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!