I’ll never forget the first time I saw a koala. We had left Melbourne, Australia, that morning back in 2004 and hopped onto the Great Ocean Road, a spectacular coastal drive along the southernmost part of Victoria, headed for Warrnambool, home to the Southern Right Whales (which I’ll discuss in a later post). I’d wanted to see a koala in the wild for years, and this was my chance. I knew that they often could be seen along the Great Ocean Road.
As we drove along, I kept looking up in the trees. There were eucalyptus trees scattered on both sides of the Great Ocean Road. The two-lane highway meandered through a heavily wooded area, occasionally sweeping out by the water, where there were majestic views of the Southern Ocean. For a long time, I didn’t see anything in those white trees with just a tuft of leaves near the top.
And, then suddenly, I did see something. I was traveling with my parents at the time, and I had to tell my dad to turn around. He did and we headed back to the tree. Lo and behold there he (or she) was. A koala bear chilling out in a tree.
It was a glorious moment; a long-time goal had been fulfilled. Here was a koala in the wild, and I had found it all by myself. There were not other people around, not many cars were passing by. It was just me and the koala. I got out of the car and walked up by the tree he was in. I took some pictures of him chilling there. He didn’t seem too concerned about me – in fact, I have a feeling I wasn’t the only person to stop by and photograph him that day. My first koala bear in the wild – I was giddy with excitement.
We got back in the car and headed on our way. About a mile down the road, we came across a crowd of stopped cars and stopped ourselves. There were two more koala bears up in a tree, just chilling out. These were a bit smaller and a bit further up.
For more about koalas, view my page on koalas, as well as find some games and other activities on the kid’s page about koalas.