We, Margaret, her daughter Katherine,w grandson Jeffrey and myself, were on the road by 9 am and arrived at Shoalwater just after 10 am. We had missed the 10 am ferry to Penguin Island so we had a coffee while we waited for the 11 am crossing. They make really good coffee at Pengos, the cafe on the beach at Shoalwater.
It was fairly busy, not surprising as it is Easter weekend. As we started the crossing some Dolphins were spotted following us so the ferry circled slowly a couple of times to enable all to get good views. We had included the Penguin encounter on our ticket and we went in to have a look at them on arrival. One of them was swimming in the pool the others were having a stand around conference, lol!
We then went for a walk, following the beach And came across some limestone caves. The first European to discover the island, in the early 1900s, was a Canadian and he lived in the caves for some years. Others joined him and finally some shacks were built, years later these were pulled down and replaced by the two present buildings. We followed the boardwalk across the island and came across the bird sanctuary. There is a Pelican colony and they did have some chicks although it was difficult to see in the crowd!
There are some lovely beaches all round the small island and many people were taking advantage of the lovely weather. We had a paddle, the water was clear and a pleasant temperature. There are also Kayaks that people can hire.
We then made our way back to the Penguin encounter and waited for them to be fed. There are ten rescue penguins in the facility and they are starting to nest. These are Little Penguins, also known as Fairy or Blue Penguins. The one swimming in the pool was called Kevin and was fully grown at 13 weeks old. He has some difficulty feeding and the fish are fed into his mouth. He is learning to take them in the water.
These penguins can be put back in the wild but if they have any issues they are allowed to live their lives out in the facility. In the wild, penguins have a life span of about seven years but some of the rescues have lived much longer, one lived until he was twenty. There are about 1,000 wild penguins on the island.
Penguins can swim underwater for up to five minutes and their feather trap air which also makes them very buoyant. They drink the salt water and Inside their beaks they have sacs that extract the salt. When a penguin sneezes it is blowing out the salt! I have seen Penguins in the wild at Phillip Island, South Australia. During the day, penguins will be at usually be at sea unless they have young, they go out at dawn and return to their burrows at dusk.
We then wandered outside and ate our packed lunch at one of the picnic tables. It was very pleasant sitting there, not too hot. While we were eating our lunch we saw the large King Skink lizards, one of which came quite close. We also saw a very unusual and pretty bird, the Buff-Banded Rail and one of the, came up very close.
We then caught the ferry back to the mainland and, as we made our way back, we saw three people walking out to the island via the sandbar. People have died trying to cross their and there are many warnings posted in the area. After another lovely coffee, they really make very good coffee there, we headed back home. It was a great day out and one I will remember for a long while.
No comments:
Post a Comment