When we were at Georgetown, we came across it for the first time: a sign announcing a colony of little penguins in the scrubs along the rocky shore. We had a look but didn’t see anything. Later at Ulverstone and Penguin, we saw more signs, penguin statues, penguin photos, penguin info but not the real thing. Then we camped at the Apex Caravan Park, which is located at Penguin Point in Ulverstone.
While checking us in, the caretaker told us that we might see and hear the little penguins from the local colony at night. We heard their chattering and screeching. But we didn’t see them. A board at the entry to the shore explained it. They stay in the ocean all day feeding and only come back on land under cover of darkness. They make a desperate dash across the open expanse of the sand to the safety of their burrows. If you want to see them, you need to be prepared: stay up late, wear camouflage, have binoculars. Okay, we thought, this won’t be happening.
And then we saw them, unexpectedly. Coming back from the Harry Manx concert around 11 pm, we turned into the access road to our caravan park with the high beam on. There they were: five or six of them bumbling across the bitumen like small children, dwarf children learning to walk. Once they made it to the edge of the road, they threw themselves on their belly trying to hide. Seeing them was magical – a goodbye gift from existence before we left the North coast.
Liz Mike Travels 