Penguin Island

Matt and I woke up and early this morning. Well, he woke up around 5 am and then graciously woke me up at 7 am. We then made American pancakes and took off for Penguin Island!!! This is when we first got there. The Island is in the background. We had to take a ferry across. We were hoping to go kayaking around the island, but it turns out that we would have had to rented them through a tour company located over an hour away. So we just walked around the island instead. It was a very small yet neat island. It is a group of islands actually that are all part of a nature reserve. Only one of the islands allows humans on it. The island itself contains paths of boardwalks. We had to stay on the board walks and were not allowed to travel off of them. The island was completely covered in sea gulls and pelicans.

Supposedly there were 2,000 penguins on the island, but we didn't see a single one. Turns out they are nocturnal. So they weren't out. We did get to see 10 captive penguins that were orphaned as chicks or injured and then hand raised. Fully grown they were about 12 inches tall. Here is a cute video of them swimming around.

There are caves on the island were aboriginies lived. Later around 1800's a few poor people had to sell there homes and move to the island and seek shelter in the caves. Here is Matt by the caves. I'm just in a funky rock that had a tiny cave carved into it.

We went on a Sea Lion Cruise. The boat took us around to all of the islands. It was cool to learn about and see the different islands up close. We were lucky and got to see 5 male Sea Lions!!! 4 were on the beach asleep and one was playing in the water. Here is a picture.

We walked around the island and eventually settled at a spot on the beach. We were surrounded by very NOISY seagulls. And then a skink came up to us. A skink is a fat and long lizard that looks a lot like a snake with feet. Matt picked it up. (We were told in advance they were harmless.) At this point in time my camera battery died. So I can not show a picture of the skink because I took the picture with the disposable camera. Sorry.

Later, we moved to another location around the island, the side with waves, and went for a swim. We brought the disposable waterproof camera with us and took a few pictures. We also brought our goggles. When we swam near rocks on the ocean floor (6 feet below) we could see all of the bright and colorful fish. It was pretty exciting.

Matt and I came back and discovered that his feet and ears were burnt and somehow my arms and back got burnt. Not sure how considering we were both wearing SPF 50! But I guess we didn't re-apply enough. Once back home we took showers and then fell asleep for 2 hours! Whoops! I was going to give Matt a tour of campus but it was dark when we woke up. Ate dinner and then did a load of Matt's laundry. Tomorrow is our last day in Perth and then we are going to head out to Broome the day after that.

I just thought this was gorgeous!