Now, with a name like The Coffee Palace, you might think one would be able to get a cup of coffee. Well, alas, there was no coffee, and there was also no palace. Apparently some years ago this was indeed a coffee joint, but now it was a backpackers hostel, and only residents were allowed inside.
However, when I first arrived the doors had been open so I'd wandered in, but it was noisy and crowded and there was nowhere to sit. I asked someone who worked there where the actual meet-up point was, but he had never heard of the tour company nor did he know anything about this place being a meet-up point! There was no car park nor anywhere even a mini-bus (and at this point I wasn't sure a huge coach would not be pulling up) could park. Since I had oodles of time I wandered down the road to find a cash machine and a real coffee joint, but I only found the former. I then returned to the hostel, finding the door now shut and locked. Spent the next half hour standing in the late morning sun surrounded by smoking backpackers. At one point the guy who worked there came out; he had googled my tour company and actually rang them on my behalf. All was in order apart from the fact they were running about ten minutes late. When the mini-van arrived it parked way at the end of the street, and my guide, who was also the driver, did say this was a ridiculous pick-up point, unless, I guess, one was staying at the hostel.
We had a group of about twelve and once out of Melbourne we stopped for a picnic lunch by the sea. Not so glamorous... There was nowhere to sit and it was kind of stinky and we were surrounded by scavenging White-backed gulls and begging pelicans - really huge ones! Well, they were kind of glamourous:
I just love his cartoonish eyeball!
Our next stop was at a wildlife place where you can have your photo taken with a koala, dingo etc. It was a lot of money and they probably would have got the angle wrong so I passed. I was to see a lot of koalas in the wild in the coming days, but it was pretty exciting to see them close up for the first time. Most were dozing:
But not all:
There were also wallabies:
Waiting for a handout:
An albino:
And some dingoes:
A kookaburra. My pen pal in South Australia had one as a pet:
A pooped Tasmanian devil:
And finally, a couple of emus:
Now we drove onto the island, and made a couple of stops. You could pay a bit extra and go on a tour of a chocolate factory but I opted for a scenic walk along the shore.
More gulls:
Australian Magpie:
This shop was closed. Not that I needed to spend five bucks on a solar emotional poo thing.
I am not quite sure what it does with the solar power.
I guess it just grooves like these hula girls and koalas...
Flamingoes though... Now we're talking! I've never seen an umbrella like this. But it would have been a pain or impossible to take on the rest of my round the world...
Pretty watering cans all in a row...
We still had some time to kill before the penguin parade, which does not begin until it is dark. So we made one more stop along the colorful coast.
Here is a Little Penguin, or Blue Penguin, the same type that I saw in New Zealand, and the species that puts on the "Penguin Parade" when they all come out of the sea at sundown. They are the world's tiniest penguins, only 6 to 8 inches tall.
There also were a few wallabies about...
And a pair of fabulous Cape Barren Geese, found only in Australia:
The sun was slowly setting; the waves were crashing...
And here are two last photos of Little Penguins in and near their burrows. I must apologize, if you had scrolled down this far because you wanted to see photos or video of the penguin parade, you are out of luck. I came duly prepared with all my cameras, but learned that photography of any type, even without flash, was forbidden. It was disappointing but I completely understood. These little tiny guys come out of the sea and wait until there are at least 20 or 30 individuals together until they begin the long trek up a very steep hill to their burrows. There are thousands of penguins and the night I was there saw a record ten thousand or so, coming out over an hour. My guide advised us to wait to walk down the wooden planked path to the bleachers (holding hundreds of humans), until about 15 minutes had passed. Great advice - I actually had the path to myself, and was able to view about a dozen early arrivals scurrying up the hill. (And yes, I could have cheated there and then, but the lighting was not very good anyway in that area.)
Down at the bleachers I watched hundreds of penguins come out of the water and gather on the beach, and when the show was over, began the long trek back up the hill with the hoardes. There weren't enough officials about so I did quite a lot of policing - even people who weren't using flash or shining a flashlight at the poor little critters were using selfie sticks or pushing their phones inches away from them - and not many would listen to me... People are so horrible!
