Phillip Island

This comes second only to Great Ocean Road trip. Yesterday Jai bought a new camera. I was happy to choose the model for him. And to do the honours of using the camera almost full-time today.

Mainly there were four spots, each equally awesome.

1) The park where we fed animals, mostly kangaroos, and wallabies, koalas, a few emus, an alpaca, a pony and a ram (the last of which refused to eat food from the same hand that had been used to feed a different animal). We saw some dingos, Tassie devils, peacocks, cockatoos and similar birds and a croc as well. There were roos of all sizes and colours. Here we met Aussie and Desi (pic below, nomenclature - Kartik). We came out of the park, our hands wet with animal saliva.

The bridge, the sole connection between mainland Australia and Phillip Island.

2) The next was Cape Woolamai Beach to the south-west of Phillip Island. I was extremely thrilled here to see the breaking of the waves. Seeing the huge waves develop metres from you and then rushing on to the beach is just breathtaking. Here we saw a lot of surfers, but only professionals were allowed here. Here Piyush claimed that although he might be afraid of animals, he was brave enough with water. However, when a wave broke 2-3 feet from him, it swept off all his confidence as well, as he cried out and ran in full strides as if his life depended on it.

We passed a MotoGP circuit on the way.

3) The Nobbies: Here we saw the coast in a different form. Rugged, specially made for shipwrecks it seemed. We saw blowholes. This region definitely had volcanic origins. The rock formations were suggestive of it. The flora, consisting of was also characteristic of this place.

4) The Penguin Parade. There were galleries made where we waited for the daily natural phenomenon, that has been taking place for millenia. Pingus retiring to their home at the end of the day. They are pretty safe in the sea all day long, if leopard seals are not around. But the coast is where all the danger lay. Many predators, both preying birds and some shrewd reptiles pose formidable threats to these flightless birds. Alone, they rarely stand a chance of making it back, but in groups their chances of survival increases probablistically. As they swim close to land they make 'huck' to call in their mates. Together they make a raft and then are floated on to the land by waves. Here they wait for a while to check if the coast is clear. If they don't think so, they return to the water for some more time. Otherwise they scurry through the open expanse of sand and after crossing it, they rest for a while, before making their way to their nests which are mostly holes in the ground.

Here, under the protection of the Australian government, the pingus are quite safe. Even we are not assured that much safety. By the way, photography was prohibited here. The picture below is from the internet.

These penguins were small, about 1 feet tall, and we followed them to their holes, amused at their way of walking, as if carrying the weight of the world, trying to keep balance with their flaps. Somehow I was reminded of Sukumar ray's 'kumropotash'