All creatures great and small...

Another epic day according to the children, possibly the best yet!! It began, earlyish, with a run round the neighbourhood for Nush and some games for the kids and Granny and Popps. It was only about 14 degrees and drizzly when we woke up so not really hot enough for a swim. In fact, we learnt that the temperature had been hotter in London in the daytime which was a little disappointing!! Here's a picture of the front of where we're staying:

And here's Louis with Granny and Popps after a round of "Pointless" ( Abi is at the table behind, writing her journal.) 

Around midday we set off in the car for another adventure. Our destination: Philip Island, our mission: find Penguins and Koalas. We dropped our bags at the apartment we would be staying in (cousin Ra's partner Andrew's parents have a place down near the sea), had a quick lunch then headed in-land to see some animals.

In the wildlife reserve it was fairly easy to spot koalas from the raised pathways amongst the trees. Here is Josh looking for koalas:

Here is a gratuitous picture of Ra and Andrew. We love spending time with them:

Koalas spend about 20 hours a day sleeping and because of the way their paws are constructed, it is easier than it looks for them to balance in the trees whilst unconscious. They survive on a diet of eucalyptus leaves but they don't get sufficient energy from this food source so they are too tired to do anything much more than sleep (and poo - the kids claim they saw evidence of this firsthand) and eat. Here's my favourite koala of the day. We've named her Kylie:

On our way round the park we spotted a few wallabies. They look a bit like small kangaroos and they hop really really fast. 

Louis also spotted some galahs (these are colourful birds) and a really cute echidna.

Here's the crew:

We had fish and chips (again!!) from a local fish and chippery, then put on all the clothes we'd brought with us- including hats and scarves and jumpers - so we could go and wait for the penguins to come in from the sea. 

We sat on tiered seating on the beach and as the sun went down it became colder and windier. Around 850pm we spotted the first raft of Penguins coming in to shore. They were blue and white and are the smallest type of penguins in the world. They were so so cute and looked really funny as they waddled across the sand. When we were so cold we couldn't sit outside any longer, we headed up to the boardwalk, a raised walkway, from which we could see the penguins virtually next to us. They were everywhere, looking for their families and often getting lost. Their calls were very loud and screeching! We spotted a couple of chicks - half fluff and half penguin suit - they won the prize for cutest creatures! 

We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the Penguins because it could disturb their journey across the beach but you can check out a selection of photos here: http://www.penguins.org.au/photo-gallery/  

Here are Scott and Charlene getting ready to see penguins:

Before we left the car park staff asked us to check under the car for escapee penguins. We spotted one metres away from our car!! The kids were sad we couldn't  take them all home with us.