Wildlife Saturday

At around 9:30am we checked out of the coffee palace. We won’t look back. After yet another interrupted sleep we have definitely had enough of the place. This week we’ve been in a perpetual state of tiredness, trying to escape it by going to bed even earlier, but the palace keeps on dragging us down. Lets not keep going on about it though. The hostel wasn’t the best. Time to get over it!


Our room for the last week


The Coffee Palace

Today we headed for Philip Island (on Fran’s recommendation), which is an actual island (unlike Barry island) to the South East of Melbourne city. A relatively short drive of 2 hours meant that we had time to do all the sightseeing we wanted to in one afternoon. After a quick stop off at the Chill House, our next hostel, we went to the Koala conservation centre. Koala’s were once native to the south and east of Australia, but predominantly due to the urbanisation of their natural habitats, their numbers have been dramatically reduced. In the 1870’s when they were reintroduced to Philip Island (after having been driven out of the area in the 1830’s), their numbers native to the island were in the 800’s. Now they are less than 50! The conservation centre is a not-for-profit organisation which aims to preserve some of the Koala numbers. It was great to get so close to the Koala’s, and although the Koala’s weren’t the most active, they sleep for 20 hours a day (Jonny and Mark eat your heart out ;) ), we got some great photos.



At dusk we went to the south west of the island to watch the Penguin Parade! Here thousands of ‘Small Penguin’s’ emerge from the sea and make the trip up the beach towards their burrows, where their young are waiting for food. The sight of the penguins tentatively making their way out of the water, rushing back into the sea if a seagull got too close, and then sprinting up the sand into the cliff foliage was amazing. So as not to scare the penguins, no cameras were allowed, which was a real shame as later on we were able to get really close and we could have had some great photos. Andrea was totally in her element. She had a smile on her face the whole time, despite the appalling weather. The cold and rain did eventually get to us and we left after an hour or so. We braved it more than most people though.


Andrea in her element


Us braving the weather, all in the name of penguins!

Tomorrow we are heading along the coast to a place called Lakes Entrance, where we will relax for a couple of days and if the weather picks up a bit, probably hit the beach as well.

P.S. Happy birthday Seb for tomorrow!!