Giant worms and little penguins

The title is somewhat misleading as there are no photos of either giant earthworms or little penguins, but they were certainly the purpose of the trip. Following a tip in the Bill Bryson book 'Down Under', we set off for 'Wildlife Wonderland', the main attraction being the Gippsland giant earthworms, the largest earthworms in the world that can grow up to 3m long. Wildlife Wonderland wasn't very popular, we almost had the run of the place but it was really good. Almost all the animals were very friendly, we scratched a dingos ears through the cage, made friends with some hungry kangaroos, chatted to Sam the cockatoo and teased a lively wombat through the glass.

Sleepy koalas



Evil looking snake



Hungry roos...



...that were quite content



As for the worms, they didn't have any live ones and even if they did we probably wouldn't have seen them. They had a couple of preserved specimens in long test tubes which were rather disgusting but the highlight of the worms display was the repeating video of the live capture of a giant worm - pretty invigorating stuff.

We continued on to Philip Island and there was plenty for us to do. We went for a walk after lunch along the coast and up to the highest point on the island.

From the highest point, looking down the Island.



The Peninsula



Following a quick stop at the local chocolate factory, we cruised past the Grand Prix circuit on the way to the 'Nobbies' - a popular spot for seagulls and seals.



Then it was time to head to the penguins. We were a bit slow down to the beach and got a poor viewing spot but it didn't matter as seats soon became available as penguins came in. Although penguin numbers weren't high (about 500, it gets up to about 1,500 in summer) it was still very popular and there were thousands of people. The penguins are tiny, they grow to about 30cm tall and they can trek up to 1km inland to their burrows. They were quite noisy and aggressive if they mistakenly tried to take someone else's burrow. It was well worth seeing but just seemed to be over too soon.