Last evening we spent in Otway National Park, where we took a guided tour on Lake Elizabeth and searched for platypuses. Unfortunately these anilams are extremely shy and we were only able to see their backs looking our of the water - and only for a few seconds before they dived again. Wasn't the most successful "safari", but well, it was nice experience paddling on the lake in the dusk and enjoying the tranquility of the park.

On our way back it was getting dark and we were able to see glowworms - those insects live in the moss, on the rocks and undergrowth and emit light blue light - really nice and romantic ... reminded me a bit of Christmas lights.

Glowwormsin the undergrowth

After our return back to the car, Rok wanted to go back and take some more photos with a tripod. We parted ways with our guide telling him of our intention, and he didn't say anything about it not being a wise idea ... so we went ...

Once deep in the forest, Rok was trying different settings on his camera and different exposures. So at times we had to wait for about a minute in complete darkness for a camera to capture the light of the glowworms. And then all of a sudden we heard a roar very close to us! I jumped to Rok and grabbed his hand. My first thought was: "Is it a puma?" He told me, that he was thinking of a warthog. We stood there for some time, listening for another voice, a sound of animal movement ... anything. But all was silent ... My heart was pumping like crazy. I mean, we were in the middle of Australian forest in complete darkness with no phone signal ... and somewhere not far away was a wild animal.

We decided that it's time to go. Rok grabbed his camera and tripod and we ran back towards our cars. With only the lights of our torches and with the sound of that roar in our heads forest felt terribly dangerous. And I should mention, that I had watched Jurassic World film on th plane two days ago, so you can understand, that my imagination was running crazy.

"Crime scene", dark Australian forest

We managed to find a car and quickly drove to a nearby campsite. But before we fell asleep in our tent, we heard that roar again. This time it was close to the tent. "Oh my God, did the animal follow us?!" was my first thought. My whole body was shaking and the thought that I can't do anything in our little tent to protect myself was even more terrifying. Just when I relaxed a bit, there was another roar again ... and it went on for the whole night. Sometimes it was close to our tent, sometimes further ... That night I didn't sleep at all. I was thinking what to do, if I saw a giant claw cutting our tent.
Somehow we made it till the morning, when the roars stopped and I got out of the tent with a relief. I didn't care that it was pouring rain, until it is bright and silent, I was happy :)

Later during the day we were driving through the park and we saw a koala on a tree. Of course we pulled over and ran out to take a photo of this cute little bear. However, the koala wasn't feeling like modeling - it turned away from us. Aleš wanted to wake it up, so he shook its tree. Of course that didn't make the koala happy. It turned its head toward us and roared really loudly! Yes, you read correctly: the koala roared, just like those scarry animals in the forest previous night. I couldn't believe my ears! That fluffy and cute animal, who sleeps most of the day and eats only eucalyptus can make such a terrible voice! So this means that the whole night I was afraid of koalas! I felt really stupid :) But as they say: Anything can happen during the night ...

PS: if someone doesn't believe me, you can listen to this video and check for yourself, how scary a koala can be.

Koala at the daylight ... cute, right?