Woke up to a cloudy day on Phillip Island, there were heaps of ducks and geese around the camper so naturally Julie and I had to make friends with them for while before we headed down to Cowes (the main township) for some brunch & coffee. We filled up the gas tank so we could cook again and run the main fridge when not hooked up to power.

We then had a look around the island and headed towards the penguin areas . The visitors centre at The Nobbys was pretty kewl so we spent some time checking out the exhibits and walking around the timber pathways on the cliffs. Nearby was the Penguin Parade Centre which is a massive complex built specifically so that large amounts of people could watch the penguins with minimal disturbance. We bought tickets for the sunset penguin parade.

After a little bit more exploring the area we headed back to the caravan park to pay for the 2nd night and have something to eat before heading back to the penguin parade at 5pm. 

We arrived early and waited for our ranger guide to appear. As part of our deluxe tickets we were invited to a pre-parade refreshments and Q&A in the conference room with our ranger. He was great, can't remember his name but he was Norwegian or something. After cakes and tea we headed down to the beach. We walked straight past the grandstands where all the regular ticket holders sat, and went straight into the rangers box smack bang in the middle of the beach . 
After meeting the penguin-counting girl and a bit of an information session we were ready. Darkness was almost upon us when the first rafts of penguins began to appear on the surface of the water, some containing up to 50-100 penguins. 

We grabbed our binoculars which were included in the tickets and watched. Suddenly the first raft hit the beach and then after some initial pauses as they made sure there were no predators about, they just started waddling up the beach. Before too long the beach was being inundated by raft after raft of penguins marching up toward the hills surrounding it. Some went straight to their burrows near the beach while others marched for up to 2kms to have their own 'pad with a view' up on the hill. No photography was allowed so unfortunately we can't show you but that night they had a count of 1600 penguins. They didn't even care that we were there, they just marched under the timber boardwalks with hundreds of people walking over them. Some would call out towards the incoming rafts in order to reunite with their partners.

After a couple of hours we realised that were the last people there and it wasn't long before the rangers closed up and switched off the lights to let the penguins have their beach back. As some of the penguins travelled so far to their burrows there were signs everywhere telling everyone to check under their cars. We had the most amazing time and can't wait to see it again - it is a great experience.

It was only a 5 minute drive back to the caravan park where upon arrival we cooked some food and had an evening of watching The Voice or something like that.