1995/11 Australia trip - Phillip Island |
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We were headed for Phillip Island, but because of the weather, we stopped at the Big Worm, as that’s mostly an inside attraction. This is in the part of Australia that has the giant worms, up to 10 feet long. They have long thin display cases full of earth so that you can see the worms in action. There’s also a zoo area with lots of emus and wombats, marsupials related to the koala and similar to a pig. Both worms and wombats are nocturnal and live underground so they’re not easy to display, but they did a good job of keeping it interesting.
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By the time we took the bridge over to Phillip Island, the weather had improved, so we stopped at Pyramid Rock where the family sometimes goes diving, They have been swept out to sea here, and had a real struggle to get back into land, let alone climb the cliffs to get their gear back to the car. It’s certainly a pretty spot, but we all got bogged down in the clayey mud on top of the cliffs.
For lunch, we stopped at Cowes (yes they have Ryde and Ventnor too) at a new restaurant started by some friends of the family. We were all well filled, but the owners threw in some free pancakes and ice cream when they heard it was Auntie’s birthday.
We walked this off at the Nobblies, a rugged park area at the tip of the island. Black rocks and blue water, and hordes of sea birds. Seabird nests all around, seals out on the rocks, and the surf crashing. There were even a few penguins in their burrows, but they were not coming out, and you could only see parts of them.
We stayed there until it was time to go watch the penguins come in. The fairy penguins spend all day at sea, but come home to their burrows at sunset, thousands of them. This has become such an event that the park service has built viewing platforms for the hundreds of tourists that turn up, also a visitor’s centre. We were expecting to have to fight for a good view, as there were six bus-loads of Japanese there already, but we were lucky enough to get to a new platform that had just been built. They were opening it up for just a few quiet people, and I guess we qualified.
From our privileged position, we watched the penguins come right past us, within touching distance, though you have to agree not to touch, or use a flash or video light. The penguins come in like surfers to the shallows and then deliberately wait until almost dark, so that everyone gets fuzzy pictures as they come up the beach. After all day fishing far out at sea, they look just like tired commuters staggering up the platform off the London train, after spending too much time in the bar. They wait at the water’s edge until there’s a big enough crowd, and then waddle up the beach in their hundreds. Some of them have burrows in the low-rent district at the top of the cliff, so they have a long walk home.