We enjoyed goodnights sleep and woke to muffins, Bluey chocolate milk, croissants and mangos for breakfast (thanks to Greg’s early grocery run). We all relished a real shower, did a lot of braids, and dressed for the sun and animal adventures.
Map drama meant it took 20 minutes longer to find Whitney than it should have. Royal National Park was beautiful, and we were excited to hike. Much dryer than the places we had previously been, with sunny skies, we made a fatal assumption- no water on the trails = no leeches on the trail- WRONG. Only about 30 steps into our first hike Emily found a leech on her foolishly croc clad foot. Whitney kindly gave Emily her sock and we decided not to risk more leeches (she wasn’t the only one in sandals). We made a quick retreat to change shoes.
The beach walk was leech free, had great views, lots of kookaburras, but a bit too much PDA on the shore.
Greg found a three-mile loop, and convinced the girls to do the whole thing, promising to turn around if it was too much. Chatting with Whitney, we easily covered the first half mile before Emily discovered leeches. These were a new species, and they were bigger. Even though she had socks on they had squirmed into her croc and were trying to find her skin. I took her croc and tried to get the two leeches out of it while Whitney helped her not fall over. Then she realized there were several on her other croc. Whitney held Emmy in her arms while Greg and I frantically tried to remove the stubbornly attached suckers. It was hilarious and we actually remembered to take a picture of the leech. After that everyone checked their shoes to discover leeches everywhere. We covered that half mile back to the car in record time; everyone was doing the mom speed walk. We figured the leeches couldn’t attach themselves if we were moving fast enough. No more hiking and Greg started to refer to the leeches as tres leeches because there were three different kinds.
We headed to Campbell Town to search for koalas. We scanned the trees and crossed our fingers - no luck. The Koalas stayed in their hiding spots. (When Greg got home, he posted his trip report and a lady responded - “Next time you are in Campbell Town let me know before hand and I will find a koala for you - we see them all the time.” - bummer we didn’t make friends sooner.)
Whitney found us a classic Australian place for lunch with enormous portions and lots of chips (fries). Emmy and I shared a plate of chicken schnitzel, an item we had seen on menus all over Australia. It was quite good, and everyone was happy with their meal. We said a tearful goodbye to Whitney so she could get to her rugby game, and we headed to Kangaroo Valley.
The drive into the valley was so beautiful with the sun shining. We spotted a few different wallabies or where they kangaroos?
Greg had read about a campground that was a sure place to see wombats, but our map was letting us down. A nice lady walking her dog pointed us in the right direction. We had to take a quick potty stop before we hit the road and Kate had to have a pic in front of this cool bridge.
Arriving at the campground we were informed that we were hours too early. They let us drive in and just hang out while we waited. Evidence of wombat holes and poop were everywhere, as were several dozen campers setting up for a weekend by the river.
We parked the car and wandered around chatting with friendly people, looking at interesting ducks and just killing time. Then we lucked out with a few wallabies hanging around for pictures and a nice kangaroo that let us take lots of photos.
After being in the camp for an hour and a half we spotted a wombat who quickly retreated into its hole. Then one of our new friends brought our attention to another wombat, unbothered by all our pictures and videos. The girls wanted to give it a big hug, it looked so cute and fluffy.
At this point Greg looked at the time and the map and figured we could get to Berrima in time to look for platypus so we hit the road, enjoying more wombat and wallaby sightings on the way.
The silliness on the car ride was epic, but not as crazy as the map run around, we went on looking for the Berriam quarry walk. On our misguided meandering we did find this really old prison.
We went the entirely wrong way but while scanning trees I did find two little possums running through the trees. Greg walked back to get the car, I had twisted my ankle at the campground and was struggling a bit. While waiting I spotted another possum. This one sat so still and waited for Greg to return and get a picture. The walk was worth the fun of seeing some nocturnal life.
We finally found the quarry walk, just steps from where we had originally parked the car. Our headlamps were pretty dim after all night searching and a wombat spooked us on the trail, but we made it to the platypus viewpoint. We scanned the water till the headlamps died - no luck, but it was beautiful. Arriving back at the car we were looking at ETA at hotel 11:00 if we didn’t make any stops. We made dinner on the variety of snacks and protein bars we had in the car and sleepily climbed into bed by 11:20. Our last full day in Australia had been wonderful, lots of new animals, beautiful sights, and good memories.
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