27 December 1997
I arrived at the harbor earlier, but there is no ship. Soon after, a car ferry came and drop many tourists and tracks off. Most tourists have large baggage, so it may come from a southern city far from here.
Which ship should we take? It was found that we should take this ferry. Wasting space for cars, the ferry was headed to the island of the penguin colony with some tourists who want to see penguins. There is a shop to get drinks and snacks, and a TV set to pass the time onboard. It is similar to the Tokyo Bay ferry. It is nothing unusual to say until we get to the island.
Approaching the island, we’re gathering near the exit. Suddenly, I found something streamlined object to jump on the water… It was penguins.
Little excited, Oh that’s penguins! I told it to children nearby, but they just nodded calmly. It’s only me excited. When the ferry arrived on the island, everyone seem to be excited to see penguins as well as I was.
On the island, there are a lot of penguins, but tourists are only able to walk around a beach. There is a rope stretched 10m from the beach, and tourists couldn’t go inside.
The penguins here are named Magellanic Penguins. The length is about 80cm. They made the nest by digging a hole at intervals of 3-4m inside the rope and raising children. They have to go to the sea for taking food, so the penguins are going out of the rope and come back from the sea. Since it’s a craggy stone rather than sand on the beach, for short-legged penguins it’s difficult to walk. It’s very cute while they waddle and sometimes fall down. They try to go out of the rope when a human is not nearby.
If humans approaches them, they ran away at a frightening pace. They are not too afraid of humans, It is OK if they can keep some distance. They’re staring at humans rather curiously. Some tourists seriously try to take a picture, but if they are close to penguins, they ran away.
Penguins are vigilant out of rope, but they seem to understand that humans don’t come inside the rope, they are relaxed in the rope even if it is just inside the rope. Some penguins made their nest just inside the rope, and the nests are observed by humans from nearby. Is it convenient to go to the sea?
It was a good penguin tour I could see an overwhelming number of penguins and their nests.
