Wild Life!

23/1/15

Yesterday, I saw my first koala in the wild!  For that matter, I also saw my first wild emus, incuding triplet babies.

I had been traveling along the Great Ocean Road when I saw a sign for Tower Hill State Game Reserve.  I turned off, actually thinking it would be a nice little place I could use as a rest stop.  Though it was more extensive than I realized, I decided to continue on to the visitor center, since it was quite scenic.

Before I had even approached the main area, I stopped because I saw a giant bird in the bush by the side of the road!  I did a double take.  Yup, it was an emu!  Just hanging out, eating in the bushes.  I pulled over for a couple pics.

When I got to the visitor center, I was more amazed to find out that there was a set of triplet babies walking around with what I found out was their father.  Emu males sit on the eggs and then raise the young!  After building the nests with the males and laying the eggs, the females just go on their merry way.  Clearly, this little family wanted to go for a picinic!

I saw that there were several bushwalks around the reserve, and decided to go for a little hike.  The reserve is on an old volcano, and there are small “islands” in the center of a large crater.  One of the island was called Fairy Island and was supposed to have some koalas on it.  I’d not seen one yet, although I’d passed several warning signs on highways.

I decided to take that walk but before I’d even gotten out of the picinic area I saw some people looking up and saw a koala in the tree above!  There was another in a tree nearby.  Clearly this was his favorite tree, as he had been given his own sign.  (Love that he’s named Kevin!)

I went on the walk, hopeful that I’d see more koalas, now that I knew what to look for, but didn’t see a single one.  I did run into a few more emus, however!  And some beautiful birds.

When I returned to my car, one of the Koalas had woken up (not Kevin) and was looking for his breakfast, which was pretty cool to watch.

After leaving the reserve, I headed towards another area of the coast back on the way towards Melbourne that I’d heard had koalas in abundance.  There was also a lighthouse or something, but….

When I got to that area, it was nearly dusk.  As I approached the coast from the highway, I had to brake for a kangaroo.  I also, looking up, saw a koala in the trees!  I was pretty excited about it.  I stayed in a camp there called Bimbi Park, which apparently means land of many birds.  There were, in fact, many birds (even wild cockatoos), but the koalas were the stars of the show.  There was one in a tree right above my campsite! I even saw a possum in the tree as I was getting ready for bed.

This morning, as I drove out (via the lighthouse)  I saw many more of the cute bears in the trees.  Apparently, it’s best if that’s where they stay.  I hear they can be quite nasty if provoked.  Luckily, they’re usually just curled up and sleeping during the day.  At night they wake up and eat and eat and eat, just to maintain enough energy to…um, sleep, then eat again.  Exciting life….

This afternoon, I was hiking up at a place called Triple Falls, still in Otway National Park – damn, this place is beautiful! – and saw a sign about platypi.  Man, it would be beyond incredible to see a platypus.  They’re very reclusive and rare to see, but they can be seen on occasion, and only here in Australia!  I’ll keep my eyes open, and my fingers crossed!  Maybe I’ll see more amazing wildlife as I keep traveling.