Maru

I had been thinkin of going to this one koala park for months, can't even remember from where I found this place on internet. In there you're supposed to get lot closer to animals than in 'normal' zoo's and you could also get a close encounter with some of the animals. Obviously I had been very interested about gettin my hands on to koala and dingo.. Finally, I decided to hire a car for a day and got my room-mate, Patrick to join me for a wee day-trip towards south, koala park was only about 100km south of Melbourne, in Grantville on a way towards Phillip Island. Admission itself was pretty cheap, just 15$ but for close encounters you'd be paying 20$ and gettin a photo taken by keepers (with koalas you can pay just 10$ and get photos with your own camera) so obviously I was gonna go for those, wanted to have some nice, printed photo out of my experience. At first we had about an hour before the next koala talks and we headed straight towards kangaroo enclosures since I had bought a small jar of roo food, couldn't wait to get to feed them.. And, I was definetily not disappointed, I was havin so much fun with these guys just followin me and beggin for more food, especially one of them was very persistent and I had to push it few times a bit side but it just kept comin and comin and also raised itself towards me few times but surprisingly I wasn't really afraid that it might try to kick me.

The koala encounter was nice as well but it was just sittin in a tree being lazy and nipping the grass from my hand so nothin that amazing but yet again, what can you expect from a koala, after all they sleep about 18 to 20hrs a day.. I was still a bit surprised how soft the fur was. After koala came that one moment I've been really waiting for, I got to go to dingo close and pat them them, just a bit of shame that only one out of three wanted to really meet me, althou the second one gave a small lick to my hand but third one just kept it's distance. But you gotta understand, these animals are still more or less wild even thou they have been in capture. Apparently dingoes are a lot like dogs but yet again they do act pretty much like cats, if they don't like or trust you, they're gonna avoid you. And like my cats in the past, if they thought that I was sometimes an a**hole, you can't really chance that but that's one thing why I've always liked cats. They got their own mind like these dingoes. At least that one fella was willing to stay close to me and I could pat it pretty as much as I liked, definetily the best moment of the day. Sorry guys that I'm not puttin any photos of me and koala, I'm still kinda tryin to hide my identity so I'm not completely showing my whole ugly face..

After Maru we decided to take a drive towards Phillip Island and possibly visiting the Penguin Parade beach where every evening small penguins arrive from their day at the sea back to their burrows on the beach. I'd still say it's a bit too much commercialized event but yet again.. We we're just thinkin of takin a walk on the beach and gotta admit that I was a bit annoyed cause even durin day time hours you'd have to pay 4$ just to go to the beach.. ..oh well, since we here.. Eventually, it turned out to be a good choice, we we're lucky to spot one lonely penguin and that was it, the day was saved and admission worth it. To be honest, of course in Phillip Island you get too see lots of penguins every night but with a high cost, if you just take a wee walk to St.Kilda beach in Melbourne you get to see 'em for free. Obviously, in Phillip Island it's all about the quantity of them but still, I'd rather choose St.Kilda. All in all, our day was one of my best days in Australia so far, just lookin for lots of days to top this one.

penguin beach and their burrows scattered all around

'Piss Off!!!'