Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Day 10: freebies

Well my sore throat is worse today & I feel guilty sleeping in too long. I've got to find a chemist (pharmacy) & get some things with zinc & vit C.

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.

5 comments:

  1. 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 :-(

    You 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'

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  2. 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...

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  3. Feed the flashing tourists to the river rats!!!
    arrrr!
    Popster

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  4. BTW
    Todays Captcha word was " couserse "
    Just thought you should know.
    P

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  5. 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 ;-)

    I don't see any reason for Phillip Island if you are going to KI. ;-)

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