We spent our last day in Melbourne travelling the west side of the large bay to Phillip Island.
We arrived around 3:30 and then we visited a farm homestead and saw Wallabees and then to a Koala reserve for an up close and personal with some of the marsupials. The reserve had an elevated boardwalk, allowing you to walk amongst the Eucalyptus trees at eye level with the little critters.
Weather was 'iffy' with fairly steady winds from the NW and rain showers.
After dinner in Cowes, with David and Sue from Virginia, we travelled to the Penguin Parade center at Summerland beach arriving around 7:30. We donned rain ponchos and ventured out to the viewiing area where around 8PM, several thousand small 'fairy' Penguins arrived through the pounding surf onto the sandy beach and made their way past the grandstand we were seated in and over the sand dunes into their burrows located along a boardwalk and up the embankment leading away from the beach. The penguins were around 30-45cm tall and weigh about 1KG. They eat half their body weight each day and have returned to Summerland beach in this way every day for thousands of years. They are now into breeding season and, once they found their respective burrows, started a cacaphony of squacking and shreeks ( and those were the MALES).
Peggy and I were both amazed to see this phenomenon 'up close and personal' and didn't mind getting a bit wet and cold to witness it. We left the reserve around 9;00 in a downpour for a 2 hour ride back to Melbourne.
This morning, we were up at 6:30 and caught the airport shuttle from teh Hotel to Melbourne's main airport for our flight aboard Jetstar A320 to Hobart. After checking in and unpacking a bit, we ventured down to the marina area for a bite to eat. The harbour area reminds us both of Bergen, Norway, and even has a mountain as a backdrop, Mount Wellington, with views of the city and harbor.
We arrived around 3:30 and then we visited a farm homestead and saw Wallabees and then to a Koala reserve for an up close and personal with some of the marsupials. The reserve had an elevated boardwalk, allowing you to walk amongst the Eucalyptus trees at eye level with the little critters.
Weather was 'iffy' with fairly steady winds from the NW and rain showers.
After dinner in Cowes, with David and Sue from Virginia, we travelled to the Penguin Parade center at Summerland beach arriving around 7:30. We donned rain ponchos and ventured out to the viewiing area where around 8PM, several thousand small 'fairy' Penguins arrived through the pounding surf onto the sandy beach and made their way past the grandstand we were seated in and over the sand dunes into their burrows located along a boardwalk and up the embankment leading away from the beach. The penguins were around 30-45cm tall and weigh about 1KG. They eat half their body weight each day and have returned to Summerland beach in this way every day for thousands of years. They are now into breeding season and, once they found their respective burrows, started a cacaphony of squacking and shreeks ( and those were the MALES).
Peggy and I were both amazed to see this phenomenon 'up close and personal' and didn't mind getting a bit wet and cold to witness it. We left the reserve around 9;00 in a downpour for a 2 hour ride back to Melbourne.
This morning, we were up at 6:30 and caught the airport shuttle from teh Hotel to Melbourne's main airport for our flight aboard Jetstar A320 to Hobart. After checking in and unpacking a bit, we ventured down to the marina area for a bite to eat. The harbour area reminds us both of Bergen, Norway, and even has a mountain as a backdrop, Mount Wellington, with views of the city and harbor.
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