The day started off cool and windy. We decided to do an easy hike nonetheless and headed for Griffiths Island in Port Fairy. Griffiths Island is a sanctuary for plants, birds and many other animals.

The area is known for its large breeding colony of short-tailed shearwaters, or ‘muttonbirds’.

After lunch we drove towards Warrnambool to the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve, a nature preserve built on a large volcanic crater. The park is home to some of Australia’s best loved wildlife: Emus, kangaroos, koalas, swans, ducks and blue wrens all live inside this magnificent dormant volcano. We even saw an echidna, some curious emus and lots of koalas.

One encounter I could have done without was a large snake right by the side of the narrow path we wanted to take to walk around the lake. So instead we turned around and did some more Koala watching instead.