Koalas, Wallabies and Dingos, oh my

Oh yah, and the wombats, tasmanian devils, platypus, birds of prey and penguins deserve special mention too ...

As you may have seen on Lynn's blog, we had our first visitor ... Lynn's high school friend and jazz pianist / singer / songwriter / etc Brenda.

So ... tourists flock to Phillip Island to watch the Penguin parade. It's rather surreal. A few hundred humans sit around in stadium seating with lights on the beach to watch short penguins (just over a foot tall) gather themselves and march in big groups (say 20-50) along the beach and into nests that they've dug on land. In possibly the worst possible weather conditions for the island (5 degrees and rainy), there was still a solid turnout of tourists. Strangely enough, we paid an extra $10 ($27 altogether) to get an even closer look ... though we had a much smaller group of people (tourists here are generally obnoxious) and it was well worth the extra money.

The next day, we made our way through the Yarra Valley to the town of Healesville ... to visit the Wildlife Sanctuary, which includes the newly built Platypusary.

Here are some shots from either Philip Island or the Healesville Sanctuary ...

The Knobbies:


The south coast of Philip Island:


The funky looking trees in the town of Cowes on the island:


A penguin under the boardwalk:


A Tasmanian devil:


A wombat:


A wallaby, not to be confused with a kangaroo:


A postcard-quality shot of a koala:


Cheers!