Penguins!!

[aggienaut]

   Picking up the recent travel adventures where I left off in Wilson's Prom, this time from the comfort of my computer at home.

Saturday, February 17th - From the beautiful and lush Wilson's Prom peninsula we headed back up through beautiful countryside which reminded us of the Point Reyes area of the California coast north of San Francisco (how many readers are actually familiar with that area?). Throughout the trip we were constantly remarking to eachother about what part of America a given place reminded us of. I think we had one for Coronet Bay where we had stayed that night but I already forget.
   At one point headed up the coast we were driving in an area where the beach was just a hundred meters from the road but obscured by a big natural berm, probably a sand dune pushed up by natural processes. At one point there's gap in the dunes and the breaking waves can be seen through a railroad trestle that connects the top of the berm. We all declared "it's trestles!" referencing a famous surf beach near home in Southern California that similarly appears from the highway through a trestle ... and I have somehow never been to despite spending most of my life near it!

   We proceeded onto Philip Island, which is connected to the mainland by a very short (640m) bridge. The island itself seemed to have a particularly dense concentration of little towns. We proceeded to the town of Cowes (pronounced "cows") on the north side for dinner before penguin viewing. It was a very cute little town with elegant trees lining the main street into town. Many restaurants there. Because penguin viewing is the main draw of the island and starts at sunset, Cowes must have a really unusually high demand for dinner compared to anywhere else. Had dinner at an Italian place. No kookaburras stole any of my parents food on this occasion.

   And then it was penguin time!! Fortunately dad had ordered tickets online a few days before. If you plan to come see the penguins it appears you need to buy your tickets a few days beforehand. Around 7:30ish we were part of the long parade of cars entering the penguin viewing park on the west end of the island. Once we entered the facility one travels down raised boardwalks to the beach. Before we even got there we saw an echidna (my parents' first) (the Australian porcupine for those not familiar with Australian fauna) in the grass off the boardwalk, and a swamp wallaby. Later we also saw a possum. It had not occurred to me that we could knock so many things off my parents to-see list here at once!
   On the beach they had stadium style concrete bleachers facing the waves! A ranger addressed the gathering seated crowd with the rules (no photos after dark!) and general explanations, and also it turned out she was aboriginal, though in the fading light from where we were seated we could barely make out any distinguishing features of her. Anyway, it turns out the little penguin, the world's smallest penguin species, always returns to the same beaches where they have their nests. They may come back nightly, or go out for nearly a month and travel a hundred or more miles before returning to exactly the right spot. They used to nest all over not only Phillip Island but much of the south coast of Australia, but many of their nesting sites have been completely disrupted by human development (I hear you can even find sad little penguins trying to nest right in the downtown waterfront of Melbourne).
   The first penguin emerged around 8:50 if I recall correctly, followed by just a handful over the next fifteen minutes, after which point the majority of viewers started to get up and leave. We stayed longer and more penguins began to emerge but not quite the overwhelming onslaught we had expected (promotional material proclaims 30,000 penguins come out a night! ... maybe on the whole coast?), though people watching off to the side of the bleachers told us they were coming out in groups of 20 way off in the dark (the bleachers of course had floodlights illuminating the beach in front). When we finally left the bleachers we found that one could see lots of little penguins scurrying up the paths among the grassy dunes from the boardwalk. Couldn't get a picture since it was verboten but the penguins were very cute.



(okay my second google map won't imbed for some reason but if you want to see it, this is the map that should be here)

Sunday, February 18th - Sunday we headed to a nearby point sticking out into West Port Bay, from which you get a good view of the broad bay and big island in the middle. I really want to visit the island. One can go hiking on it and I am now determined to do so. Then we headed back down to the beach we had called Trestles, poked around the tidepools there (it was a nice sunny day) dad was totally about to go swimming until we saw this sign. From there we bounced back to Cowes and had lunch at the delightfully named Mad Cowes Cafe. Then went to see the penguin facility by daylight (its free admission during the day) but there really wasn't terribly much to see during the day. Penguins and penguin chicks are in their burrows but the best you can manage is a vague peek at one that's peeking out at you (so don't think you can be cheap and come when it's free instead of paying for admission in the evening! not comparable!)
   We also went for a nice walk along the rugged cliffs at the very furthest west end of the island, at a centre called "The Nobbies" that I think is mainly an education center for kids about Antarctic stuff. We didn't really spend any time in the centre though. Waves were crashing impressively against the outlying rocks (the nobbies themselves I suppose) here.
   Also of note, this whole Western quarter of the island was once a commercial housing development called "Summerlands," but conservation groups apparently bought out the development company as well as every property that had already been sold, and demolished any buildings which had already been built, to restore the area to natural habitat. Good on ya guys.

   By now we were running low on time for our evening ferry departure for Tasmania, so we hoofed it back to Melbourne. We observed that Melbourne definitely has oozed further east than west. If it had oozed as far on the west side it would practically be connected to Geelong. Basically once we were past the swamps immediately north of Western Bay we were driving through city the rest of the way. The ferry dock was on the waterfront closest to downtown, in what appeared to be an older part of town. On one side of the pier was I believe the Queen Mary II, which was only a little bigger really than the big red and white Spirit of Tasmania II.

   Aaand the ferry ride sounds like the beginning of a whole new entry! I promise Tasmania will be more interesting than this bouncing around an obscure corner of Victoria entry. ;)

Comments

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

which reminded us of the Point Reyes area of the California coast north of San Francisco (how many readers are actually familiar with that area?)

I've driven the Big Sur area (SFO-SLO) but not the coast north of the city. I have a goal to drive SFO-PHX and see that part of the coast, particularly Humboldt County/Eureka because part of my novel project is set there.

If you're talking about the Cunard liner RMS Queen Mary 2 she's quite a bit bigger than the Spirit of Tasmania 2 but that's not always easy to judge especially from a distance. (/shipnerd)

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hmmm in re the comparative sizes of the ships, I looked at pictures and it is indeed the genuine Queen Mary II, but my perspective seeing them both stern-on with the Spirit of Tasmania being a lot closer probably made it difficult o really compare.

But I have a question for a shipnerd, the P&O Line cruiseliner I mentioned in the previous entry, is it likely the same one I saw on Tasmania's south coast about a week later or are P&O cruise ships a dime a dozen?


And in re your proposed SFO-PHX drive ... PHX is Phoenix, Arizona and would take you the opposite way. I assume you mean PDX as in Portland? Its a great drive. One _could_ zip right up the five but DON'T DO IT. If you have time, do the entire thing up the coast and detour to Point Reyes. If you want to shave off a little time you could go up the five as long as you turn coastward in time to get the redwoods because they're an absolute must. The southern coast of Oregon is really lovely too.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

It is really hard to judge, especially from a distance as you said. Because ships are all different shapes, the only apples-to-apples measurement is by cubic feet of interior space (referred to as GRT). The ferry is 29,000 vs the liner's 149,000 so you see how deceptive it can be.

The size of passenger ships, and ships in general, has exploded in the last 30-40 years. When QM2's predecessor QE2 entered service in 1969 she was, at 70,000 GRT, one of the largest passenger ships in the world. By the time she retired, she was about 80th. Likewise QM2 is now dwarfed by Royal Caribbean's largest behemoths which are 228,000 GRT (ten times the size of the Spirit of Tasmania). I always chuckle inwardly because RMS Titanic is most people's go-to when describing vessel sizes, but at 46,000 GRT she would be a bathtub toy compared to the modern ships to which she gets compared.

P&O have 4 or 5 ships dedicated to the Australia/NZ service plus a handful based in the UK, which might also make it to those parts during the year. It's entirely possible it was the same ship but I'd have to know the ports and the dates to be sure. Prompted by your inquiry, I looked at their web site and discovered that their parent Carnival have continued a pattern of dispatching older ships from their various brands to P&O Australia as they are replaced by newer/bigger ones in the US market.

A quick glance shows that Pacific Eden (formerly Holland-America's Statendam) was there on the 17th, and the Pacific Jewel (former Crown Princess) was there on the 2nd and the 23rd. She's easy to spot because she has a dome/bulge at the front of her superstructure that evokes the front of a 747. The much newer/larger Pacific Explorer (former Dawn Princess) was there on the 24th. Do you recall if the ships you saw had a dark or light hull? If you took any pictures I could probably tell you if it was the same ship or not.

You are right, I meant PDX, not PHX. And I would absolutely not take the 5. The goal is to see the coast the whole way, even if it took a week. I want to spend time in places like Humboldt and Eureka to learn about speech patterns, local favorite brands, and what it might be like to be a LGBT person there.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oh I hope you'll travelblog about your trip its a beautiful area.

The cruise ship I was the first time I couldn't read a name but I can tell you it looked like an absolutely identical design to the one I saw later, which was I believe the Pacific Jewel. just googled and confirmed that's what it looked like. Is she the only one that looks just like that?

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Did more digging. Their Pacific Dawn (formerly Princess' Regal Princess) is a very similar design to the Jewel, also with that dome which was designed by Renzo Piano.

Do you recall the dates and where you were when you saw the two ships? Their itineraries are posted on line; this should be easy enough to figure out.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

First, we saw it as we were crossing to Sorrento in Port Phillip Bay on Friday, February 16th, and then the second time (which again was definitely it, I saw the name on its tenders picking up passengers, unless I've wildly misremembered) at Port Arthur February 23rd.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

Pacific Jewel departed Hobart at 23:00 on the 14th, was at sea on the 15th, and arrived in Melbourne on the 16th. She would have had to steam right by Sorrento by the looks of it on the map. And she was indeed in Port Arthur on the 23rd.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hmm would she have left Melbourne that same day? Seemed like she was outbound when I saw her.

[nattalie-m.livejournal.com]

It is understandable that they do not allow taking pictures of the penguins, but you didn't take any photo at all of the place you went? :(
In my country we have penguins but I've never been to look at them.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Haha thanks for putting the pressure on me! I added pictures to this and the other entries and links in the text to more pictures (unfortunately google photos is easy to upload to but doesn't allow embedding, so I think I'm embedding fewer pictures now that that requires downloading from google photos and re uploading to flickr. so much work just to stick a picture in!)

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised nobody has made a third-party photo migration tool much like they have for archiving LJ posts.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Google is probably the best at making it impossible if they don't want it to be a thing. I can see how they wouldn't want people hosting media for commerical websites on their free servers and driving up bandwidth but surely they could find a way to make it convenient for those of us woh are just doing small scale sharing, or, yeah, migrating them to a site that google doesn't see as competition. I wish google had bought flickr, yahoo has done its best to run it into the ground.

[wantedonvoyage.livejournal.com]

I wish Google had bought Flickr , too, although I am pretty happy with my paid membership. I use it mainly to post things to display here, since it seems like their internal traffic has tanked.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I kept up my paid membership even though I think there's very little difference between paid and unpaid service there now? I liked the stats I was able to see with paid membership. Somehow payment lapsed, probably I replaced the card the payments were coming off of, and haven't bothered to sort it out again since there is no difference.

And yeah I pretty much use it for hosting now to post here too.

[nattalie-m.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing!!! Those places seems so nice!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

(:

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I have never seen a Little Penguin...they are so cute!
Too bad about no pictures but that's understandable with all those flashes most likely going off at once from people who don't have cameras with good low-light capabilities.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah apparently they're very sensative to BLUE light, which is why they could have the floodlights which presumably are tuned to an entirely inoffensive non-blue hue. And I can understand the total photography ban because if they just said "no flashed" at least half a dozen people every night would have an "oops" flash. As it is there were still one or two.

[aerodrome1.livejournal.com]

I do enjoy the travel entries!

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna try to bump the ones from this trip out quick before I start forgetting it all!

Also working on that travel writing contest entry and readin gthe other entries submitted to it really got me jazzed for writing. Yesterday at work I was antsy all day because I just wanted to come home and write!

[pundigrion.livejournal.com]

I've been to Point Reyes. Actually to Drakes Estero. I got crabs there....

In my boot.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Ehehehehe