2/12/2023 - Phillip Island - Viking Neptune dropped anchor off the coast of Phillip Island. At 6 pm, we boarded the tender and headed for shore where a bus picked us up and drove us to the Phillip Island Nature Parks to witness the Penguin Parade. About 700 of us. The entire process was handled extremely well. There was plenty of time to explore the center and we even got a close look at a former (now stuffed) resident penguin who died of natural causes. Then we walked along the boardwalk, seeing Wallabies, Cape Barren Geese, and some of the Little Penguins in/around their burrows. These penguins were moulting, a process that takes about 17 days, and so could not go to sea. They live off the food they've accumulated in their bellies prior to molting. At just after sunset, they began to arrive from the sea and made their way, in waddles, from the beach up to their burrows. There is safety in numbers, so they waited for their pals before making their way home. Over 1,000 came to shore that evening. Little Penguins, also known as Blue or Fairy Penguins, are about 13" tall and weigh about 3 lbs. We were back on board and asleep before midnight. I was able to take a couple of photos of the moulting penguins during daylight hours, but once the sun sets photos are not allowed because the blue light & flashes from cameras disorients and scares the penguins. So the waddle photo I have included was downloaded from the website.

2/13/2023 - Geelong - The next morning, we dropped anchor in the Geelong Inner Harbour, and, once again, made our way to shore on the tender. Instead of taking the train one hour up to Melbourne, where we visited for several days in 2016, we, instead, stayed in Geelong and took a long walk around Eastern Park. First, we walked along the waterfront looking at the many painted bollards, watching some kids dive into the very cold salt-water pool, and fighting off the flies. Then we walked up the hill and made our way to the Geelong Botanic Gardens. We also happened upon several trees full of Flying Foxes, one of the largest bats in the world. They can weigh up to 3 lbs with wingspans of up to 4' 11", but they wouldn't come close enough for us to actually weight and measure them. Then we found the Coles grocery store and loaded up on fresh bananas, a Whittaker's Blondie (white chocolate) bar, Bundaberg diet ginger beer, freshly baked cookies for Mike, and some very interesting crisps (potato chips) -- Honey Soy Chicken and Sweet Chili & Sour Cream. We had a great day wandering around this pretty little city -- and enjoyed being on our own and away from people for a while. A good 8-mile day.