Penguin evening on Philip Island.

We spent the day part basking in the sunshine visiting the nearby beaches and coastline wildlife spotting.

We visited Nobbies Centre where seals, dolphins and sharks can be viewed from the headland. We just saw wallaby’s and grey headed swans!!

Before our evenings visit to the Penguin Parade, we had a wander around Cowes and the Isle of Wight pub (!) and indulged in the seaside tradition of chips and a can of coke.

The penguin parade at Summerlands beach started at 7pm with our arrival at the hugely impressive visitor centre. The sea birds were due to put on an appearance around 9.15pm, just after it goes dark, when 450 were estimated to appear from the sea and march up the beach to their burrow holes.

We were directed to our seats on the beach parade alongside around 400 others all waiting patiently for the first penguins to put in an appearance.

At last they showed up, almost timed to perfection and what an amazing display. We felt honoured to witness these amazing creatures who spend weeks in the ocean feeding (doubling in weight to 2kg) before returning to land to mate and sleep for 2 weeks.

Unfortunately we cant take the acclaim for these great photos, as everyone is banned from taking any shots to avoiding scaring them. Instead we were supplied with some shots taken by proper natural photographers!

It was as an amazing experience to see these small penguins appear from the sea and then head up the headland to make their burrows and also to hear their screaming excited voices as they mated!!

Lastly the map below shows Philip Islands position south east of Melbourne facing out to Tasmania and begins to the Antarctic Ocean.