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Published: November 25th 2022
1. Pyramid Rock Coast
went straight to the coast as the sun was out this morningPretty sure I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow last night! We really needed a good nights sleep after the long day yesterday……. so it was a slightly unpleasant surprise to be woken up by a commotion outside at 4:30am. It sounded like a fox/cat fight with lots of crashing and banging on our terrace. In the end we felt the need to investigate, opened the curtain to see the branch of the tree overhanging the decking bending down, I switched on the light to see a possum staring back at me! They’re much bigger than they looked when they were squished on the road!
There were two in the tree outside so they must’ve been fighting, whatever they were up to it woke us both up! Fortunately after they’d been spotted they wandered off so we managed to get back to sleep for another couple of hours.
We had lots we wanted to fit in today so we set off after breakfast to visit the pyramid rock first. It was a nice enough walk and it was indeed shaped like a pyramid, but not much to see really.
After that we went to find the
2. The Pyramid Rock
Walked out to see the Pyramid Rock, well I suppose it was sort of Pyramid shaped. Forrest Caves which we’d spotted on a sign as we explored the Island yesterday, this was slightly off the beaten track! To get to them you had to scale the dunes on the wooden staircase they’d built, it was quite a way up, only to have to go down even further on the other side onto the beach, then walk along 300m to the rocky area where the caves had been carved out by the sea. The beach was scattered with cuttlefish, just like the ones you buy to put in bird cages, but they were just laying on the beach! It was a lovely stroll along and the rocky caves at the end were impressive, especially when a larger wave rolled in the produced a lot of spray.
It was coming up to midday by this time, which was perfectly timed to venture just off the Island to see the pelicans being fed at San Remo. This is a tradition that’s been going on for many years, the fishermen fed the pelicans with the fish scraps and they now do the same every day – the pelicans seem to be able to tell the time as they always
3. A Wind Sculpture
Spotted this on the way to our next stop, was more impressive when you could see the spinners in action arrive at midday for their snack. It was great to see these massive birds so close up, they are incredible to look at and knowing they are wild birds there of their own free will makes it even better.
After stopping off back at our digs for some lunch, we drove over the road (literally!) to visit the Phillip Island Wildlife Park. We saw so many things here and took LOADS of photo’s. Highlights were the wombat, the koala’s and feeding the cute little red wallaby’s (you get one bag of food each). The lowlight (for me anyway) was being attacked by emu’s! They look evil, and as far as I’m concerned, they are evil! Roy found it highly amusing though. I was especially grateful for his intervention when one charged over, looked like it was going to peck my eye’s out, then snatched the bag of food out of my hand. His valuable contribution to the situation was calling out from a safe distance “you can’t just give the bag to them”. GIVE it to them!!!! Are you serious! The devil bird just ripped it out of my hand! He wasn’t very helpful getting the now almost empty
4. Forrest Caves Beach
Found the Forrest Caves, was a big climb up and over the dunes bag back either….
We spent a good couple of hours here and it’s a place I’d definitely recommend (just maybe don’t go into the emu area!)
Our final stop for our daytime outing was the Nobbies and Seal Rock (although we couldn’t see any seals!). There’s a long stretch of wooden boardwalk here with a big warning about their ‘shy snakes’ – copperheads (highly venomous/very dangerous) but apparently, you’re ‘unlikely’ to be bitten if you stay on the path! There were so many seagulls here, along with greater crested turns and our now becoming as common as seeing pigeons – cape barren geese. The views were amazing and the alternative road back out had a stop off viewpoint where you could watch the water crashing over the rocks, it was mesmerising. We also saw some wild wallaby’s as we drove out which is even better than seeing them in the park.
By this time we were most definitely underdressed in our shorts and t-shirts. The sun had long since gone behind endless clouds and without it, it was quite cold. Also, everyone else was wearing jeans and puffer jackets so we headed back to our little villa
5. Forrest Caves
Was impressive to see the waves breaking through the 'caves' to put some layers on ready for the penguin parade!
Dressed in more layers, we got to the penguins just after 7pm. After a wander around the main building, we ventured down to the viewing area’s - we’d opted to stick to the basic ‘general viewing’ area rather than pay extra from premium. There wasn’t many people in the bit we were directed to, so we had great seats so settled in on the cold hard seats covering all exposed flesh after spotting a dreaded sand fly….
They predicted an 8:30pm arrival, but the penguins didn’t start emerging until about 10mins after that. It was really exciting spotting the little groups appearing in the waves. After a few false starts where they went running back in the water (normal apparently) they started the journey up the beach, waddling along flashing their little white bellies which made them easier to spot in the darkness!
After about 20mins of that we headed back up to the wooden boardwalks to see them returning to their nests. All the baby penguins had emerged now and were desperately seeking their parents with a food delivery for them! It was amazing to see
6. Pelicans on the beach
Dropped in to see the Pelicans on the beach at San Remo the penguins trudging up steep hills, and walking huge distances for their tiny size, how on earth do they find their way back to the same nest each time!?!
We were heading back to the car park, when we spotted a small rodent type creature running across the pavement in front of us, it was a bandicoot! So we’ve seen a vast array of wildlife tonight!
Speaking of wildlife, we pulled into the parking spot by our villa and spotted not one, but two possums. One on the grass outside, and one in the tree directly above the steps to our front door! We had to run under it to avoid getting pooped on, they seem to do this a lot, it’s all over the decking again (we had to sweep it all off this morning!)
Fingers crossed they go somewhere else to fight tonight, we could do with an uninterrupted night of sleep!
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