Phillip Island: Friday

Gwen Josh Marguerite Chris (Gwen's brother) Diana and I went to Phillip Island for the weekend. Stopped on the way for fish and chips--the fish was barramundi, which is white and flaky and doesn't have a pronounced taste.

Checked in at the Surf and Circuit resort, which is a collection of two bedroom cottages. No view, but there's a pool (which I didn't use) and a shelter with a grill (which we did use, both nights). Once we stowed our stuff, we went to Kitty Miller Bay, a broad horseshoe shaped bay, a few hundred yards wide. You go down a set of stairs to get to the beach, which has sand and a lot of seaweed; the sides of the bay are mostly rocks. Josh, Gwen and Chris donned wetsuits and went snorkeling. If you go across the eastern headland, as I did, you can get to the remains of the merchant vessel Speke, which wrecked in 1904. There's not much left, just an iron bulkhead and some minor bits, but it's so close to the beach that you could walk to it at low tide.

At around 6pm we headed to the Parade of the Penguins. There's a section of shore where a lot of Little Penguins have made their burrows, and just after sunset they leave the water, waddle across the beach and up the slope to home. They're not especially concerned about humans; there were several of them who stood right next to the boardwalks we were using. The rangers said that each penguin has his own burrow but quite a few penguins seemed to have trouble remembering exactly where they lived. They'd stand in one spot for a while, then waddle a few feet one way, then head off in another direction, then come back.

Back to the cottage, where Josh grilled while I stood around and handed him plates and tongs and such.