We arrived back in the little town of Koroit, located in western Victoria, on Monday evening after a really long (34 hours door to door) trip from Portland. Pretty let-lagged (it's a 5 hour difference from Pacific time) but none the worse for wear really - we've acclimated pretty easily after a slow start. We stayed here during our last trip to Australia two years ago and liked the area so much that we decided to start the trip here this time. The main attraction is the Tower Hill reserve, with a number of great hiking trails and lots of creatures. Must have seen over a hundred big grey kangaroos, literally scores of emus, and even 3 or 4 koalas. It's one of our favorite places in Australia.
Had barely gotten out of the car our first day when we saw this guy wandering about. Even saw several chicks that appeared to be about 6 months old trailing along with their fathers - it's the males who care for the newborns until they're about two years old. During our hikes thru the bush we came across whole flocks of the things. It really is a neat place.
One side trip was to the little town of Port Fairy - about 15 miles west of Koroit. Pretty little place as you can see, and with a nice ocean-front reserve bordering the town.
Walked around the reserve to the tip of the peninsula where we found this old lighthouse dating from the 1830's, when an initial settlement was established here to support the British and Yankee whalers who plied the waters off the southern coast.
We were surprised to encounter this Black Wallaby munching on pine nuts as we rounded a corner on the home stretch of the hike. Don't usually see them so close to the ocean.
On our last day hike thru Tower Hill we were on a particularly remote stretch of trail when we met this big Koala coming down the trail towards us. He bee-lined it to this tree when he saw us, then paused to study us for about 5 minutes before he scampered up to the top. These little guys are only awake about 2 hours per day - sleeping the other 22 helps them conserve their energy I guess. Anyway, it was especially unusual to see one awake, much less hoofing it along the forest floor.
Here's a video of our Koala encounter.
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