Wednesday, November 18th
It has been a very long but satisfying day for us.
It was a very pleasant night last night. We really enjoyed our stay at Lakes Entrance in the nice, though not fancy, hotel and at the wonderful restaurant in the evening. Next time we come back we should probably try to stay there for a bit longer.
We noticed that the front of the car has been busy attracting bugs…
We had a quick look across the road at the ocean…
The hotel did not include breakfast (again) so we drove a short distance down the street from the hotel to have a bite at McDonald’s. We sat outside to east as it is still quite sunny (though cool). Standard breakfast (sausage egg McMuffin) though I chose to avoid the awful “orange juice” they have at McDonald’s here and went for a coke instead.
Mel seems to associate with a local chain of discount stores…
It is going to be a long day. We have to get all the way to Phillip Island in time for our evening reservation. For what, you ask? You will have to read on and see…
On the way out of Lakes Entrance, the road follows along the water then suddenly rises into the hills on the way out of town offering great views of the area so we stopped beside the road to have a look. It is quite interesting looking with the town on a stretch of land separated by a strip of water then another strip of land with the ocean on the other side. Of course this means that the town is largely protected from the effects of ocean storms. From above it is all very clear…
We had decided that even though we were on a bit of a schedule we would take the scenic drive as much as we could so instead of following the A1 highway directly across to Phillip Island, our stop for the evening, we took the A440 which follows the coast all along this southern part of Australia meeting the A1 once again at Phillip Island (roughly). I remember mother and I doing this drive when we visited back in 1999 where we stopped at “Wilsons Promontory National Park” which is on the extreme southern tip of Australia but we would not have time to visit on this trip.
The drive in the morning was quite boring with the scenery being generally quite flat and uninspiring. We amused ourselves by taking pictures of signs and mailboxes beside the road - These are often quite interesting with some made out of old microwaves, milk containers, water barrels, etc but never two the same, it seems. The mailboxes are lined up in rows alongside the highway and always catch the eye.
For lunch we stopped at a small town by the name of “Yarram” which was laid out like most of the small towns we have passed with a main street of shops having covered walkways in front and cars parked end-in outside. I think this has to do with the amount of space everywhere here - Wide roads with a central reservation planted with trees. We stopped at a local convenience store that had a large number of drink fridges, a big assortment of candies and chocolates as well as a take-away business. I had a hot sausage roll pastry thing though Mel gave it a miss. We tried some rather unusual drinks from their selection though: a Schweppes “Pine Lime” and another flavour “Raspberry” for me and “Oak The Max” cool chocolate milk for Mel. Neither the Schweppes were terribly tasty being just very, very sweet…
After my snack I went into a local (small) supermarket to pick up some cherries (astronomically expensive) but also some chocolates (“Cherry Ripe” chocolate bars that Mel really loves) and some M&Ms.
Getting back in the car we stopped just down the road at a petrol station to fill the car but also use the toilets. The toilets were very nice and clean…refreshing. Several freezer cabinets along the walls of the shop were full of frozen fishing bait which made for some interesting reading. I had noticed a bit of smoke in the air in town so in talking to the lady while I was paying for our fuel she mentioned that there were big fires in the hills and that they had actually just returned from being evacuated. We have not really been paying attention to the news so this came as a bit of a surprise and really brings this sort of thing home.
Continuing on the road we took a few more pictures of signs - particularly those showing how much further we had to go - but, otherwise, we just drove on and on…
Passing by Wilsons Promontory we followed the directions on the GPS as it took us across a small concrete bridge into Phillip Island. We had to stay on the island tonight but I really did not know where to actually stay. The island is not very big and only has about 3 or 4 towns of any size. I had never been to the north side of the island so we decided to head over to Cowes, the largest town on the island which we felt would have the most choice for accommodation. There is basically one road that loops around the interior of the island that you follow to get anywhere. The island itself reminds me of the Isle of Wight in the UK as they are both diamond shaped (though the Isle of Wight is much, much larger than Phillip Island).
The main road into Cowes is very wide and lined with massive wide trees that completely span over the road. It is quite pretty.
As we drove in we spotted another “Golden Chain” hotel on our right - The hotel we stayed at in Lakes Entrance was also a Golden Chain and because we had enjoyed that so much we decided to give this one a try. The hotel is the “Arthur Phillip Motor Inn” (http://www.arthurphillipmotorinn.com.au/). We pulled up outside the office to find no one about but eventually a lady walked in and greeted us - She had lots of availability but we decided to go for the spa room again even though it was a bit more expensive. Actually, the hotel was a lot more expensive than Lakes Entrance at $145 but, hey, we are on holiday! Our room was a short distance away so we pulled up out front and went in - Very spacious with the spa in the far left corner and with a sofa and a very large bed.
It was now about time for dinner so the owner offered us some helpful suggestions and we continued down the road into the middle of Cowes. This is really a tourist town with the street lined with local fast food restaurants and loads of souvenir shops. The road ends at the waterfront with a small park and a pier on which people were fishing as well as coming and going in tourist boats.
It was tricky finding parking with restrictions everywhere but we found a spot on a side street near the water that was good for a few hours then got out to walk through the park along the beach for a few minutes.
The small beach had a number of young families enjoying the water but we continued on to the pier where Mel stopped for a few minutes to take pictures of rabbits.
We travel thousands of miles and what does she take pictures of? (sigh)
On the pier we walked to the end to watch several young boys in swimsuits daring each other to jump off the end…they both ended up wet. The water here is quite deep but very clear as we looked down to see the fish swimming about.
Leaving the pier we walked up the main street past the various shops. It is not busy this time of year as it is not quite summer here. As we do anywhere we go we had a look into the real estate shops to see what the prices are like here - Very high and, as you might expect, fairly basic houses.
At the first roundabout I was keen to eat at a Japanese restaurant on the far side but instead we agreed to eat at a local greasy spoon - Gullivers Wine Bar & Eatery - Where Mel had fish and chips, and I had “Seafood medley” which was fried fish, scallops, squid and shrimp (total of about $32). It took a while for the meals to be freshly made so we waited at our table outside. We amused ourselves in the meantime by people watching. When the meals arrived they were both very fresh and quite tasty.
While eating we had to be on our toes as the local birds were quite aggressive in attacking any unprotected edibles - A neighbouring table left a lot of leftover food that the birds promptly descended upon in a mad feeding frenzy before being chased off by an employee.
So the reason why we had to be here on Phillip Island today and, particularly, by about this time, was because we had purchased tickets to the nightly “Penguin Parade”. This is probably the star attraction for the island and one that you really need to purchase tickets for in advance as it can get extremely busy. What happens is that every night just after sunset “fairy” or “little” penguins that have been feeding out at sea return to their nests in their colony here on the island. This arrival is very predictable so over the years tourists have come to watch this amazing sight sitting on bleachers arranged along the beach. Just this week they have opened up a special “Penguins Plus” area which offers a much closer visit with the penguins slightly removed from the main grandstands where normal tickets provide you access to. So, we have gone for these extra special tickets, after all, how often will we be able to do this sort of thing? At $47.20 (each) it is worth it (standard tickets are $24.50).
“Penguin Parade” is on the far west side of the island and we arrived at the site at about 6:30. We had been told that the display would start at about 7:30 but we were not going to take any chances at missing anything!
The signs around the car park are quite fun with the obvious “penguin” caution sign but also notices about checking under your car for penguins before leaving. We walked the short distance up to the rather modern visitor centre. Inside there is a very large shop, places to eat and an exhibit.
Mel picked up a red rain jacket in the shop that she liked and would come in handy tonight - It is quite cool at night here right now. We headed across to the exhibits where they had displays about the various penguins in the world as well as portals that looked directly down into penguin nests immediately under the centre - We were surprised to see many penguins going about their nesting duties just a few feet below where we were standing!
At about 7 pm I was getting a bit anxious so we went to stand outside the glass doors that would take us down to the beach to see the small seafarers. The doors were, of course, locked and several keepers were there to make sure no one left the centre before the right time. I was amused to see a wallaby walking around just outside the doors looking for something to eat. The local people did not seem to even bat an eye and barely noticed this visitor.
We only waited a few minutes before they opened the doors just after 7. The wooden pathway winds its way down to the beach through the grassy, sandy scrubland here before dividing - To the left is the normal seating but to the right is where we headed to our super-deluxe “Penguin Plus” area. The pathway here is obviously much newer and much nicer though we were puzzled to see a large number of people dressed in suits drinking champagne wandering around. It turns out there was a corporate event immediately prior and a few minutes later they were all gone anyway - Just as well as I did not want them getting in the way of our enjoyment of the penguins! The walkway ends in a small round section on which a raised series of seats have been built. It can probably only seat about 40 or 50 people but we quickly made our way to the far end to grab the best seats we could get - About two feet from where the penguins would be coming in from the beach. Wow!
We originally sat at the lowest level but the staff told us that they had found this was too close and made the penguins nervous so we had to move up a level. There is only a thin metal cable between us and the beach…
Under where we were sitting is a bunker with windows looking out at beach level that a number of the business people were using. This was probably the best view of anywhere.
We waited quite a long time, amusing ourselves by people watching as the seats around us filled but also in watching large grey geese and other birds walking around the area. We are at the bottom of a small but steep hill on our right that is peppered with holes that are obviously penguin nesting burrows. The hill is separated from us by a thin strip of sand that leads up from the beach and follows the walkway all the way back up to the visitor centre. As we had walked down we could see the burrow holes everywhere.
It is a very large colony.
To the left of where we are seated there is a bit of grass shrubbery but if you stand up and look down the beach we can see the bleachers where those in the cheap seats sit (!). I took a few pictures at this point but we had been told that pictures when the penguins came in were strictly not permitted as this might frighten the birds (though a few people tried throughout the evening though they were quickly stopped by the staff and other members of the public).
It seemed like a long wait but it could not have been more than 45 minutes before we could see out in the distant water the dark “rafts” - lines of tiny black dots - that we were told were groups of hundreds of penguins returning to the colony. The first few groups of penguins were quite skittish and several actually beat a hasty retreat when something spooked them (we were all being extremely quiet so do not think it was us). Eventually though the first few poked their heads up in front of us and cautiously made their way forward. As the first few started to arrive we looked around to see that many of the burrows now had the heads of young penguins sticking out of them with the occasional squawk calling out for their parents. After the few, came a few more then many more until there were hundreds of penguins waddling their way up from the beach only a few meters away from where we sitting. They passed us following various paths up the hill, beside the walkway and even under the walkway as they returned to their nests.
Of course it was at this time I realized I really needed to visit the toilet so I quickly ran back up the walkway to the toilets then quickly returned back to where we were seated. I did not want to miss a minute.
For a long time we sat in silence watching the unusual display in front of us. The small dramas that enfolded before us - A chick calling out for it’s parents: Oh, that one is going over to it, is this it’s parent? No, as it waddled past. The small extremely cute animals making their way along the path stopping every few steps to have a look around then continuing on their way. None of the animals must have been more than about a foot high. “Little”/”Fairy” penguins indeed.
Eventually we were woken from our reverie by the wardens telling us that the lights were being turned off in 10 minutes. Looking around Mel and I realized that many visitors had already left all around us and we were amongst the last here. We slowly made our way up the walkway back to the visitor centre. Lights under the walkway clearly lit up the penguins which were all around us making their way back home. We stopped many times to have a look in one particular area and soak in the experience. There are many large grey-downed babies around right now looking particularly hungry.
Arriving back at the centre we were halted before entering as there was a penguin wanting to cross the path in front of us. For several minutes dozens of us stood and watched while the tiny bird decided whether or not to cross the path. Eventually it turned around and dived back into the bushes from where it had come from - Caution had overcome his need to cross.
Back at the car we made sure to check under the car for any flightless creatures but none were to be found as we drove out of the car park and back to the hotel.
Wow. Quite an experience. I remember visiting with my mother back in 1999 and being overwhelmed then. This was no different but to be even closer than when I had first visited and in such a peaceful and calm environment was quite incredible. These are amazing creatures and I feel honoured to have experienced such a sight.
We relaxed a bit in the spa then watched a bit of television. It is a late night for us after a very satisfying day.
Oh, the mileage for the day: Today we travelled more than 334 kilometres.
Our route today…