Kangaroos and Creepy Things

By Mary

During the rest of the trip we've seen more amazing animals.

We've seen Huntsman spiders (on the roof inside our car) and tiny spiders. Some look scary and some look harmless and usually it is the opposite-the big ones are harmless and the tiniest spiders are deadly. We found a strange spider with a web and the next day we came back and there was a cross that it created. It's called the St. Andrews Cross spider.

Leeches fell from the trees in the rainforest where they live. One got into our car and scared us. We took a dolphin cruise and luckily we saw Bottlenose dolphins. We got to swim with them in a net on the side of the sailboat.

We've seen kangaroos, bandicoots, parakeets kookburras and cockatiels.

Flying Fox

By Hannah

While walking through the forest, we suddenly looked up and there they were, thousands of huge Fruit Bats. We were told that on this trail we would see some bats, but we had no idea we would see hundreds of “Flying Foxes” with bodies the size of a cat and a 1 metre wing span!

We drove to a creek at sunset and hiked in to look for the bat colony. Hundreds of bats were hanging from branches, stretching, screeching and getting ready for their night adventure. It was fascinating to watch them wake up.

We walked back to the start and stood on a bridge waiting to see them take off. Eventually two left, then five more, and the number of bats kept growing until about 100 flew off the trees at the same time. It was like watching a horror movie, except these bats eat only fruit, which helps to pollinate plants and spread seeds. It was an amazing night and I would love to see them again.

Ocean Discovery

By Eric

Today we snorkeled at Fly Point in Nelson Bay. We saw Cuttle Fish, Sea Cucumbers, snappers and lots of fish. We even fed some of them! But the most exciting thing was when Dad, Hannah and I discovered this Green Sea Turtle! It was 3 metres down and eating kelp. We followed it and swam with it for a long time! It was about 1 metre long. It looked healthy but I could see a few barnacles on it. It felt like the movie “Finding Nemo” because we are heading to Sydney too. Luckily we have an underwater camera case and this is how we got these cool pictures and a movie.

Sea Turtle Hospital

By Mary

We went to the Shorebird Rescue Centre where there were sick and healing sea turtles. They had two kinds of sea turtles that had been rescued: Green and Hawksbill sea turtles. Most sea turtles get sick if they eat plastic bags because they mistake them for jellyfish. If they are sick their stomach fills with gas and they float up to the surface of the ocean. They get dehydrated from the sun and barnacles start to attach to the turtles. If they are not rescued they might die.

Sea Turtles dig holes in the sand to lay their eggs. Their eggs are soft so that when they fall into the hole they don't break. If the eggs are cool, they will hatch as boys. But if the eggs are very warm, they will hatch as girls.

When eggs hatch, the hatchlings wait until night to reach the ocean. They follow the reflection of the moon and the stars on the water. If there is any artificial light on the beach, the hatchlings will climb toward it and end up in people's pools and gardens and need to be rescued. Sea Turtles also get hit by boats, crack their shells and need to be rescued. Sea Turtles are endangered so please try to help keep the oceans clean.

Surfing in Australia

By Eric

Today we were body boarding at Byron Bay. It's one of the top surfing places in the world. It had a strong current and humungous waves because there was recently a cyclone in the ocean. The powerful current pushed us so far sideways that we needed to get out and walk back along the beach!! It was awesome.

Rain Rain Go Away

By Hannah

We've been in Australia for almost three weeks and we've had a lot of rainy days. All of this rain has been collecting in rivers and creating deadly flash floods. People are collecting sand bags to protect their houses from water creeping in and many towns have been evacuated. Sadly for many houses there has not been time, leaving houses flooded and some have lost their lives.

Our travel plans have changed. The flooding has left the ocean waters too murky for snorkelling and in several places highways have closed and we have taken long detour routes. We went up to the mountains and there was a huge storm which we could see rolling in (see photo). At times we couldn't even see the road. Hail came and many cars had to pull over and wait under trees for huge, hard balls of ice to die down into rain drops again. As we came a waterfall that we had passed on the way up the mountain, no cars wanted to go by it. It has grown three times its original size and the colour changed from snow white to brown. Here is a photo of the car in front of us. You can see the water splashing down over the road. It was scary but we went through it.

I hope the flooding stops and everything can return to normal for Australians.

Koalas and Kookaburras

By Hannah

We may have only been in Australia for a week, but we have already seen many animals in the wild.

We stopped to see a cute Koala Bear climbing a tree in the mountains and we spotted a Carpet Python snuggled up sleeping while on a bush walk (see photo). Colourful Parakeets are nesting in the back yard and last night about 50 giant fruit bats swooped over us. There were peacocks in a backyard and lizards are absolutely everywhere. There have also been a few cockroaches stepped on! Yesterday we were planning on a treetop walk in the rainforest but we had to cancel it because of the leeches. Back home the leeches swim in water searching for prey, but in Australia they live in forests and fall out of the trees and into your clothes to suck your blood! We also learned that leeches sometimes drop into cars. We learned this yesterday when it happened to us. (There was a lot of screaming!)

Sounds here are much different too. Every morning we wake up to the strangest bird call ever. It sounds like an exotic instrument being played by someone who's never played it before. And once you hear the kookaburra (photo of birds) laugh you begin to laugh too.

There are so many strange and wonderful animals here and now we are just hoping to see a kangaroo!