Penguin Parade...long entry sorry

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I was very excited to get up for 11am to be taken to Philip Island on my last full day in Australia. Lee, our tour guide was lovely and very chatty. It took him over an hour to collect him then we were on our way. On the way we stopped at Mura Wildlife Park, a center for injured, stray etc animals. We went straight to the wombats, fat brown badgers but very cute! We patted Molly when all she wanted to do was sleep! Me and Skinny had our photo taken with a koala but as Victoria have the biggest in Australia it is illegal to touch them. We had already had our photo taken with one in Australia zoo. We saw a rat being fed to a Tazmanian Devil and fed Wallabies, now i know the difference between them and kangeroos. The dingos were gorgeous, not skinny like in Fraser Island, so I had to touch one, these ones were quite tame. I then went to feed the sheep, goats and alpakas (which are just like llamas) The goats were fine, no one would go near the alpakas because to be able to bend their neck far enough they had to leap with there head coming our way! I fed them anyway while others were screaming! A sheep came over and I had to feed that too, so I offered some food in the tub, it ripped the tub out of my hand and chucked it everywhere! Cheaky. I was also the only one that fed an emu (with someone else's food). I pecked at my hand with extra speed! Lee congratulated me!! The highlight of the park was next - the kangeroos. As we walked through I was close to a Joey boucing beside its mother. It then dove into the mothers pouch and the pouch looked really thin and huge, it was strange to see! After a while with the kangeroos we drove onto Philip Island over a small bridge. At a southern bay we did a 20min walk, sadly we saw dead penguins, fish and birds, but that is natural here and were warned. Dinner was at 4.30 so we had time to get to the Penguin Parade at sunset. Photography here was not allowed as the flash damages their eyesite. There were over 4000 people waiting for the penguins but we sat away from them with just other 150 people. Once the seagull had gone in the water appeared a group of penguins! They have to wait for the seagulls to leave as these penguins are so small they eat them. The penguins come onto land, stand around thinking were they will go and walk beside the boardwalk to get into their burrows. As I was walking up the boardwalk someone took a picture - with a flash, i got so angry! It was great to see them up close, and here their call. The 4000 people saw 3 penguins, we saw hundreds!

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