Day 2 of my Victorian adventure:

Phillip Island is definitely different from French Island. It's not so much on the undeveloped side. It's beautiful for all of that, though. I was staying in Cowes, which in November reminded me of a Florida beach town off season. Empty beaches, waters too cold to swim in, little shops that closed up early. I imagine it's a nightmare during the school holidays, but it was actually charming now. And the fish and chips were delicious!

For my day on Phillip Island, I did the bird-watching walk near Rhyll, despite my hatred of birds. I didn't look for or see any birds, but walking through the mangrove trees was nice, and I saw swamp wallabies. Lunched in Rhyll, which I was unimpressed by. Supposedly a little fishing village, actually a very small tourist town. I didn't see any commercial fishing boats.

Then I walked back along the mangroves to the only bit of bush left on Phillip Island, a nature reserve running down the center of the island. The path through there led to the Koala Conservation Centre, which I was very keen to see. The reserve was nice, totally empty (and admittedly the weather wasn't great), and I saw more wallabies and kookaburas. They really do sound like they are laughing. My only complaint was that the path markings were haphazard. One turning would have a very good sign with distance remaining, the next turning would have nothing. I'm at about the 22 k mark for the day after making it through the reserve (nearly 30 k by the time I made it home), so I am concerned about not making a wrong turning.

The koalas are crazy cute. They have a great life. Sleep 20 hours a day, eat 3 hours, groom another hour... I'll take it. The only problem is the rampant chlamydia, which would place a damper in the sex part of it.

In the evening, I caught a ride with two very nice Swiss girls and an English girl to the Penguin Parade. Again, the penguins are super-cute. I saw one waddling down a hill. Halfway down the hill he fell and kind of slid the rest of the way down. Then he picked himself up like no one was watching and kept waddling. There were eggs, but no chicks yet. Still early.