Penguin Parade...

Our final stop was Phillip Island Nature Park for their infamous Penguin Parade, the nightly march of up to 750 Fairy Penguins from the waters of Bass Strait to their burrows on land. I splurged on an upgrade, so instead of sitting with the masses on the beach, we went on a small group tour with a park ranger who taught us a lot on our slow walk down to a viewing point above the beach to witness this magical event. Our seats were high up on this viewing platform, but we still had a great view and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the penguins pop up out of the water and gather in small groups for safety before waddling across the beach and up the sandy path.

No photography of any kind was allowed, but the ranger said we were allowed to download photos from their website, which you see here.

There has been a concerted effort since 2006 to eradicate foxes who have been the biggest threat to the penguins over the years, but feral cats are still a risk.

We eventually left the platform and got closer to the path from the beach to see the penguins close up as they continued their parade.  

We were exceptionally lucky with the weather as it sprinkled for just a few minutes as we were leaving the beach, but the skies waited to open up until after we were safely back in the mini-bus.