Day 10 - Wilson's Promontory and Phillip Island

We woke up to a clear blue sky on our last day of riding the bike. We had to be on Phillip Island that evening, and we calculated it to be only a short ride of 350-ish kms, so we decided that we'd take a bit of a detour from our mapped route and check out Wilson's Promontory.

The first part of the ride was pretty average; we can ride straight roads through farm country in Canada. We stopped in Yarram for coffee and scones, then took a walk down the main street to stretch our legs a bit. It seemed like a pretty prosperous town, and I get the feeling that other than the names on the store fronts, not much has changed in Yarram in quite a while.  

We came across this place in our travels:

I looked up Federal Coffee Palace on Wikipedia (hey, you know me and coffee - a coffee palace would be my fairy tale come true), and found that they were hotels built throughout Australia in the 1880's that served no alcohol as a response to the Temperance Movement. (file under: I learn something new every day.)

From Yarram, we kept heading along the South Gippsland Highway and then on to Wilson's Promontory, a huge park in the south of Australia. 

The day got hotter, and so we pulled off at Darby River. It was a 1km walk to the ocean which seemed to deter the vanload of Americans, but it was absolutely worth it. The beach was deserted save for two surfers trying to get something going.

Path to the ocean.

360 panorama

Honestly, the hour spent exploring this beach was too lovely for words. But stomachs grumbled and told us it was time to keep moving. We headed to the end of the road at Tidal River since there we'd seen a sign for a cafe, but we turned back when we saw how crowded it was - the campground was full and included a few school groups. 

The rest of the ride to Phillip Island was pretty uneventful except for the clench moments as we got close to the island and a pretty strong cross-wind blew up. Nothing like being on a loaded, 2-up heavy motorcycle and feeling yourself be blown a half-meter across the lane like you're a feather.

Luckily the wind died as we got on the island and we found our motel in Cowes easily. We dumped our stuff and went for a stroll along the Esplanade and had dinner at a great Thai place with a fabulous view.

The reason why we were on Phillip Island was to take in the world-famous Penguin Parade. 

Juliette advised us to upgrade to the Ultimate Tour. For $35 more, we got to go to a private beach on the other side of the island rather than watch the incoming penguins from the main bleachers. It was absolutely worth it! They cap the Ultimate Tour at 10 people, and you get a great info session with a park guide then get outfitted with non-reflective suits, headsets and night vision scopes. The ten of us sat on the beach and watched the penguins come up from the water, as close as 3 meters away. The penguins chirp to each other as they come up the beach, noisier than I expected. It was unbelievably cute.

We encountered lots of penguins even on the walk back from the beach, and went past wallabies who just stared at us. You'll have to take my word for it that it was amazing - they have a strict no photo policy, as some people don't know how to turn off the flash which can distract the penguins from their route, or harm their vision.