Its been a mostly lazy & somewhat boring day today. Went shopping with Amy & DID get some vitamins & a warm sweatshirt. Had a two teas & a coffee, one busicit (cookie) & snacky beakfast/lunch foods - just walked around & sat at cafes all day. It was good tho; I needed a lazy day.
Met up with our friends Sarah (German) & Erich (Swiss) & sneaked them into our hostels free BBQ, which ended up being pretty gross burgers & sausages on white bread - but hey, it was free. We won 2 pitchers of beer too, so that was good. we had fun with my camera's time lapse video setting & I taught them shakey-face. :)
Then we'd been talking about Phillip Island - where you can see fairy penguins, the smallest in the world, but it costs over $100 to get there - when our new friend Wilhelmina (Dutch) said she knows someone who saw them right here in St. Kilda. She called him for details & we set off.
I didn't actually think we'd see them; I mean, I was hopeful but we weren't exactly sure where we were going. Walked down to the St. Kilda pier (at the end of Fitzroy St., if you're ever here) & there were only a handful of people wandering about so we thought oh well. But we kept on. Got down to the end of the pier...
Oh my goodness - penguins everywhere. We heard their calls from inbetween the rocks & watched their short-legged hops from peak to peak. They're so tiny & loveable; about the size of a chiuauah but much cuter. I watched one waddle around the cliff as various cries called for him, resounding off the rocks, somewhat plaintitively, somewhat sounding like a squeezy toy's raspy inhale & high-pitched exhale. I rooted for him as he searched the crevicies, got into a fight with another, territorial, penguin (whose gang loudly cheered him on from the safety of the rocks), and fell beneath the pier in search of his family. Aint gonna lie, I sent up a little prayer that he'd find his way home once he'd dissappeared from my view. It was amazing to see them in the wild; They were so tiny & cute & loud. I couldn't get any pictures bc signs said flashes disoriented them (tho some people stil did it - that upset me). But I hope to never forget it. It was amazing.
We also saw a giant river rat - as big as the penguins - but he wasn't half as cute. ;) Walked back to the hostel & went to bed with visions of tiny penguins dancing in our heads. Contented sigh.
Today I'm so happy & grateful for :
~ tiny penguins
~ wonderful new friends
~ a warm sweatshirt
~ vitamin C, zinc & throat lozenges
~ taking a chance
Xo! n.
Posts
The poor little penguins get startled by bright white lights such as camera flashes, and then become easily susceptible to predators as they can't see them or escape :-(
ReplyDeleteYou should have flashed your camera in those nasty tourists' eyes and then thrown them in the water with the sharks to see how they like it ;-)
Keep on enjoying, and see you soon,
Ron aka 'The Scot'
I like the way you think, Ron! Hope your throat starts feeling better soon! Free 99 is awesome! Glad you had one of those kinda relaxing-ish days...
ReplyDeleteFeed the flashing tourists to the river rats!!!
ReplyDeletearrrr!
Popster
BTW
ReplyDeleteTodays Captcha word was " couserse "
Just thought you should know.
P
If you are going to Kangaroo Island you'll see heaps there too and the tour guide has a infared light which they are colour blind to red so it doesn't hurt their eyes like white lights. Then you can see everything ;-)
ReplyDeleteI don't see any reason for Phillip Island if you are going to KI. ;-)