8.June.2016 (Day 3)

The Bush.

This morning (after getting up at sparrows fart) we all loaded up onto a bus (coach) to go hiking (into the bush). Lost translations aside, I’m glad we finally had the chance to go out and see some of the beautiful Australian countryside.

We started by going up Mt. Ainslie for a brief history of Australian geology. Spoiler alert: not much has happened in the last 120 million years, resulting in some pretty unique/bizarre plants and animals. 

The view was (à la Larry David) pretty, pretty good

Canberra, Australia

Group shot!

Next we moved to a sacred aboriginal site where they still harvest ochre to use as for artwork, body paint, etc.

Ochre is a natural pigment. This spot is where natives harvested red ocrhe from oxidized iron in the soil.

 Our guide had an incredible amount of knowledge about the aboriginal history (they’ve been on the continent for 60,000 years!) and is himself a member of the ‘Stolen Generation’ and never knew his birth parents (it was a program by the Aussie government to remove aboriginal babies and adopt them out to white families…fortunately it was ended in the 1970’s)

Learning about ochre harvesting by the Aborigines 

The native culture is incredibly diverse and there were over 750 distinct groups lumped together as ‘aborigines’. Most were matriarchal societies that lived off the rich landscape and have an amazing spiritual and cultural record.

We eventually made it to a national park with the hopes of seeing some local animals.

It ended up paying off big time. I was able to see some of my Australian-bucket-list animals. Sooo kewl!

Emu (Dromaius novahollandiae)

Emu’s are awesome. Period. These flightless birds can get over 6’ tall and can sprint over 30mph (which this one showed me after I got too close for comfort). Females are the fighters, and apparently it isn’t uncommon to see two gals fighting over males with their 6 inch toe claws! After females lay their eggs, males do the incubation. Father of the year.

Even though every Australian has promised I’ll get sick of them by the end of my trip, I was pretty pumped to finally see a ‘roo (only squares call them kangaroos).

These animals are incredible. Most Australians treat them like 100 lb squirrels (aka try not to hit one with your car).

Grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus)

I literally took over 100 pictures of these cuties.

Even scratching their butts is adorable

Some of their behavior I won't try to explain…

Come on guys, keep it G-rated please, this is a family blog

Another awesome marsupial we encountered was a wallaby, which is just another word for kangaroo. 

Red-necked wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus)

The only member of this group I had ever seen in the wild are possums which are frankly, pretty gross. Marsupials give birth to pretty underdeveloped young (about the size of a pea) that crawl into their mothers pouch and continue to develop.

And of course.

The greatest/cutest/most awesomely cranky looking marsupial of them all.

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus)

I’ll admit they’re not the most intelligent looking animals on the planet. Koala’s have one of the smallest brain to body weight ratios of any mammal. They sleep for 20 hours a day and eat for most of the 4 that they’re awake. Because eucalyptus leaves are fairly toxic it’s not surprising that they looked so stoned all the time.

They don’t have many natural predators, but apparently Chlamydia is decimating natural populations. Apparenlty koala prophylactics are out of the question.

Tomorrow we tour the parliament and then head off to our final destinations to start our research projects. I’m incredibly exiting/exhausted and can’t wait to give my next report from Darwin, Australia!