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Happy Valentine’s Day! Our port today was Phillip Island a small 40-square-mile island off the coast of Melbourne.
Viking actually has two ships sailing almost identical world cruises. The Viking Sky is three days ahead of our Viking Neptune. The Viking Sky was about to anchor at Phillip Island when the captain decided the seas were too rough. The ship spent a day at sea instead. We were apprehensive about whether we would be able to anchor, but fortunately we had no problem. We ended up with beautiful weather.
Phillip Island’s main tourist attraction is its daily parade of fairy penguins. At dusk every evening, hundreds of fairy penguins emerge from the ocean and make their way up the beach to their burrows and babies.
We first saw this amazing event in 1996, when we were in Australia with our then four-year-old and two-year-old sons. At that time, we joined a crowd of less than a hundred on a single bleacher to watch the penguins.
Today, the site has been enlarged into a more elaborate grandstand that can seat 1,500 people. Gail decided not to join the 800+ Vikings who would tender back and forth to the island, perhaps not returning until close to midnight.
The good news is that instead of arriving at 4:00 pm, we arrived at 10:00 am. This gave us a chance to explore more of Phillip Island during the daytime. From our tender port at Rhyll, we took a five-mile scenic walk to Conservation Hill along the coast and through mangrove forests.
We had an incredible time. At one of the descriptive trail markers, Gail saw a drawing of a swamp wallaby. (Wallabies are smaller relatives of kangaroos.) “Wouldn’t it be great to see one?” she mused. Gail was thrilled when we turned the corner and she serendipitously captured a swamp wallaby bounding in while shooting a video. We watched as the wallaby munched on vegetation before bounding back off into the bush.
We were even more thrilled when we encountered another wallaby on our walk back. We looked at the wallaby and the wallaby looked at us. It was obviously used to humans, as it merely went about its business, munching on vegetation for a long while before finally bounding off. We had a terrific day.
Back aboard Viking Neptune, we had a relaxed dinner aboard an almost empty ship. Gail walked through the restaurant and took photos of various couples to commemorate their Valentine’s Day. Guests began returning from the penguin parade at 10:30 pm, when we were all treated to a late-night feast of soup and sandwiches.
The shipboard crew has been going above and beyond to make this world cruise memorable for the guests. Between the flawless process of tendering 800+ guests to the island within an hour, to the sumptuous food greeting their return, they have excelled once again. Happy Valentine’s Day!