~20 people) and I was squished in the back seat with three other people: Tim from Hong Kong and Kim and Marsha from Malaysia. In front of us was Vicky, whom you will meet in some pictures in this post. After departing from the curbside, we fought with CBD traffic, then finally got out of the city and surrouding suburbs about an hour later. First stop was a wildlife park, where we got to do such novel things as patting and feeding kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, and those dang emus; there were koalas as well, but apparently in Victoria, you are forbidden, by law, from touching them. Please ignore the picture in the previous post. When we were standing next to the emu paddock, old man emu decided he wanted me to feed him. Luckily my food dish was within neck-reach of him, so he pecked the thing and spilled it all over the ground. Kind of frightening when you are looking the other way and suddenly you find yourself showered with roo food courtesy of an overzealous emu.

Next stop was Wollamai Beach (picture), which is on the southeast coast of the island. A very beautiful spot, as ocean beaches generally are for me. We walked the length of the beach to stretch our legs; I took the opportunity to walk in the surf and cool my legs off in the 16 degree water. It sounds cold, but dip your toes in the ocean off Vancouver Island and you'll feel a significant difference, even though the water is only 4 degrees warmer on Wollamai. Back on the bus, we made our way to the hostel in Cowes.

Waiting was a full buffett dinner and wine, which as part of the 3-day tour, I was allowed to partake, but I didn't go to the penguin parade that evening. Vicky (from England) and I stayed together; we went for a walk around town to get our bearings, had dessert and wine at a seaside restaurant, then were joined by Darragh (from Ireland) with whom we played cards for the rest of that evening.

Next morning: Vicky, Darragh, and I hired bikes and peddaled around the island. The original intent was to go surfing at Smith's Beach on the south of the island, but whatever cosmic string is responsible for earthern Surf wasn't vibrating that day because the waves were a screaming half-foot high! Surfer-dude in Island Surf Shop said "like three days a year are like this." So, content that we had cosmically bad luck, we stopped in a little shop for lunch and were served a sandwich that featured beetroot as a topping! Definitely a little different, but it was definitely good.

The bike ride consumed the rest of the day: we took a long road back home through a Koala Conservation Centre (picture), which is a parcel of land reserved to contain natural bush. It is the only such patch left on the island, which features cattle farming as it's main landuse. The bush is very thick and fascinatingly different from the conifer-and-deciduous forests of home. There were four wallabies that we frightened, but a couple of them we saw early enough to stop and enjoy before they skittered off into the bush. We made our way to Rhyll Inlet on the northeast coast of the island, after traversing mangrove boardwalks and forest trails. We even ran into a black coloured snake, which more than likely was highly toxic, but it wasn't interested in meeting up with humans. Back to the hostel along the main road, supper, cards, and bed. Total bike-ridden distance: 22 km!


The Parade was a wonderful experience: the viewing platform we got to use allowed me to get right beside the penguins and follow them to their burrows in the surrounding cliffsides. In case you were wondering: the male digs a burrow and courts the female with it, then once they have laid eggs, they share feeding duties. One of them leaves to get food and may be gone up to a few weeks. But, the mate knows when it's time for their seaward counterpart to come home. Around sunset, the penguins prepare for the arrival of their partners. They are a timid species: a group of them forms in the water near the beach, then once the group has reached critical mass, the most courageous one exits and the rest follow. They flash their white bellies as they waddle up the beach in a tight group and they only break apart as they reach their burrows. Sometimes, a waiting partner will come out to an arriving group and sniff around hoping to find his or her partner. It really is a spectacle and it's completely natural. It was raining, but we all came prepared and were awed just the same. The penguin is properly called a "little penguin" and they are small: less then 33 cm tall. There are some that have burrows all the way up to the visitors centre: a few 100 metres up the valley! Busy little buggers...

After that, Vicky and I went home the next day. There were only the two of us, so the hostel gave us money to catch the ferry across the bay to Stony Point, then the trains back into the city. Some very sketchy people on the train though, let me tell you. Some guy was standing between two of the train cars, but the gangway wasn't in place. Another guy had black pits for eyes and tried to impose his ego on me when some of my money dropped out of my pocket onto the floor. I guess that's the fun of travelling! Public transport is never boring...

I stayed in the CBD for a while, had lunch with Vicky and bummed around her hostel for a while. The Brie here is exquisite and went well in our sandwich lunch. She has a library card, which we used for internet access. Then, navigated the wat back to Sunbury and prepared for the next trip.


I leave tomorrow on a three day Grampians and Great Ocean Road tour. I'll let you know how that goes!

Update complete!

Oh yeah, and PLEASE Check under your car for penguins.

posted by Kyle @ 00:10