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Published: January 23rd 2007
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Hello,
I hope this entry finds you all well.
I am off to the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow (1/24) in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, but wanted to leave an update on my past travels before my flight. I will be taking plenty of pictures to upload, and in addition, I hope that I will be able to figure out how to post videos of my travels online too.
I caravanned with a group of students to Phillip Island (located in southeast Victoria about 2 hours from Melbourne) to watch the “Penguin Parade” this past weekend. The parade occurs each night at sundown as hundreds of Little Penguins (formerly known as Fairy Penguins—the smallest of the world’s 17 species of penguins—standing approximately 12-14 inches tall) leave the ocean and return to the shore for bedtime. While in the ocean, the penguins form into groups called “rafts” (for protection purposes—they look bigger to predators if they appear as one unit) and swim for the beach. Once arriving on the beach, the penguins fall into a somewhat single file line (again to look larger to predators—i.e. sea eagles, hawks) and begin navigating the sand until they reach their homes on the shrub
Penguin Poster
This is about as close to the penguins as the Park Rangers would allow you. covered hillside adjacent the beach. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the little guys, as all photography (especially flash photography at nighttime) is extremely prohibited due to the potential for causing penguin blindness. The park rangers are extremely serious and confiscated multiple cameras.
After watching the penguins make their way back to their homes, my group headed to our hostel in the city of Cowes to get the night started off with a little game I like to call “Edward 40-hands.” Good time as usual . . .
The next morning, I threw on my swim trunks and headed to the Western Port Beach in Cowes. I was planning on honing my surfing skills, as the beach is also a very popular destination for surfers, but to my surprise the beach was closed . . . There were yellow “NO SWIMMING” buoys littered all over the surf. Just so happens that one day earlier a 6m (~19feet) Great White Shark was spotted right of the coast of Western Port Beach in Cowes. I took a picture of a local newspaper clipping, so I hope that you will be able to zoom in close enough to read the article
when you click on the picture. Pretty crazy.
Since beach activities were cancelled for the day, the group did some sightseeing and shopping before driving back to Melbourne. I decided to take the wheel for the first time and drove exquisitely back to the city! Actually driving was incredibly frightening initially—everything except for the pedals is backwards. The windshield wiper handle and turning signal are switched, so, lets just say that my windshield was spotless before I made it out of Cowes. Highway driving was much, much easier than city driving—in Melbourne, there are trams, trains, cars and even horse-pulled carriages on the road—absolute chaos.
Please take care and feel free to email me at anytime. Have a great week and make sure you celebrate Australian Day on Jan. 26th!
Andy
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Urban
Nick Urban
Penguins
Is there any way you can get me a pet penguin??????????????