We spent the morning on the really long and boring drive from Anglesea, throught a million suburbs and traffic lights. We crossed the bridge to Philip Island and arrived at our Hostel. It was a huge place with a big pub, cheap lasagna for dinner and a free breakie, good stuff! We first went to the Nobbies, at the end of the island to visit a seal colony, unfortunately they had all left but as we walked down the boardswalks we saw our first little penguin. They are tiny and bright blue. It had a nest right next to us, we then saw loads more, they were all just wandering about and sitting outside their nests. There were lots of seaguls with chicks too. The view over the cliffs was pretty special too, huge crashing waves etc. On the way back we saw a crowd of people looking over the barrier and looked over and saw a big snake! not sure what type but it explained the few dead pingus (sorry to the seagulls for blaming them). In the gift shop Ian wanted to buy a penguin toy that made penguin noises and vibrated for Cara but when we pulled at the fur bits came off so we decided against it. We then went on a walk to the wetlands but were hounded so badly by flies that we came back. That evening we went to the famous ''Penguin Parade'' We went and sat by the beach on some big steps and waited for ages. When night fell we suddenly started to see dark patches and realised tehy were groups of around a dozen little penguins all huddled up appearing from the water. They would then huddle together and quickly (as they could) waddle up the beach towards the dunes to their nests. Unfortunately they were terrified so one or more would bottle it stand still as the rest continued and then rush back to the water. One even got dissorientated and ran towards a big group of menacing seagulls (who looked like they were all waiting to feast on them, thankfully we were wrong). It was hilarious and fascinating and worrying all at the same time, the crowd were all rallying on the scared ones and chearing (quietly) at the ones who made it. After a while we walked back obver the boardwalks where we could see the babies all out of their nests calling for their mums, how they found them we never knew, each adult appeared and was mobbed by several babies all crying, but she pushed them aside and would only feed her own. Unfortunately this mae quite distressing watching as you watched the little fluffy babies rush up and be pecked away. My (C) ,aternal streak kicked in and founbd it all a bit much, Ian nearly asked a ranger to reasure me as he'd heard a Dad get a ranger to help out his 6yr old daughter who was crying because she thought the mothers had abandoned their babies. It was all ok though they did this twice a day.....they were so cute. It was all no photography allowed so the japanese got a bit distressed and they kept having to over do the japanese version to make sure they understood. One guy though was soooo proud as he had his camera phone and thought no-one would notice, he kept taking photos of the crowd behind him too so Ian kept pulling stupid faces and he couldnt work out what was going on......very funny. It was a fantastic experience.