PHILIP ISLAND Went to philip island yesterday. was really good. got picked up at 11 from the nunnery so i didnt have to go anywhere and got dropped off at the door too so that was good. First picked everyone up, then signed in at the office. was about an hr 40min drive to the first stop, bout 15mins at a winery, the wine tasting was free too, so kind of a shame i dont like the stuff. then we went on to the maru animal park, think my favourite bit of the day, except the end bit. Met a wombat called molly who was funny, v fat, just sort of lay on the keepers lap, n tried to bite him now an again wen she cud be bothered. then went to have a look at a koala in a tree in a little room. we were only allowed in 2 at a time and u cudnt take fotos. but they helpfully took a foto of u standing next to the koala (he looked fairly unimpressed) and holding a twig. they let u buy this afta aswell for $15. nearly didnt, but then changed my mind at the last minute. After the koala pics, we went round the bak with the tour guide and animal keeper person and saw some tasmanian devils (sort of a cross between a dog and a rat), wasnt overly keen on these. theyre nearly cute and then they open their mouths and they have teeth the size of your arm The wallabys were nicer, they had joeys and i saw the occasional foot stickin out the pouch, you cud feed these, then there were some more koalas which i liked. There were one or 2 sheep, an llama and 2 horses, one was really really tiny, bout the size of a big dog, but too big 2 fit into say, a suitcase. The tour guide then recommended a dingo as a pet instead of a dog on the grounds that they dont smell, they dont moult and they cant bark. (they can yelp tho, i think this may be worse than barking, but im not sure as they didnt yelp much) they looked a lot like dogs tho. like sandy coloured huskies (i have pictures). Next was the kangaroos, they are almost identical to wallabys but a little bit bigger. is a bit scary to have about 7 kangaroos leaping towards you cuz they think u have, or are food. if they realise u havent got food they have no interest in you. was completely surrounded by the things at one point, tripped over one of their tails, it was really really hard, they must help it stand up or something cuz it didnt seem to notice i stood on it. managed to take a few fotos of a joeys head sticking out of one of the kangaroos pouches. then had some chips and onto philip island. Was another 20mins or so til we reached somethin called the nobbies. i think the nobbies were the rocks. It was the same idea as Lands end, was some cliffs and sea. but looked different as it wasnt lands end. The footpath was a wooden thing slightly raised from the hill/cliff, like a very low bridge presumably to make it flat enough to walk on. there were hundreds of seagulls around. i dont like seagulls. The tour guide kept lying on the path and looking under it, wasnt sure what he was lookin for, but he found it and told us to do the same (in the bird poo) and wen i looked under the path there were some little penguins under there lookin quite taken aback 2 see several faces appearing upside down from the bridge. They come inland to their burrows at nite from the sea, they look like rabbit holes, but theyre not cuz its where the penguins live. the breed of penguins are called little penguins because theyre the smallest breed of penguin in the world. very cute tho. the lovely tour guide had also brought flasks of hot water and teabags and biscuits so we got cups of tea before moving on. i enjoyed this. Was time to go onto the main attraction by this time, penguin parade. we looked around the shops first after having instructions from chris the tour guide to get to the viewing platform early. They were huge concrete steps. very cold to sit on. i was concerned about sitting on cold concrete at night, so i bought a thing that looks a bit like a mouse mat, but about twice as thick, and a bit bigger. i sat on the step for about 7seconds before deciding it was definately worth buying. Sunset was around quarter to 6. we got there just after half past to get a good seat (the side was the best according to chris and i think he was right). Apparently we were looking over the bit of sea between australia and tasmania. We waited until the sun had set and eventually a little group of penguins emerged from the waves and rearranged themselves before waddling up the beach between the two platforms and walking to their burrows. they do this every nite. they come out the water, walk up the beach and have been known to walk up to a km inland to their burrows. the people in charge were very bossy, there was no standing, and told people off for walking over to the side (where we were sitting) to get a betta look. we watched a few penguins come ashore, then walked bak 2 the bus. on the way we saw the penguins closer as they were still walking home. the most bizarre thing was the snoring. i cant think of anything else it could have been, it sounded exactly like high pitched snoring which was quite funny. It was very dark by this point, but it was bak on teh bus and over the bridge to the mainland to the pizza shop where we had free pizza! this was good. especially right before the hour and a half journey back into melbourne. got back about half past 9. Not done a lot today, just walked around melbourne. My last day on sunday, think there will be food and a mini party, there have been quite a few of these since 2 ppl have left and theres been a birthday in the last 4 weeks.