Down under

Koala

It doesn't happen often that I enter not just a new country, but a new continent. Here I am, down under in Australia. This time, I'm not just a backpacker. I'm visiting a friend and she is showing me around. For starters, she drove me on the Great Ocean Road and I can't help but to compare it to South Africa. It reminds me so much of the Cape of Good Hope with the ocean, the flora and fauna. The vegetation and the wild animals are completely different of course, it's the experience of driving by the ocean along vast stretches of land inhabited by wild animals that is similar. I was amazed by what nature has to offer.

I saw scores of koalas on branches of eucalyptus trees. I even witnessed two koalas fighting high up on a branch without falling down.

Koalas fighting on a tree branch

I never realized that cockatoo birds can fly around in the wild. Until now I have only seen them in zoos. The birds boldly approach tables where tourists are having lunch, hoping to get a snack.

Wild cockatoos

My friend owns a pet cockatoo. I think he approves of me.

Pet cockatoo

There are kangaroos, of course, but what we saw along the road was actually a wallaby. It looked like a kangaroo to me, but was too fast and I didn't catch it with my camera.

Echidna

And there was the hedgehog impersonator that ran into the bushes. There are no hedgehogs in Australia, it was an echidna.