Kangaroos at dawn

Tonight we slept to the sound of waves at Cape Hillsborough National Park resort. This park is famous for kangaroos on the beach. Dad woke me up at 6 AM. We went to the beach with our cameras and took some shots. Afterwards we had breakfast on the beach.

Not my footprints

Later that day we went for a hike where we saw lots of butterflies. I also went to a most excellent lookout called ‘Turtle Lookout’. From there I saw six Green Sea Turtles. But the most impressive was when we got back to the beach and it was so shallow, for it was low tide, I got to walk onto an island and found a cave. When we went back, I smelled something disgusting. First, mum thought that it was the mud on my shoes. But when we walked on the rock gave us a clue: We saw a dead Green Sea Turtle between the rocks.

Pity you can't smell this ...

We called the others, and while we were waiting for them I tried to get as far away from the smell as possible.

Whales!

Today I went on a whale watching cruise. The first thing I saw was a dolphin. After that we saw another one. Then we saw a shark. We looked around for whales, but we couldn’t find any. Soon after we got a radio from another boat that they had seen 2 whales. So we set off in the search of them and found them. Our captain said that they were about 2 years old. We followed them around for a while, but they only did blows and showed their humps, but they didn’t breach or fin flap. Minutes later they were still doing the same as before, when suddenly we saw a breach right in front of our boat. Eventually they started fin flapping, too. Suddenly 2 dolphins joined them. Together they performed a terrific show.

Beach walk

Today we arrived at Scarness at Hervey Bay. At dusk we went for a walk along the beach in front of our caravan park. I collected shells as souvenirs. The sand was as soft as silk. When the sun set, the sky was on fire.

Tomorrow we are going on a whale watching tour. I hope that we will see at least five whales. Check out my next blog!

Australia Zoo

Today we went to Australia Zoo. I saw lots of animals and learned about them, too: Did you know that every marsupial baby is called a joey? Did you know that baby koalas eat their mum’s poo? That’s because the eucalyptus leaves are toxic, and they can’t yet digest them. Koalas are endangered because of habitat loss and some kind of sickness.

At Australia Zoo, there also is an animal hospital. In the koala show Sandy (the ranger) told us that any time you go to that hospital there is always a koala.

At the hospital shop I got a little keyring. It shows footprints of tiger, crocodile, cassowary, elephant, and orangutan. Look at the following picture:

When we went back to the zoo, we found it was closed. So we waited till someone came out of the shop and sneaked in. The little resin bird that grandpa bought me is a Fairy Wren:

Dorrigo National Park

In the morning there was a farmers' market at our camp ground, the Bellingen show ground. They even sold chickens! Unfortunately, we couldn't buy one. :-(

We then drove up the steep mountain to Dorrigo National Park, which was 700 metres higher. Our 6 1/2 km hike took us almost 3 1/2 hours. There was so much to see! There even is a waterfall that you can walk under. We didn't get wet there. We got wet though in the rain, which suddenly started soon after.

South West Rocks

We woke up to beautiful sunshine. There were lots of kangaroos around. They like the grass of this campsite. They were around the toilet block, around the tents and near the water. Mum took the breakfast over to a big rock near the ocean and called it "eating out". We even saw whales breathing whilst we were having breakfast!

A sunset photo that I took myself

Beach view from the tent

Butterfly found on the road