Koalas and penguins

I arrived in Melbourne last night. From the desert back into the big city. I'm currently doing time zone hopping. The day was 1.5 hours shorter...

Last night I took a look at what was actually on the program today. I just knew that another trip was planned today, but to be honest, I wasn't sure what exactly - something with penguins... Upon further research, I realized that this trip lasts 12 hours, from midday to almost midnight. Phew, I actually didn't really feel like it. But the trip is booked and then it will go ahead.

I was picked up directly in front of the hotel and on the way I found out exactly what was being done.

1. A stop at the famous Brighton Bathing Boxes (never heard of them)

2. A visit to the wildlife park (this will probably be my second wildlife park after Brisbane)

3. Watch penguins

So off we went to the famous bathing boxes. These are 82 small wooden houses that stand on a beach in Brighton. These boxes were originally built so that women and men didn't have to change on the beach. You can only buy such a box if you live in Brighton and have the appropriate change. A few years ago a box sold for over $200,000. You can't actually do anything with it, you can't live in it, cook, sleep... You can only store your beach gear in it. By the way, the boxes are famous because each box has a different color or material - it looks great...

In the wildlife park you could once again feed kangaroos and pet koalas. I had already fed kangaroos, so I wanted to take the chance and pet a koala. There are actually people who take a selfie with the koala, basically face to face 🙄. I didn't take a selfie - I don't like taking one anyway. But the koala feels sooooooo incredibly fluffy, so soft and smells wonderfully of eucalyptus. I would really like to take that with me!!!

In the late afternoon we went to the penguin parade on Philipp Island.

My idea of a penguin parade was this: a few people stand on the beach and watch the penguins come out of the water and waddle to their nesting places.

The reality was this: There were hundreds of cars and a few coaches in a parking lot. You were ushered through a large house, had to show your ticket at barriers and were then allowed to walk into the dunes over wooden walkways and bridges. You were definitely not alone on this piece. The whole thing had the atmosphere as if you were on the way to a big concert 😀. And it continued like a concert. When we arrived at the beach, there were huge stands set up with floodlights and a large speakers' house in between. It all just looked so surreal. Everyone had to sit in the stands. Photography and filming was strictly forbidden after dusk as the penguins were irritated by lightning and was also monitored by the rangers in the stands.

So you sit in the stands with lots of other people and look excitedly at the sea. The whole thing seems very crazy...

Shortly before 8.30 p.m. the first penguins actually came waddling out of the sea. These are little penguins, the smallest penguins in the world - just 30cm tall and weighing 1kg and they have shimmering blue fur. The evening before, over 1,500 penguins came back. They then wobble across the beach and up the sand dunes and then run to their nesting sites. There is a much-worn path - the Penguin Highway. Right next to it is the “highway” for visitors. And so we were able to observe the little penguins very closely on the way back to the bus. They look very, very cute, the way they wiggle their bottoms around while they run.

By the way, the penguins always go into the sea in the morning and come back the next evening. Since penguins go into the sea every day, some come back every evening. This means that this event takes place every evening. There were probably over 500 spectators that evening...🤷🏼‍♀️