The highlight of the trip was our final few hours, seeing both wild koalas and roos. As you slowly near Lorne, there's a turnoff road that has a lighthouse at the end of it. We were told that if you look really carefully, you can spot koalas in the Gumtrees. It took us both a bit to successfully discern the grey fuzzy mounds from tree bark, but once we found some, it was like the Where's Waldo of Koalas! So much fun driving down the windy road, seeing all other people in cars looking at the tree canopy (minus driver). And as soon as you saw another car stopped by the side of the road everyone would leap out of their cars and form a mini spotting group. It's amazing how koalas don't fall out of trees often while sleeping. Koalas are causing substantial harm to Gumtrees in that area because of their large population, so the Aussies are paying very close attention to that area's continued well being.
As we were leaving the lighthouse road, Richard spotted this heard of roos hanging out by this house. We both totally trespassed on this private property to get better pictures and to get as close as possible. They were continuously watching us, and as we were watching the first group of about 15, another massive group of at least 20 others came hopping full steam ahead from around the corner of the house. It was a little nerve racking not knowing if they were going to come after us, but it was so amazing getting so close to that many wild roos. It was interesting studying their movement, I didn't realize until this point how much they use their tale for movement; it's massive! They're such awkward animals.
Fun fact, roos can't jump backwards;)
No comments:
Post a Comment