After my great trip on the Great Ocean Road, I'd made plans to take another tour (again with Autopia) before leaving Australia. Despite feeling a bit excited about this and believing I'd have a tough time sleeping, my day began much later than (0730) than it has on the whole trip. Guess I’ve completely transitioned to this time zone now - it’s gonna be painful to get back. When I arrived at the breakfast buffet in the hotel lobby, I didn’t find it too busy, fortunately. After another satisfying meal, I got ready to go out and left the hotel at around 0900. With some trams and walking, I managed to make it to (0930) Mass on time at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Afterwards, I walked around in Fitzroy and Treasury Gardens and found a memorial for JFK. The weather was awesome again! My timing with the trams was bad (that’s been happening a lot) so I walked all the way back to Flinders Street Station. I saw a tram with a “Vermont South” destination - I wonder where that is... Along the way, I had to dodge a Cancer Charity 5K and stopped at Ezymart to use some of my remaining Australian dollars and pick up snacks for the tour. Since my tour didn't start until 1145, I next walked over to the Immigration Museum and took a short tour (without buying a ticket I only got to see some of the displays). At 1145, the bus arrived at the museum and I was waiting for it. I was a little disappointed that the driver was using a much larger vehicle than the previous tour. There were also almost 30 people with me this time (including young children) so there was no way the experience would be as intimate. Almost everyone else was from Asia and Europe but there one US couple - we never actually spoke all day because the group was so large. Our driver/guide was Vicky and, as we left the city, she entertained us with stories about the founding of Melbourne (a man with the surname Batman was the first settler). After crossing the Yarra a couple of times (to leave the city and reach the motorway), we passed by the Rod Laver Arena, home of the Australian Open. On the way east on the M1, I noticed that the road was initially surrounded by trees (much different than on the west side of Melbourne). Nearing the town of Cranbourne, we got on Route M420. We stopped in Tooradin, a tiny little village on the north side of Western Port Bay, for a break (1250 to 1330). I went exploring while everyone else stood in line at the bakery. Just before we had to leave, I got some ice cream at a little shop by the waterfront. Back on M420, the terrain transitioned to treeless farmland. After about an hour, we crossed a big bridge that took us to onto Phillip Island. We stopped at the Koala Conservation Reserve, a Phillip Island Nature Park, and stayed there from 1430 to 1530. Inside the reserve, run as a “koala rescue”, we saw koalas (mostly sleeping), wallabies (wild, they jumped the fence), parrots & cockatoos (loud) and a bush stone curlew (caged). Even though they were apparently close by, I didn’t see or hear a kookaburra. We next drove west across the island. On the way, we passed Philip Island Circuit, a huge race track that is apparently quite famous. Vicky told us about attempts by the locals to eradicate non-native species - they have apparently been successful but pet ownership is tightly controlled. We next stopped at Nobbies Centre, a building built high on a cliff that sits directly opposite a volcanic mountain in the sea. The “Nobbies” reminded me of the Devil’s Tower but in the ocean. From a boardwalk that overlooked the cliffs, we got beautiful ocean views. I saw many examples of the Cape Barren (pink legged) Goose there. Even more interesting, though, I saw a burrow with a penguin inside - was it a baby waiting for its parents? (Remember this point for later in the day!) This stop was quite nice and I would have liked to stay longer (we were only there from 1550 to 1615). However, we needed to get going to make it to the Penguin Parade in time! Sadly, the large bus and many passengers meant that we were forced to wait longer and longer each time (for the same people) and didn’t leave on schedule. For our next leg of the journey, we used a cliff-side dirt road to reach Summerland Beach. Vicky told us about the huge colony (32000!) of little (blue) penguins that have been brought back in huge numbers since Victoria purchased a huge (developed) part of the island and returned it to its natural state. The cliff sides were covered in wallabies and Cape Barren Geese. I later learned that bandicoots lived there too but I didn’t notice any. Arriving at the Penguin Parade Visitor Center, we learned that we’d have from 1640 to 1900 to watch the penguins return home from the sea. Before heading out to the viewing area, I first stopped to eat dinner (Pan Fried Tasmanian Salmon and a Byron Bay Lager) at the Shearwater Restaurant in the Nature Park. The food was good! At 1515, I headed out to the beach for the show; I’d read about a good place to sit and headed over there. The viewing area was already mostly full but I got the last (wet) spot near the action (my boots were in the sand, I was so close). We’d been told that the penguins were likely to arrive on the shore at around 1750 (just after sunset) and would be only about 75-100 feet away from the viewing area. In the end, though, they didn’t start arriving until after 1800 (completely dark) and were so far away they that they were nearly impossible to see. I had brought my little binoculars and that helped a little bit. From what I was able to determine, the penguins came ashore in “rafts” (groups of maybe a dozen) and, once they thought the coast was clear (literally), started walking in a line up the beach and into the tall grasses there. I probably saw 10 such groups through my binoculars but I’m not sure anyone else saw much at all. The ranger said that there could have been a seal in the water nearby that scared the penguins further down the beach. There were signs everywhere telling people not to take photos once the sun went down, so as to prevent the penguins from getting spooked, but most people around me ignored this guidance. After about 30 minutes, I made my way up hill (towards the boardwalk we’d used to get to the viewing area) and watched the beach for a little while longer. I saw a few more rafts before I gave up; one group was funny because they appeared to be afraid of some seagulls (or it could have been someone with their camera) and skittered back into the ocean. After that, I looked for the penguin families (outside their burrows) and saw several. The whole area was full of the sounds of penguins calling loudly to each other. Before heading back to the bus, I took a long look at the night sky, which was as dark as it could be from the southernmost point of land in the area. Not only did I get to see the Southern Cross again but also got an amazing view of the Milky Way. It already seemed late so it was fortunate that my fellow passengers got back on the bus on time. Even though we were right on schedule when Vicky got us on the road, we next had to navigate through a lot of traffic (I think there was only one way off the island) to reach M420 again. Using that road and M1, we made it back to Melbourne by 2045. Vicky dropped us off at the Immigration Museum at 2100 and I started walking back to my hotel. Along the way, I passed a bar I’d been reading about ("Ponyfish Island") that was located under a bridge in the middle of the Yarra. I got a beer there and relaxed in the cool air, enjoying the city skyline. Back in my hotel by 2145, I spent the rest of the night reading (so I could finish a digital book before it was due at the library) and went to bed at 2230. It was another great day of sampling the best of Melbourne!
