We stopped at Erskine Falls, just outside of Lorne, for a short, steep hike down to the falls late in the afternoon on our first day of driving the Great Ocean Road. The falls were gorgeous, so we spent some time hiking around near the bottom before making the steep climb back to the top.
By then, Jack had determined it was time for a quick bathroom break. We didn’t see anything at the falls, so we hopped in the car and stopped at a nearby picnic area that had a sign for bathrooms. The area was deserted at that late point in the day and when we pulled into a parking space, we saw this gorgeous little bird perched right in front of our car.
We took some quick pictures and then headed to the bathroom. As soon as we came out, the bird had a henchman (okay, maybe it was just a friend) and they were both perched on top of the bathrooms we just exited. Wow, what a coincidence, right? But we thought it was pretty cool to see two of them at once, so didn’t think too much of it.
Walking back to our car, we checked out the sign for the picnic area and saw that the birds were referenced and they are king parrots. We thought it was great that we got to actually see them in person.
Suddenly, the two birds came whooshing up next to us and landed in trees right by where we’re standing. When I say they “whoosh”, I mean they were so close that we felt the wind from their wings! It scared the bejeezus out of us and we were starting to think this whole bird interaction was getting a little creepy. Not so creepy that I didn’t at least snap another cool picture, but seriously, what is up with these birds? Surely they weren’t stalking us, right?
Suddenly, we were distracted by a loud squawk that came from a nearby tree. It was s a huge cockatoo. or basically what I have determined was the Don Corleone of this whole bird mafia because I am pretty sure he was the one calling the shots to the other guys. We headed that direction to get a few pics and were joking that it’s some sort of bird signal to attack.
Holy crap, we turned around to get in our car and both of the king parrots were on it, staring at us. When I say they were on our rental car, I’m not quite sure that conveys how creepy this was. They were ON the car, right where we needed to get in, just staring at us. It was like some Stephen King movie, they were staring into our SOULS…okay, maybe that is a little dramatic, but it was off the charts creeptastic. Green guy was blocking my door and red guy was casing the back of the car so Jack and Matt couldn’t walk around to the other side. We would try to move and they would move in the same direction to block us.
The green guy finally moved far enough away enough from my door so I could slowly approach the car and then get in as fast as I could. Matt and Jack took a wide berth around the back of the car and were eventually able to get in on their side and the birds flew away when we shut the doors. At that point the birds flew back into a nearby tree where they had to bide their time and wait for their next unsuspecting victims…
The Detour Diary 