Australia Day

Celebrate what’s great!

Well, that’s what the commercials say. The Abo’s might say celebrate their demise!

According to Wikipedia, Australia Day is a day celebrating the first English fleet landing on the Southern Continent. In historical terms, it’s the equivalent of Columbus Day, but, in national terms, it’s the closest thing that they have to an Independence Day (since they got the red coats “out” of their country by agreeing to keep the Union Jack on the flag and the Queen on the money).

So, how did I celebrate what’s great?

Well, remember those Estonians I talked about earlier? Well, yesterday at work, we got out way early, so that kinda gave us a lot more time to hang out and stuff and we ended up learning about some Koala reservation in Narrandera (a town about 20 minutes south east of Leeton). We thought this would make for a great adventure. And so, the great explorer Belton with his new team of Estonians set out for adventure! (and Koalas)

I followed the directions, and we get to a network of dirt roads, and then… it is time to make a choice, I go left.

I don’t want to say that I took a wrong turn, because, really, I simply took a turn which ADDED to the experience of exploration.

Our first encounter with the wildlife came in the form of a group of horses. At first it was all… “oh, hey guys, look at the horses…”



Then it became… “oh, well, I guess we are going to sit here and wait for them to cross”



Until we noticed one separating from the group:



And then the next thing you know…

OMG!!!



And so… we sat there for awhile… just… ya know… kinda staring at each other.
The horse finally moved out of the road, and we weren’t eaten, and so we drove off.

We saw various birds…



…and a few different Kangaroo and Wallaby troops…



… well… we DID see them… they apparently don’t photograph well. But we did end up chasing them in the car for awhile, until they realized they were kangaroos and could jump anywhere they want, not just next to the road where the stupid people in their car could see them.

We ended up taking a bit of a break from our hunt and check out the river.



Then! We finally got to the reserve. So, we started walking around hunting Koala,
looking around… and looking… and looking…

No Koala

But! A cool looking tree.





And so we walked onward looking up into the trees in search of wild Koala



…we didn’t see any…



Finally… we got back to river.



We decided to head back for the car, but, instead, we decided to dangerously leave the trail, and follow the river back to the car as opposed to returning on the Koala less trail.

Feeling slightly disappointed about the fact that we found no Koalas in the Koala reserve.

Then, I looked up, and saw a neat looking bird, as I told everyone, “GUYS! Check out that bird”, Martin looked up and said…

“Forget the bird! LOOK AT THE KOALA!”

And by golly… there was one!



I thought it would be a great idea to try to join the Koala up in the tree… unfortunately for me and my fat… Markus was MUCH more successful in this plan…



…don’t get me wrong, he still epically failed… but… he was more successful than me.



The Koala changed trees, leaving Markus in the dust, and watching us… probably wondering “when the blazes are these bloody blokes going to F^(% off and leave me alone”



Having had our fun, we returned to the car feeling like victorious explorers, and you know what… WE WHERE!

My birthday is coming up, and now having found some friends of my own (not that they don’t hang out with the family, but, I did find them independently from just leaching off the twins) I can actually say I’m looking forward to it. Another thing I’m looking forward too is partying in their new flat!

After our adventure, we returned home, told the family of the awesomeness that was our trip, and while having a bit of a swim, a guy who my handler (Michael the orange guy) got us in touch with called, and we hurried over to take a look at an apartment that he had available.

Not exactly a place overlooking a grand scenic vista… but, it did have AC, which is quite valuable in a place like this. They got themselves moved in, and came back over for dinner.

And so… a great day, evening, and night was had by all.

A great first Australia Day for me and my new Estonian friends.