Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Love was in the air at the Ballarat Wild Animal Preserve!
This may reach you a day late, but the wishes for a Happy Valentine’s Day are no less heartfelt! Hoping you celebrate with those you love every day!
Well, we can now say that we have ‘crossed the ditch’. Similar to ‘crossing the pond’ between Europe and America; ‘crossing the ditch’ is the local phrase for traveling the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia. It is a rough patch of water, so we were very happy to make landfall!
We have spent the last four days getting to know some of the smaller, southern towns of Australia. Our first stop was in the town of Hobart on the Australian island of Tasmania. Hobart was founded as a penal colony for some 300 inmates.
It is now a charming city with a beautiful harbor and surrounding towns with buildings from the Georgian and Victorian times. The countryside and the small towns were like a storybook land.
We were lucky enough to be in port on the day of the annual wooden boat show and saw some amazing works of art.
We spent the largest part of our time on a trip to a wildlife rehabilitation park and got to feed and pet kangaroo! We saw a Tasmanian Devils, a Wombat, Emu and lots of other animals. It was fun to see them up close and personal. The Emu was a little scary when he/she decided they wanted the kangaroo food…those birds are huge!
Leaving lovely Hobart, our next port of call was Phillip Island, Australia. This little island is home to the ‘Penguin Parade’. Each evening at sunset, thousands of little penguins come ashore after a day, or days, of fishing and feeding. They come out of the water and then have to make their way across the beach to their burrows in the sand dunes. The burrows are where their hungry chicks await their return. This nightly parade is observed by hundreds of humans who sit on bleachers watching the sun go down over the crashing waves, peering into the twilight awaiting the little penguins.
As the penguins emerge, they gather in groups and wait, almost gathering the courage to set off, sometimes heading back into the surf if they sense danger. There is real danger from birds of prey that would like to have them for dinner, so there is safety in numbers. Once they decide, off they go in a mad dash to the dunes! We were able to see them in their burrows, tending to their chicks and chattering to one another likely telling tales of their adventures.
These little penguins, just like our sea birds, sometimes get caught in oil slicks and have to be cleaned up. This process takes the protective oils out of their feathers, and they need to be kept warm while the rehabilitate and wait to be released back into the wild. There are people here that knit sweaters for the real penguins to wear while they recuperate and then they are sent back out into the ocean, without their lovely sweaters! Our little guy gets to keep his!
Our next port of call was Geelong, the second largest city in Victoria and just southwest of the state capital, Melbourne. We took a tour of nearby Ballarat, a town that boomed during the Australian gold rush. Gold is still mined here today.
The town is full of these buildings!
We went to another wildlife preserve and spent more time feeding kangaroo and giving them a good scratchs under the chin. We admired the koala and a beautiful tiger that somehow ended up at the preserve. He lives in a structure straight out of Jurassic Park!
Our port of call today was Eden. Eden was an important port for Australia’s once powerful whaling industry for more than 100 years. A unique feature of the whaling industry here was the local pod of Orcas who would assist the whalers in capturing other types of whales. The Orcas would herd the other whales into the bay making it easier for the whalers to capture the whale. The Orca would make a meal of their favorite parts, leaving the rest of the captured whale for the whalers to harvest. If that sounds far-fetched, look up ‘Old Tom’ and the Eden Killer Whale Museum.
We visited several small cities around Eden. At Pambula we stopped for a little refreshment before moving on.
Tomorrow morning about 5:30 am, we sail into Sydney harbor. Since we are a ‘small’ ship, we’ll sail under the Sydney bridge and past the Opera House. It should be spectacular! We’ll spend two days seeing the sights.