Upside Down

The first time I saw...

… a kangaroo... wild, free and undisturbed by human.
Australia. Truly, world turned upside-down. Our trip starts in Sydney, as we stroll along the ocean road, packed in our bright green and purple rent-a-camper. The sun is high in the sky, we are so eager to discover, possibilities are endless. We spend the night in our four-wheeled “hotel room”, somewhere at a deserted rest place along the highway. An exciting new adventure is about to start, as soon as the sun rises bright. Then, we find ourselves overwhelmed with ideas... which way to go? That's when a friendly local tells us about Kanangra Walls, a place not so easy to reach and not exactly a tourist trap, it seems. But, we are not exactly tourists either, so, why not!?! There is a chance we can't even get there, the road had been closed because of recent flooding... but we are lucky. Our camper can barely take its weight up the nearly vertical road. At some point it's flat again, but asphalt turns into dust. Not a living soul anywhere around us. And then, all out of nowhere, there he is, in the middle of the road. Staring at us with big curious eyes, and then hopping away so fast, as if to say: “You can't catch me!”. Next one we meet as we reach the designated camping spot. He is so close, but not exactly afraid... it's his territory after all. He is waiting for our next move, and as our noisy moving home gets closer and closer, he decides to just stay put. As we park our camper and get out in quest for some rain water, he had disappeared. To share the gossip with his family? Maybe. It doesn't seem like they get disturbed by the likes of us way too often. Then it's nearly sunset. We walk to the Walls, and the view is so incredible, it takes your breath away. It looks as if the whole ground around us is a giant cake, and someone cut off a piece of it with a very sharp knife. It's not the end of the world, no. There is more on the other side. But everywhere below us, forest so thick and green, so unexplored. Men has not yet laid a foot in that wilderness. As the night falls, we can see the shadows of the unknown around us. It is so wild, the only light comes from the stars above. And they are magnificent, like nothing I have ever seen. Morning comes with the first rays of sunlight through the window. As I get out of my night shelter, I suddenly see I am surrounded, so many of them, looking at me without fear, as if to say: “Welcome!”