Wildlife

Bit of an adventurous day! Took a while to get to sleep last night but then had a good one, but either of us woke quite as early as we’d planned to be able to hit another market this morning. We decided to go back to Prahran where we’d passed by some nice cafes yesterday to have brunch, and got a taxi over there so as not to waste time as the bus was on a less frequent timetable today. Unfortunately we then spent a rather hassley hour trying to find where we meant to be…turned out the place was larger than we thought and we ended up walking for ages, round in circles some times, until in desperation we stopped somewhere with a rather long queue for service. The waiter sighed ‘It's Sunday’ when we asked about the queue, but we did finally get seated and I had some good avocado based sourdough, halloumi, seeds etc etc Melbourne style brunch.
Picked up a tram and straight to the Immigration Museum afterwards where we met some other people waiting for the bus, and we chatted about USA, UK, international travel, pandemic impacts, roundabouts and woollen tights(!) before hopping onto the minibus.
Pleasant drive south to Philip Island to see first some Koalas in their reserve…lovely to be so close but sad to hear how endangered they are becoming. On to Nobbies Rocks….spectacular coastline (volcanic) with so many seabirds, including the (very large!) geese and even a couple of stray penguins and beautiful rocks and crashing waves. Stunning weather to see it in, but slightly odd to be arriving at closing times of each area so no chance to get a cup of tea or linger too long. As we drove along saw lots of wallabies and more geese all over the island.
Finally on to see penguin parade. Visitor centre very large and rather striking architecture (and an open cafe!) so after a back we headed down the boardwalk to the huge sweeping beautiful beach. Got a good seat right at the front near the side our driver had said a lot of penguins come to and waited….lovely fading light and a pink glow off to the west as the sun set. We didn’t see the 3,000 that came ashore last night apparently, but did enjoy seeing the little ‘rafts’ or groups of penguins dashing towards a clump of rocks then gather their nerve for the final sprint across the sands to the safety of the long grass through which they yomped up to their burrows, calling and gossiping to each other all the way in funny little noises. We left the beach and headed back up the boardwalk with the penguins rolling along beside us….very determinedly heading for their own burrow.
What a delight to see these tiny creatures at the end of a long day’s fishing, and presumably avoiding all sorts of predators. We also looked at the sky to try and identify some stars but they were so unfamiliar. Did see Jupiter (we think) but don’t think we found the Southern Cross….will need to do more homework!
Back on the bus for the return journey then a taxi home as it was very late. What a great day!