My Last Continent: Australia

We’ve been in Australia for a week now.  The day in Sydney was spent with friends walking around the city. I never did go into the Opera House, but yup, it was there and it was pretty.

In Melbourne I did a night excursion to see the ‘penguin parade’ on Phillip Island.  The smallest penguins in the world, aptly named Little Penguins, gather in protective groups to return from the sea to their nests at sunset every night.  Very cute little guys and fun to watch.  Photos are no longer allowed (to avoid folks who couldn’t/wouldn’t shut off their flash), so this photo I stole from the internet.

The next day I was out in ‘the bush’ to see kangaroos and koalas in the wild.  What a great experience.  We saw lots of kangaroos – pretty much stalked them as a group (about 20 of us).  If you stay together they see you as one entity and get use to you so you can get pretty close.  If you separate, then they start to feel threatened as it must seem that they’re being surrounded.

 

 

We also saw two koalas.  One was curled up in a ball sleeping (they sleep for about 20hrs per day), but the other was awake and active.  And so darn cute.  Even with this cute guy high up in a tree I would have had great photos had I remembered to bring my long lens.  As it was, I just had a wide angle lens, so these photos are cropped.  Not a brilliant move on my part. But regardless, it was such fun to watch him climb up higher in the tree to reach leaves, smell them to be sure it was something he wanted to eat and then munch on them.

 

 

 

 

Today we were in Adelaide.  Again, I just roamed the city with friends and had a great time.  Now its 2 days of cruising again before our last 3 days in Australia.  Time is going by much too fast!