Jan. 20 - driving from Cape Otway back to Melbourne

We had an absolutely magical day filled with Aussie animals. We left Cape Otway and the rest of our crew and headed along the Great Ocean Road. Lena had given us some ideas of stops to make along the way. First stop was Kennet River and the Koala Cafe. We had a lovely meal there and purchased bags of bird seed to feed the birds. What an absolute treat! The girls (especially S & C) are absolutely fearless, particularly when it comes to animals! C put birdseed right onto her hat to get the birds' attention.

Next stop was Anglesea where the Anglesea Golf Club offers "roo tours." There are a lot of roos who live on the golf course. There are no fences to keep them in and the Golf Club, when it was built, was designed around them since they were already living there. That was 50 years ago and their population, which is watched but the University of Melbourne, is strong. They have anywhere from 150-350 roos (depending on the time of year) living on the golf course. We had the golf cart to ourselves to Paul, the volunteer driving our golf cart, spent extra time teaching the girls all about kangaroo mamas. We learned:

(1) kangaroo mamas are almost always pregnant. They get pregnant as soon as they give birth to the "worm" of a joey.

(2) the kangaroo mama licks a trail from the birth canal to the pouch so the worm (it really looks like a worm - no eyes, no real legs or tail developed, no hair yet) crawls to the pouch.

(3) The mama gets pregnant again immediately, and the new embryo grows for about 5 days before stopping growing. It gets put on "pause" for anywhere up to 6 months - until the "worm" in the pouch is developed enough and old enough to leave the pouch. When the mama kicks the once-worm out, the embryo starts growing again, for another 28 days. Then that worm is born.

(4) The mama can have up to 3 at a time she is feeding - the embryo, the worm and the one recently kicked out of the pouch. She allows the recently-kicked out joey to nurse from outside while the worm nurses from inside.

(5) The mama has 4 teats. And she can produce different milk on each - the kind the worm needs versus the kind the recently-kicked out one needs.

So, yeah, they're amazing! The girls had a great time seeing them and the roos were very unfazed by our presence.

Back in the car and back to Helen's house where S and Ii curled up to read a book. Then we headed to Nonna's house for a delicious dinner and to give Lyra the cat toys G had brought from Portland!