Half Year Mark Reached

In Jan. we reached our half year mark of being in Australia. It has gone quickly, but seems like forever since we have been home.
Australian's are mourning the loss of lives and property due to the fires in Victoria. The Australian's are pitching in and people all over the continent are giving to help the 7000 people left homeless. In all the bad of the fire one sweet animal rescue stands out as spectacular. A fireman spotted a koala walking raggedly along the burnt forest floor and stopped his truck as the poor koala gave up and sat. He quickly got a bottle of water for her and she eagerly drank the water. As she was easing her thirst she reached out and took the fireman's hand and continued to hold it until she finished drinking. She is now in a wildlife rehab clinic to recover from her burns. The national geographic website has put the rescue video on the web if you wish to see the fireman interact with the wild koala.

I wanted to include some photos of another island we went to, Rottnest. This place is facinating. It is a beautiful island with an unusual animal, a quoaka. It is a marsupial and looks like a big squirrel, beaver, kangaroo mix. The name of the island originated from the Germans who thought the quoakas were giant rats so they named the island "Rottnest" meaning 'rats nest'. The Aboriginals named the animals and the name remains.
Elise was facinated by the quoaka and spent most of her time watching and feeding them the leaves they eat. Mikaela also spent a fair bit of time watching the quoakas. See pictures below:


You can only access the island by boat(unless you are Nathan and are going to swim there, part of a four man team next Sat. more on that later.) There are no cars on the island. There is a store, theater, restaurants, hotels, campgrounds etc... but no cars or private dwellings. We brought our bikes on the boat and camped on the island. We snorkeled and saw some amazing sea creatures. There are reefs right by the island, causing many a ship to sink, but allowing for spectacular snorkeling right off the coast. Carson and Nathan made it on their bikes the entire circumference of the island and enjoyed fishing and biking.
It was nice not to worry about cars when we allowed them to take off. I will add a smilebox of the island pictures, it will probably appear before this set of text.
I can't believe we have been here for 6 months - we miss you all and hope you are well! (See below for a post about Penquin Island another island we visited.)