Yes indeed. With white glowing eyes when illuminated by the curious traveller's phone flash. I first thought I was looking at gigantic rats, but these actually rather cute marsupials, carrying their young offspring in large vertical pouches on their chests, have a much better reputation than their rodent cousins. And that was not the only difference I noticed when moving into this outer Sydney suburb. Getting out of the train, suddenly I realized that the city had been noisy and crowded and stressful, while this place is almost out of a fairy tale. Trees and flowers are filling the empty spaces between perfectly typical suburban homes, each one with their own garden, swimming pool and either kids or dogs, playing joyfully under the setting sun, illuminating the sky fiery red, and under the rising moon being reflected on the perfectly smooth surface of the dark blue ocean waters, sheltered from the winds in large bays, harbouring a fleet of yachts and sailing boats and small fish. There is even a nice little park nearby with a freaking waterfall. Is this real? I know it is, because otherwise the perfectly beautiful white cockatoos nesting on the stunningly large Eucalyptus tree in front of our house wouldn't be so annoyingly loud and my first time going surfing here at Cronulla beach, wouldn't have been so awful, leaving me crying on the beach over my inability to control the forces of nature, and a gigantic bruise on my upper arm, making me look as if I was trampled down by a baby elephant.

On the other hand, being so far out of the Sydney has the advantage to being closer to the many national parks surrounding the metropolitan area. And indeed, there is the Royal National Park right across the harbour from here, just a ferry ride away, with its biggest attraction, the two-day, 26km, long coastal walk. Since I neither had the time nor energy to do the whole thing, we contended ourselves with the first five kilometres, passing the famous 'Wedding cake rock', stupidly named because it looks like a wedding cake. Oh, but so worth it, walking along the hilly cliffs over the foaming waves breaking at the sandstone coast and stunning beaches. While walking south, we had the glittering Pacific waters on our left and bushland on our left, and no building in sight for miles. I decided that this would also be the day when I find out if Australians pick up hitchhikers, so instead of walking back where we came from (which would have been boring anyway) we turned east, away from the sea, until we reach the road that would take us back to the ferry terminal. And not ten minutes, we sat in the car between the two young sons of a true-blooded Australian, with such a heavy accent, that I had to stop myself from asking 'what' more than three times in a row and just nod and smile and pretend to understand. But his lovely soul dropped us at the right place and gave me hope that hitchhiking could be a valid alternative for travelling this gigantic country.

Well, the only thing that could have made this day better was if we'd seen some whales, but it seems I would have to wait a few months or change location to get a peek at these friendly giants. Next time!