Today started as each morning does in Melbourne – with Trumpet, our house cat, waking Trumpet is a very sweet and laid back cat  – a little scratching and he’s ready to go outside for the day.

Today we drove a couple of hours south of Melbourne to Phillip Island. Our first stop was the Koala Reserve where they are working to protect and increase the koala population on the island. Cars, dogs and sexually transmitted diseases (yes really) have significantly reduced koala populations and these folks have about 40 koalas. Not very active animals – they sleep 20 hours each day and spent the rest of the time eating, mating, etc. We saw about a dozen koalas in the trees, mostly asleep, we get some action out of a couple of them – climbing and eating only.

After checking out the koalas, we visited a recreated village where we saw a demonstration of a sheep being shorn. The sheep appeared to be none to pleased about the whole operation. The sheep was dragged somewhat upside down from the paddock. The guys then joked about shearing the sheep blindfolded and then put the blindfold on the sheep (and took it off). Finally he sheared the sheep with electric clippers pretty quickly. Finally the sheep was allowed back in the pen. Good thing – for the sheep – that it takes months for the wool to grow back.

After visiting the rest of the animals – lots of wallabies plus peacocks, Clydesdale horses, guinea pigs, lambs, a very large pig/boar, sheep (both with and without wool) – it was for dinner – we’ve moved eating only two meals a day.

Luckily, there is a beach town on the island and we found a great fish and chips place and enjoyed grilled fish sandwiches, two different type of fish, chips, calamari and a very large potato latke (it is Hanukkah).
Our last stop was the Penguin Parade at the far end of the island. We left Cowes with plans to be in line for the grandstand at 7pm. We passed several ‘Parade sold out’ signs and the line of cars started several kilometers outside the facility. They checked our tickets outside the parking lots and we got the visitor center in time to get line with hundreds of people – they opened the doors and there was close to a dash for seats at bottom of the stands next to the beach. We got pretty good seats and spent the next couple of hours taking turns walking around waiting for the penguins. The ‘hosts’ regularly requested people to move down the stands and remind everyone not to take pictures of the penguins (flash will scare them). Come 9pm, the stands are packed and people are standing at the top of the stands (this parade is really a big deal – there must have been 2,000 people there. So a little after 9, at dusk, we start to see groups of dark shapes in the surf- and the dark shapes are small penguins – lots of them! The species is called “Small Penguin” – they are about a foot high and weigh two pounds. Really cute! The penguins went out to swim in the ocean and wait until dusk to return it safer from predators. They waddle out of the water and  moat times turn around and run back in. And even when they leave the water, if one or two go back the water, all of them with turn around and run back in the water. So after 10-15 minutes, groups of penguins start leaving the surf and make their way up the beach and into the nesting areas beyond the stands. On the way out, we walked down the boardwalk back to the visitor center, we could see the penguins wandering around as they back their nests – very cute and fun to watch.