Phillip Island

21st November

Took a trip out to Phillip Island - highlighted in the red & white dotted line:

It was quite a trek, a near 3 hour journey - Tram, train, bus, then Uber to the port where I only just made the ferry at 10.45.....the next sailing would have been after 2pm. 

The ferry was great - quite a small boat. The port on the island is called Cowes....like the Isle of Wight

The island was beautiful. My aim was to get to the Koala reserve, and I gave up on trying to find the bus and ordered another Uber. This worked out OK since the taxi driver was picking up other people later and I was able to sort out my return journey too.

The Koala reserve was really nice and there were probably around 12 - 15 koalas living there. 

They almost don't look real when you see them just sleeping up in the trees - some high up, just clinging on, swaying in the breeze.

They sleep for around 20 hours a day and move around mostly at night.

This one is named Emma and is 16 years old

This one is a male - he didn't tell me his name - LOL

Koala's need to eat 500g of eucalyptus leaves in a day, and are endangered due to their very specific habitat needs. 

What they eat in a day:

They have also been plagued with Chlamydia which damages their ability to breed.

There were Wallabies too and other wildlife - including snakes like the poisonous Copperhead

Mark, the taxi driver said he saw one the other day when he was taking some Chinese tourists to the reserve. They wanted to get out & take pictures........

.......in some ways I would love to see a snake but then, at the same time, I'm happy not too!

they are quite shy and mostly stay away from humans.....can't blame them! They say, if you see one, best stay still and it will usually slither away.

After the koala reserve I had a sunbathe on the beach waiting for the ferry. Melbourne is not that hot but with a sheltered spot, in the full sunshine, it was really warm. The sea was cold though.

It was near to sunset by the time I got back, and I decided to round the day off with more wildlife spotting.

I'm staying in an area called St. Kilda, which is quite near the beach and reminds me a bit of Brighton/Bournemouth. There is, in fact a place nearby called Brighton, of course.

On the way I spotted more Opeth fans - there was a concert that night

The St Kilda breakwater is home to a colony of about 1,400 little penguins, who return to their burrows at sunset each night after feeding in Port Phillip bay. You can see them come back from the end of St Kilda pier. If you are lucky enough to download a free ticket you can watch them from a viewing gallery, but I managed to see some from the end of the pier. A lot of people had gathered there.

They are called 'little penguins' as they are the smallest of the penguin species and are only about 30 cm in height