Australia - Last Look

Never published the photos of our last few days in Australia, so here goes:
After picking up the rental car in Melbourne we headed out along the Great Ocean Road towards Adelaide. It was cloudy & blustery at first but still pretty dramatic along the coast. The sandstone formations in the photo above are known as "The Twelve Apostles". It was quite windy - about got blown away during the walk down to the viewing area - but it was worth the work.

We gradually worked our way to the little town of Koroit where we stayed a couple of nights. The main attraction was a wildlife refuge located in an old volcanic caldera - forming a natural, isolated little valley that was like a little Garden of Eden with all of the animals that have occupied it over the years. We were up early the second day to walk around the place and spent one of the nicest afternoons we've ever had hiking as we explored the park. Saw mobs of Grey kangaroos at first...more than we could count. Apparently not many people walk too far into the bush, so we came upon throngs of the things as we made our way thru the forest. Big ones too - didn't get too close, but it looked like they were probably as tall as a full grown man. After only seeing little wallabies & pademelons in Tasmania they looked huge.


Walked around a turn in the trail and came face-to-face with these two Emu's - a mated pair obviously. Not too skittish either as we stood still and let them pass.


Below are a couple of looks at the big greys. The plain just behind them is usually flooded with water, forming a natural moat that usually adds to the isolation of the area. There's been a drought here for about 10 years though, which has shrunk the lake quite a bit.






And finally, here are a couple of movies from our hike. We actually saw two Koalas - this one as we were just walking down a forest trail. It had been quite blustery for several days and my theory was that they moved down lower in the trees to escape the effects of the wind. Made it easier to spot them anyway. They're not the most animated of creatures - sleeping 22 hours a day and eating the other two.

The other film clip is a look at the Emus that we met on the trail.

This was really an enchanting place, and was probably the single most fun day we spent in Australia.