We didn’t pack up until 9:30am. After we got everything in the car, we walked out onto the beach just beyond our site. It was a really beautiful beach, with perfect waves for beginner surfers and lots of happy dogs and happy people running around on the sand. I wished we could have lingered and maybe even donned our swimsuits and relaxed on the beach, but we had to check out by 10am.
I knew that the famous Bells Beach was just down the road, however, so I decided we should check it out. Well, it turned out there was a surfing competition going on there, the Rip Curl Pro! Okay, so it was just the preliminary rounds so it wasn’t yet the best of the best but the up side to that was we got in for free and had hardly any competition for seating. We explored a few different viewpoints and I was able to get quite a big of footage of the surfers doing their thing.
Although we live in Hawaii, I had actually never been to a surf competition. Well, technically, I had, but I had not been able to see a thing because it was so crowded and the surfers were so far out. So, I learned a little bit about how it goes down. The surfers went out in predetermined groups to compete against each other and had to obtain the highest score – each ride on a wave was given a score – within a certain time limit, usually about twenty minutes. Not only was there pressure from the scores but from the time as well because the waves would not always cooperate. Sometimes, surfers would be sitting there with nothing but small swells coming in and all the while the clock is ticking. So much pressure!
Anyway, it was a real treat and a fun diversion. We like the unexpected and unplanned on our trips, well, as long as they are fun. An unexpected canceled flight would not be fun, I suppose, and I wouldn’t much enjoy an unexpected broken arm. But an unplanned surfing competition at the world famous Bells Beach is okay by me!
We moved on from there and began our three-hour drive to Phillip Island, passing through Melbourne along the way. Melbourne looks like a very big bustling city! It’s too bad we won’t be spending time in it but we will be in Brisbane soon and I am excited for that.
We arrived at Phillip Island around 3:00pm and went straight to the end of the island (it’s not very long, maybe only 10 miles across) to where the penguin parade and the Nobbies are. Seeing as the penguin show would not begin until sunset, about 6pm here, we checked out this place called the Nobbies first. Really, it’s just a few large rocks out beyond the shore, similar to the Great Ocean Road views but not quite as grand. What I actually liked more than anything were the hills there by the beach. The hills were a mixture of pink and green and I really liked the blend. It reminded me of walking through an Impressionistic painting or something.
After the Nobbies we went nextdoor to the Penguin Parade. Now the parade was pretty hyped up, with a view of the fairy penguins, the smallest penguin species standing only a foot tall, as they waddle across the beach to their burrows every night. Frankly, however, I felt it was way overpriced at about $22 per person and NO PHOTOS allowed. But Nick had wanted to do it so we fit it in and I am so so glad we did!
After a very long wait for the show, all spent shopping in the visitor center, learning about the penguins through their very informative displays, standing in line to get out on the boardwalk, and sitting at an amphitheater watching the sun set for an hour (and the red moon rise, which was absolutely mesmerizing but sorry, no photos!), we finally spotted the little penguins floating in groups toward the shore.
Luckily, both Nick and I had binoculars so we could see the swarms of penguins in the ocean. It was kind of like looking at a group of crows except seeing them floating on the water instead of the sky. They were hesitant to come to the beach until it got a bit darker, though, so we waited until about 6:20pm. Then we had our first brave souls trek across the beach! We laughed how they tried to stay in large groups, how they stopped at large rocks on the beach for quick breaks, and how they lifted their tiny wings up – maybe the size of a small comb – when they ran.
Now, if this is all we had seen , which is what had been advertising so it was what I expected, I may have still argued the price was over the top, as cute and entertaining as it was. But the best was yet to come!
After we saw three or four groups emerge from the water and scamper across the beach, we left the amphitheater and went to the lit boardwalks scattered all around the dunes behind the beach. Again, I was expecting to see maybe one or two penguins, probably far away, from the boardwalks. Instead, we saw
loads of them and some of them were very up close. I was, in fact, very perplexed that they behaved so normally despite all the noise and movement from us humans all around on the boardwalks!
We saw one little guy very close up, preening himself and stretching his little wings out. We saw two in the distance and it appeared they were getting busy, either that or they fight with their butts. We saw a bunch more sitting by their burrows just minding their own business. And the best part was the group we saw waddle right below us by the boardwalk edge. They just kept traveling all along this little path that ran right next to the boardwalk so we followed them a while and we literally could have reached out and grabbed one, and something about their size, being about as big as a Nerf ball, really makes that tempting! They were just made to fit into your hands, the cute little buggers!
So, I thoroughly enjoyed the close interaction at the boardwalk and was especially intrigued by the sounds they made! There was such a variety, some sounds of contentment and others fighting and others, well, getting busy. The sound I heard the most reminded me of blowing a broken whistle, or a light snore. Sometimes they sounded like a little baby cry and sometimes they sounded like crickets or frogs!
Oh, let me tell you, I was so so tempted to get my camera out and at least try to sneak a video or maybe just one picture but those workers were like hawks and I there was no way, with all the warnings they gave, that I could pull the ignorance card if I got caught. So, you will just have to take my word for it how fun and cool the experience was.
So I left feeling so pleasantly surprised at my experience – yay for more surprises – and we drove to the other end of the island where we had a campsite reserved. We ate cold soup again and I grudgingly set up the tent for the last time in a while. Although we had a warm night at the campsite, for once, I was looking forward to a bed the next night!
I will say, however, that this leg of the trip along the Great Ocean Road was a very neat experience and I am so happy for the cool things we saw, the vegetation and the wildlife!
Pictures:
So first we have our beach at Torquay with a few surfers. Then we move on to the Nobbies with their fun mix of green and pink. We also have Nick with the penguin displays so you can see how small they are. And lastly you have the only penguins I could get, nesting in the dunes and seen from a box in the visitor center.
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