31st, January, 1st, 2nd, February Phillip Island

31st, On the way to Phillip Island we drove along the bass highway then weny off and followed the coast, there arr some rather interesting places along the way but we stopped at Inverloch for lunch in the park, it was such a nice place we almost stayed there the night, we went for a walk onto the beach after lunch but decided to carry on.
When we arrived at Phillip Island we booked into the Beach Park in Cowes this turned out to be a very quiet pleasant place to stay with lots of rabbits lying around in the sun, I did try to sneak up on one for a laugh but had no hope, after setting up we walked along the beach to the main jetty, watched people fishing, swimming and leaving on tour boats, later after dinner we tried off the beach for a fish without any success.
1st, Tourist day today we drove out to the end of the island where they have the penguin parade, on the way out we followed along the coast on a dirt road, the scenery from the cliffs breathtaking, when we got to where the penguins came in anyone could park up around the corner and watch if they wanted, there is a grandstand built and the beach is floodlit but we went down onto several of the beaches and they were all covered in penguin burrows if you wanted to see them you certainly didn't have to pay, we never worried we had one near our boat a week earlier. At the far end there is a boardwalk built along the edge of the cliff if you pay $23.40 you can walk along this then spend more money in the cafe and souvenir shop, or you can drive along the road like we did, where you can stop where you want and see much more than on the boardwalk, while driving along the road we saw several pairs of cape barron geese. After lunch overlooking caorie bay we went for two further walks, one along a boardwalk through mangroves and up onto a lookout the other through the Koala conservation area.
2nd, Fishing day today when we went out it was pretty windy but with no swell we decided to drift and try picking up a snapper or flathead, we hadn't been fishing long when we saw birds diving and white water so we went to investigate hoping for good fish but what it wasn't anything to catch just great to watch, a large seal had caught a rather large carpet type shark and was thrashing it on top of the water, throwing it then diving with it, during this it was taking large bites out of the shark, the seal brought it right up to the boat as though it was showing me, it looked like it was playing as well as feeding. We drifted for awhile longer then moved further down and anchored up, as soon as we anchored I caught the biggest king george whiting we had ever seen it was 40cm, we ended up catching 8 of these and 2 flathead before we went in, when we talked to locals about them we were told they call them back slappers, they say when you tuck them under your arm to get the hook out the tail slaps your back. These fish were so easy to fillet and absolutely delicious to eat.