Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

I love animals. I can't get enough of them. Either walking around in an animal sanctuary, wild or BBQ'd it's all good and gives me a warm feeeling inside. Marinated kangaroo done to perfection on the BBQ is an exceptional dish. But stroking a wombat and feeding a wallaby is also (almost) as fulfilling.

After our roaring success with Frank the baby kangaroo and Scarlett the olive python about 2 weeks ago we decided we needed more animal fun. So we booked ourselves on a trip to Phillip Island which as you will all be well aware is home to......The Australian MOTO GP and World Superbike races. It is actually MORE famous for the nightly parade of fairy penguins (now internationally re-branded as "Little Penguins" to avoid offending people) who emerge from the sea after sunset and basically 'leg it' up the beach to the safety of their burrows to avoid being eaten by eagles.

It is Australia's 2nd largest tourist attraction after the Great Barrier Reef so it was no surprise to pull into the carpark to be confronted by about 20 tour buses, one of them containing 40 overtired and overexcited school children! I did forget momentarily that I was no longer a teacher as I started to get that sick feeling of taking children on trips, though I could not imagine what it must be like taking children on a night trip near open water in the pitch black!

We were ineligible for the 'Penguin Plus' section as we didn't arrive on a nice enough tour bus so we carried on to the standard viewing area. I expected the event to be busy but I didn't expect a grandstand and a public address system! It's a good job the floodlights came on as not only did it aid our viewing but it probably helped the penguins see where they were going. It was hilarious. They emerged from the sea in groups of about 10 then after wimping out and running back into the water a few times they eventually clambered over the seaweed and onto the sand waddling as fast as they could to their burrows.

One group of penguins got over half way up the beach on 2 occasions before being spooked by a seagull and hot-footing it back to the safety of the sea. They must have been tired when they finally made it home.