For the second Friday in a row, I've ditched work in favour of doing something resembling sight seeing.
Last Friday was a trip to Healesville Sanctuary, where with beautiful weather [mostly sunny, 60ish], we almost had the place to ourselves. I think we might have seen 26 other people, and thus many more animals. At this point half of the animals blur together, which is fine, because that clearly leaves the awesome ones to stand out. And by awesome ones, I mean, dingoes, roos, koalas, wombats, tazmanian devils, the lyrebird, and most importantly, the platypus. Well, the tazmanian devil was kind of a fail, as we only saw one and it was sleeping deeply burrowed in its den, it wasn't much to see. So next time, hopefully. But the great surprise was the wombats. When we arrived, we were presented with signs that the wombats were not in their habitat. To our surprise, when we visited the hospital, we got to see little wombats climbing around their pen. [We also got to see two joeys up pretty close, so that was cool, too.] The wombats were way cute.
For a bit extra above the entrance fee, we were able to hang out with some dingoes. We could've gotten up close and personal with koalas or roos, too, but we figured we'd save that for another time. Next on the awesome list would be the platypus. Firstly, I expected them to be bigger. Second, they remind me much of otters: playful. Once our eyes finally acclimated to the dark rooms, we started to spot the platypuses darting around their tanks, zooming back and forth. I honestly can't remember the last time I was actually giddy to be watching animals.
On the unexpected awesome list is the lyrebird. The range of sounds, voices, and vocals that this thing produced was nothing short of amazing. I think Ruthie might even have a new favourite bird feather, too.
But onto the subject of this here post: penguins. This past Friday was a trip to Phillip Island to see a penguin march. Phillip Island is home of the smallest penguins of the 17 different types, and man they are cute. My comment about giddy while seeing animals? Yeah, twice in two weeks. Seriously, watching them waddle up from the surf, across the beach, to their sheltres, in groups of a dozen or so was a sight to be seen.
Except for when the tourists stood in your way. I don't think I've ever gone through such a range of emotions so quickly: from awe to awesome fury and back to insides melting at sheer volumes of cuteness. I don't think I can do justice to describe just how rude people can be. The irony though, was the waddling. To set the stage, we were supposed to be seated from the sand up in large, amphitheatre-style seats. The ranger made his speech before the march, calmly explaining how photography was strictly prohibited, and clearly explained that people needed to remain seated in order to allow viewing for all those in attendance. What seems only natural to me, is that if you are attending, say, a movie, or a parade, do you get up and walk around whenever you feel like it to change your view? No. But apparently when viewing the penguin parade, all that sense goes out the window. I mean, at one point, I had to tap a bloke on the shoulder to ask him to sit down or get out of the way. Anyways, the humour in all that frustration is the fact that people, while running around for a better view, did the kind of half-ducking crouch walk back and forth across the sand. So here we were, watching people waddle around in front of us to watch the penguins waddling up from the ocean.
But back to happy, cute, squishy thoughts ... like penguins and platypuses and wombats. Sooo cute!
-EP
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