Australia – Philipp Island

Our car is gone…! Was our first thought after leaving the hostel. And indeed, the parking space was empty, our campervan towed away for good; an unfortunate combination of free parking on the public holiday yesterday and not getting up in time to pay this morning. Well, nothing new for us, so instead of finding ourself a nice coffee place for a hearty brekkie we started walking to find the lot where our car has been taken. On the way I at least got a nice brekkie, undrinkable Espresso no 6, some more Graffities and finally our car to head of direction Philipp Island.

Verbunden mit dem Festland  über eine Brücke ist Philipp Island einfach zu erreichen und das hübsche Städtchen Cowes der Mittelpunkt der Insel.

Nachts tanzt hier sozusagen der Bär, d.h. nach 7 p. m. wird die Restaurantsuche zur Herausforderung und die Pubs schliessen dann um halb 9… Trotz seeeeehr bescheidener Wettervorhersage haben wir kühle aber sonnige Tage erwischt, but still way to cold for a drink on the Campground, well at least if there weren’t some friendly Aussis who were welcoming us on their fire.

Actually Philipp Island is famous fot the little penguins, especially the penguin parade. However, we’ve seen pretty much all wildlife with exception of penguins. Starting with one of my favorites at Noobies a Echidna, some Cape Arten Geese including chicks, Black Swans, Löffelvogel, Lorikeet, Superb Fairy Wren, Galahs, a Kakaduu, a Wallaby and a rabbit on our campground, some baby possums and of course koalas.

Geese

Between all the wildlife we’ve enjoyed the rough coast at Noobies.

A walk along swan lake with loads of birds.

Some lazy time at Smith Beach also included a walk to pyramid rock.

The red rock beach.

And finally my beloved boyfriend decided to attend the circus of the penguin parade. What shall I say, since there are currently hardly any tourists on the island, our Campground has never hosted more than three parties over the last days

and of the usually 70 tour busses a day none appeared. Therefore he thought if ever than now… BIG mistake, ok, the penguins are cute, but sitting for an hour in rows with hundert (at least not thousands like usually) others is just not my thing… The penguins are out for fishing during daytime, come ashore after sunset, cross the beach and waddle up the paths to their nests, to cute to be truth, but….. Having always some Asian tourists hanging over your shoulder… OK, done that, lesson learnt… Sorry, no picks here, blue light harms the penguins.

However, Philipp Island is defently worth a visit, but not to see the parade like all the day tourists do, but rather to stay for some days and enjoy the island. Bring a jacket, it might be windy…