Apr 20
Yesterday Claire and I, along with our friends Keesjan, Anne, and Sjoerd, went on a day trip to Phillip Island to watch the Penguin Parade. At our first stop along the way we got to get up close with some other awesome animals. The first animal we saw was a baby wombat named Wilma. Because wombats are nocturnal, Wilma just snoozed in our tour guide’s lap while we all got to pet her. After feeding a koala and checking out a crocodile and tasmanian devil, we entered the best part of our tour. Each of us grabbed a small container of food (okay so I grabbed two) and went into a pen where we got to feed wallabies, a sheep, a goat, alpaca, a mule, a miniature horse, and kangaroos! We also got to get close to some koalas and emus and even pet a dingo. The sheep, alpaca, and miniature horse were pretty aggressive in trying to get food and the goat even got his head and horns stuck in the fence, but the best part was feeding the wallabies and kangaroos. They would grasp our containers of food or our hands that they were eating from. While feeding them we were allowed to pet them and check out their tails which are extremely muscular. There was even an albino kangaroo! All of this was a lot of fun, but the funniest part of our little experience was when our friend Keesjon (we call him K) started putting sunglasses of the kangaroos and wallabies. The animals were so focused on eating they really didn’t seem to care. Our entire tour group was laughing as we took pictures with animals wearing shades.
The first part of our trip was so much fun I probably could have been happy to end there but we went on to a beautiful beach. We took a walk on the soft sand and dipped our feet in the cool water. We goofed around, taking pictures and writing messages in the sand before heading back to our bus. Next we went to The Nobbies where fur seals sometimes come. We didn’t see any seals but we saw the beautiful black rocks around the water as the sun was heading down.
Our final stop was to the Penguin Parade. We made our way down to the beach where a huge crowd of people gathered, waiting and watching to see the Little Penguins make their way from the water to their homes. We sat front row and waited under the moon for the sun to go down completely behind us. Soon there were little tiny penguins coming out of the water, getting nervous and running back, then coming out again.. Groups of them would come out together and begin their journey towards their little burrows. We weren’t allowed to take pictures because the flash is said to blind them but on our way back to our bus we did get to see them up close under some of the walkway lights. The day was sunny and warm. I’d say it was one of my favorite trips that I’ve went on here.