Close Encounters of the Australian Kind

Pebbly Beach

Pebbly Beach, February 28 – After leaving the Blue Mountains we headed back to the coast and started heading south towards Victoria. Along the way we spent a few days enjoying the beaches and warm weather of the late Australian summer. For the first time in 48 years I got to celebrate my birthday camping and swimming at a beach. The boys enjoyed playing in the surf with Niall trying body surfing and thanks to a friendly Australian family who loaned us boogie board. Aaron had a much more simple approach to playing in the surf, he simply enjoyed being pounded and tossed about by the waves. As fun as all this was, Susan and I wanted to begin taking in some of the truly unique features of Australia, namely the animals. So far we had yet to see a kangaroo.

Wallaby - Jervis Bay

Further south along the coast were some national parks and the promise of seeing kangaroos. A short stop at the beaches of Jervis Bay gave us our first encounter with a wallaby, a kangaroo like animal but perhaps a little cuter. But it was Pebbly Beach that would be our main destination. There we were told kangaroos frequently visited the beach near the campground.

A couple pf "roos" at Pebbly Beach

Arriving at Pebbly Beach it wasn't long before we had our first encounter of the kangaroo kind. While setting up the tent a young male kangaroo joined us in our campsite. After calmly hopping into our campsite, we found ourselves looking eye to eye with him. The kangaroo stood there looking at us as if trying to introduce himself and with the help of the park ranger introductions were made and Niall was able to pet the kangaroo! This was the first of what would be many kangaroo encounters over the next few days. Later that evening we discovered over 30 kangaroos grazing near the beach. The next day hiking along a coastal trail we came across several other large groups of kangaroos. They seem to be everywhere and many with young joeys in their pouches. We were just enthralled watching them as they hopped around so gracefully and easily. They were such a different animal to anything we had seen before and we all just loved watching them.

Cooking on the "barbie"

At night it was the possums that joined us at the campsite. These are Australia's answer to a raccoon. About the same size as a raccoon these animals made a nightly patrol of the campsite scavenging for food and licking the barbecues clean. With their very dexterous paws and inquisitive eyes they seemed very cute but this was betrayed by their growling as they seem to argue with each other and fight over scraps of food. Needless to say we were not about to make them to welcome in our campsite and as in Canada took the usual precautions of storing our food in the trunk of the car.

Susan with one of the locals

At lunch the next day, the local population of parrots, lorikeets, and other colourful birds introduced themselves. These birds are also very habituated to campers and quickly invited themselves for lunch. Setting themselves up on the roof of the kitchen shelter they eyed our lunch and if we turned our backs on them they would swoop in and help themselves. If we left the kitchen shelter we ran the risk of being mobbed especially with other visitors encouraging this behaviour by feeding them. Aaron got a fright when a bird pitched unexpectedly on his shoulder and it wasn't long before a parrot took up residence on Susan's shoulder. It was all very comical and we all enjoyed the opportunity to see these very colourful birds up close.

Aaron checks out a kangaroo

It was a great couple of days watching wildlife at Pebbly Beach and we enjoyed seeing so many Australian animals for the first time and so close. Seeing these animals for real is just so different from what we had imagined. For us it was amazing and we wondered what the first Europeans to arrive in Australia must have thought.


For more of our pictures of our encounters at Pebbly Beach see our web album.