we saw koalas!

We’ve just got back from a holiday over in Australia – hence the lack of blogging after the last burst. (If I’d done anything work-related I suspect I’d have experienced a rapid divorce!)

Of course, before we left our friends were all saying "we hope you spot some koalas." We hoped so too, but after a fair bit of driving through various eucalypt forests we were beginning to wonder. Until we went down to the Cape Otway region & headed down to the Cape Otway Lightstation. 

tall eucalypt forest, Cape Otway.JPG

It’s really lovely through there. Once we turned off to the lighthouse we were driving through this tall fairly open forest. The husband drove & I craned upwards. No koalas… Then all of a sudden, there was one lolloping along the road towards us! We stopped the car & it stopped running, gave the vehicle the once-over, & then ambled over to the side of the road & climbed up into a low tree in a rather leisurely manner.

our first koala!.JPG

We were rapt 🙂 After watching – & being watched – for a while & taking a couple of photos, we idled on down the road, and into a new area of forest with a much lower canopy of spreading gum trees. And wow! koalas in just about every other tree! One mother & her joey were particularly accommodating, feeding on what looked like a rather dangerously thin branch just above the heads of some very happy tourists: 

koala & joey, Cape Otway.JPG

We were close enough to see the little fellah reaching up to mouth a leaf or two.

koala joey feeding.JPG

Which was rather nice; most of their compatriots spent the time with their backsides resolutely towards the camera 🙂

sleeping koala.JPG

The lighthouse, when we got there, was pretty stunning too (you could go up inside for the view from the top – with advice to hang onto one’s glasses as the wind had been known to tear them from unsuspecting noses). But the koalas were absolute tops 🙂

Cape Otway lighthouse.JPG

 

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