When in Australia, you can forget Pokemon Go. Instead of chasing pikachu you can spot something a lot rarer (and quite frankly, in my opinion, more exciting): wild koala!
During the road trip I took with my lovely backpacker friend, Laura, we headed off the main Great Ocean Road and pulled not far from Cape Otway - with the intentions to have a wee and stretch our legs. But thank goodness we did, as further up a track was a group of elderly tourists being shown around by an Australian guide. They all had their cotton wool haired heads staring up at something in the trees, making ‘oohing’ type noises as their cameras were snapping whatever it was they were looking at.
Being nosy curious we wandered over, okay, we may have gatecrashed their tour, to see what was going on. Up in the eucalyptus trees was a koala. A furry, funny nosed, cute as a button, koala just above our heads - I was besides myself with excitement! Even better than seeing a koala in the wild was the fact that this fuzzy-haired dude was awake (they sleep for up to 20 hours a day), munching on some leaves and even jumped to the next branch to forage for his next feast.
I shared the video clip of this acrobatic koala on my Facebook page and had loads of people told me how rare it was to see a koala not only in the wild, but awake and active too. I felt like all my Christmases had come at once. The tour group we’d unofficially joined didn’t seem to mind our company or our squeals of joy as we tried to take as many photos as we could.
Once Mr Koala had climbed higher up the tree out of sight, the guide even offered to give us some bird feed for the many exotic looking birds flying around the place.
Although, in the moment of spotting my first ever koala I wasn’t really paying attention with what I was doing with this grain and seeds on my outstretched palm. So, I didn’t see the giant colourful parrot come swooping from behind and landing right on top of my head. Let’s just say the whole of the Great Ocean Road could have heard me scream in shock! So. Not. Cool.
The mature tourists acted, well mature, but Laura and I were in a fit of giggles as I wiggled around to get myself from the clasp of this bird’s claws and get his feathered butt from my head. Someone eventually managed to coax him off with a bag of food as I tried to regain any composure I had left. We soon made our excuses, gave our thanks and were back in the safety of our hire car, buzzing at what turned out to be the most exciting toilet pit-stop ever!
So, you can imagine why I was slightly nervous when I headed to Taronga Zoo a few weeks later. I couldn’t wait to hang out with more of Australia’s huge variety of wildlife but I was anxious about feeding any flying friends again. Luckily, the animals I got to meet were of the land variety and were perfectly well behaved.
I got up close with some wallabies, fed a rescue kangaroo called Penny and tried to take a selfie with a quokka (apparently this is all the rage as their little faces look like they’re smiling!). I even managed to not make an utter fool of myself this time, which I was quite proud of!
Please tell me you have some awkward animal stories too?
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