Perfect Moments - Part Deux

There was a time, a few months back when I was sad about my soon to be ending experience in Australia. But I realized that I had my Perfect Moment (The Sydney Opera House photos at night with fireworks) and I realized I was satisfied ....

... until it came time to visit Melbourne and I read about day trips from Melbourne to the Grampains National Forest. ONE SENTENCE. And I was hooked. To paraphrase it said: "Make sure to look up because you might spot a koala in a tree." And I WANTED IT. I so badly wanted a photo of a koala in the wild. I put it in the itinerary.

Don't mind the 3 and 1/2 drive to get there. Don't mind I had no idea where in this huge National Park they were talking about. Don't mind the minuscule chance I had of actually spotting a small grey furry butt in a grey tree. If there was a CHANCE AT ALL I was willing to take it. Days later, thinking how stupid this was, but still willing to go, realized my only chance of spotting a koala was if a ton of other people had already done the same thing and there was a crowd taking photos.

But ... I get ahead of myself. Saturday - the day for our Great Ocean Road drive. To see the 12 Apostles, The Arch, the (recently fallen) London Bridge. And off we went for a very long day.

Along the way we drove by a sign for a lighthouse. It looked pretty and Gary asked if we should turn around. I usually say no, not wanting to bother him when I am bothering him so much to stop and let me take photos, but this time - I wanted that lighthouse photo - so I said "yes, lets turn around".

And we did. Started driving in to the lighthouse and spotted a group of people pointing their cameras high up in the eucalyptus trees. Could it be? Could it really, really be? My most magical wish come true? A koala?

No.


Not a koala ...



FOUR KOALAS!!!!

I think I jumped out of the car before it stopped as Gary said 'go, go'. And ran to the small group and looked up and spotted the two in the first tree:

I bet I have 100 photos of them!


Gary joined me and we started spotting koalas ALL OVER THE PLACE! I am in love with each and every one I photographed - the sleepy, the awake, the cute, the ugly ... so I tried to put one photo in of each one:

Was this my 'Perfect Moment'? No - it was fantastic. It was magical, but there was no defined moment in time that was perfect.



Was this it? The "Perfectly Poised Koala"? Close:

But, no, he is just "Perfectly Poised Koala".


We decided to traipse off the road and see if we could find some more:

And suddenly, we spotted this little guy:

He was awake, alert and inquisitive.

As we took a ton of photos, oddly, he decided to descend the tree he was in:

Gary and I were on opposite sides of the tree had come down, and we looked at each other ... wondering - what comes next? I shrugged at Gary and started following the little dude to the next tree over. He was looking for something on the ground. Very concentrated on his task. I don't know what he had lost, but it must have been important.

Every now and again he would look up at me as I inched closer and closer to him:

And then it happened. I realized that THIS WAS IT! The ultimate experience. If I had wanted to, I could have reached out and touched his soft grey/brown fur. I asked Gary to take my picture (something I NEVER DO) to document my "Perfect Moment":

I kept taking photos as he clearly didn't care that I was:

And then he did the strangest thing. I had walked away having more than enough close ups of the little guy. He wandered over to where Gary was standing and sniffed his pants! I have to say, this is almost a 'Perfect Moment' for me because it is most definitely an almost 'Perfect Photo':

He turned away from Gary and ascended the tree at whose base he was so interested in:

I smiled, he posed, I snapped ten more shots and we parted ways:

My new, beautiful, wild friend who had given me a gift. The gift of a 'Perfect Moment'