Don & Kully's World Cruise on Viking Neptune

Happy Valentines Day from beautiful Phillip Island, Australia!

Phillip Island is located at the mouth of Western Bay in Southwest Australia, less than 100 miles west of Melbourne, and is renowned for its abundance of wildlife. The nature reserves abound with Wallabies and Kangaroos and the wetlands support numerous bird species. The coastal waters are home to Burrunan Dolphins and migratory whales. However, the island is most famous for the Little Penguins. Thousands of these Little Penguin come ashore every day at sunset at Summerland Beach, making their way to the safety of their nest in the sand dunes.

Phillip Island is a Tender port, meaning the ship anchors offshore and we ride Tender Boats into the pier.

We arrived midmorning and took the first tender to shore and then a shuttle bus to the small town of Cowes only to learn the entire island was without electricity. Turns out there were serious thunderstorms in the area yesterday afternoon that took out several large transmission line towers which then caused a major power generation plant to shut down due to power surges. Local news reports said the power could be out for several days. So, we walked around the lovely beach side town, took some pictures and headed back to the ship.

Lucky for us Summerland Beach has back-up generators, so we were able to go ashore this evening to watch the Penguin Parade. There are estimated to be 32,000 breeding pairs of the world’s smallest species of penguins living on Phillip Island. In 1920, a group of island residents introduced visitors to the penguins’ nightly procession, sparking conservation efforts to protect wildlife and invest in research and education initiatives.

In addition to the observation platform and board walks there is a visitor center that provides information about the Little Penguins. Taking of photos during the parade is not allowed, because the potential for flashes going off would scare and confuse the animals. So, the nature park provides a link to the following video and still photos that can be downloaded from their website.

Tomorrow we will be at sea. Our next scheduled port is Eden, Australia on Friday, 16 February.

“Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.” Bob Goff