...in our
beautiful new car. Well not quite new, a Toyota Corolla 2001 with 70,000 kms on the clock. But we are very proud of her. The beginnings of a beautiful friendship...
First stop was the famous
Healesville Animal Sanctuary just out of Melbourne. We saw dingos and koalas and all kind of cute Aussie critters.
The highlight though was the bird show which was similar to the one we saw on
Grouse Mountain with Keira, except with Australian birds. This owl was particularly beautiful and loved flighing so close over the heads of the audience that it left our hair up on end. The kestrel was an amazing catcher of food thrown into the air.
Then we visited
Badger Weir, a tract of pristine forest.
We ovrnighted with
Anne and David. Anne is Mike's sister's husband's sister if that makes sense. What a wonderful couple. They made us feel so welcome. David has a classic MG car which was great to explore.
Next day, we visited
Philips Island, famous for its
Fairy Penguins - the smallest penguin in the world.
The
Silver Gulls posed nicely for the camera...
...as did Ally. Ah, cute! The coastline here was very impressive. So nice to be in a country again with big waves after the tranquil coastline of the UK.
Then we drove through a region famous for its
enormous worms - the largest in the world. We read about them in Bill Bryson's book "Down Under" but didn't see any live ones. A local museum that we visited had some old photos showing their extraordinary length.
We saw this beautiful
white kookabara. The all white form is quite rare apparently.
Thought provoking. Many parts of Australia are experiencing
severe droughts at the moment and water is becoming a precious resource.
Came accross some beautiful
pelicans on a river estuary and stopped to photograph them. The Australian Pelican offically has the longest bill in the world. Certainly is impressive.
Beautiful red and white cliffs in
Ben Boyd National Park. The beaches went on for ever and the sand was pristine white.
This little cottage in the tiny town of
Tilba up in the hills hosted a wonderful collection of Australian nature photographs. Inspiring.
We stopped for a night at
Kiana - famous for its blowhole that can send surf 60 metres into the air on a stormy day. We didn't see it blow quite so high but impressive nevertheless, especially with its booming sound effects.
We saw these amazing parrots in the
Royal National Park coming into Sidney. Very accomodating they were for portrait shots. They are very loving and spend hours nibbling and nuzzling their partners.
