Koala Watch

It's our second morning in Oz and I was up and out for a run by 7:30 am! So I'm off to a good start. It was fairly easy, motivated as I was by the promise of a beautiful Aussie dawn and the possibility I could see Ozzy, the aptly named baby koala that now makes Mum and Dad's farm his home. The dawn was a misty wonder but unfortunately my suburban eyes failed me and I didn't spot the koala. 

Is it strange that I woke up thinking about him? It's just that last night it felt oddly as though we were releasing a fuzzy baby into a tree to spend his night alone in the pitch black. The people who rescued him mentioned that sometimes if he got thirsty he had been known to come scratching at their back door. I thought, if Mum and Dad get a koala calling at their house all our Canadian friends' misconceptions about Aussie wildlife - that kangaroos just bound around the streets and everyone has a pet koala - will be complete. If you have those notions and now I'm adding to it, know that it is not a common occurrence to have someone drop off a koala at your home! Contrary to what this might suggest, Australians do NOT keep pet koalas!

Today we are off to Gumeracha. I blogged about it when we went last year here. Due to being mentally scarred for life by that last trip, I have been assured my brother-in-law will take my kids up that infernal rocking horse and that I may stay safely with my little two and a half year old nephew on the lower portion. Hopefully just looking at it will not have me breaking out into a sweat. Don't be fooled by its benign looking smile. That horse is evil.