The Adventures of Carrie the Koala and Karl the Kangaroo

By Douglas Mendel

The Adventures of Carrie the Koala and Karl the Kangaroo are about two Marsupials in Australia that take a bus ride from a city to the end of the line in The Outback for an amazing adventure of living, growing, learning and experiencing all that life has to offer beyond their wildest and crazy dreams. Karls dream of learning to fly and surf definitely sets him apart from his other Kangaroo buddies as he explores the skies and oceans off the coast of Port Augusta, Australia. Carries dreams come to fruition as she learns that she doesnt have to fit the self-imposed confines of what a Koala has to live by.

There is no other book that captures the imagination and soul of two Marsupials that start their adventure on the outskirts of a city, take a bus to the end of the line and start their incredible journey of self-discovery through dreams, sharing, living, growing and meeting other interesting animals and humans along their journey!

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 19, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491718322

Douglas Mendel

Douglas Mendel lives in the Colorado Rockies, where the beauty, peace and tranquility feed his soul and provide inspiration for his writings. He also has a non-profit that helps firemen in Cambodia, two fire trucks being the biggest donations. www.firetrucksforcambodia.com Douglas was inspired to write this novel through NaNoWriMo.org. Four words of wisdom gave him the freedom to compose, “Write With Free Abandon”. www.dougmendel.com

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THE ADVENTURES OF CARRIE THE KOALA AND KARL THE KANGAROO

Copyright © 2014 Douglas Mendel.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1831-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-1832-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014913515

iUniverse rev. date: 3/04/2015

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1    The Journey Begins

2    Dreaming Takes Hold of the Marsupials

3    Happy as a Clam

4    The Marsupials Dream BIG!

5    Skylar the Baby Seagull

6    A Nasty Splash Hits His Head

7    Johnson Atoll

8    Ayers Rock

9    Sand Island

10    Port Augusta

11    Clapsticks

12    Sandra’s Bungalow

13    S’mores and Campfires

14    Leaving Karl’s Reef

15    The Night Sky

16    The 3 Koala’s Amazing Journey

17    Port Augusta

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dani, Lynne, Erik, Jesse and Tara for being in the writer’s group for the inspiration to write in a fun and invigorating environment. The following people helped out with various stages of the novel; Stephanie Mendel (Mom!), Doris Mendel, Nick Rawlings, and a special thanks to Juli Rathke for being a supporter, yoga teacher, life coach and friend. A very special thanks to Kevin Mastin, who is the talented artist of the beautiful cover and the interior illustrations, and to Thea Kano, who did an amazing job of editing the novel. My immense gratitude is given to her for her patience and dedication to my first book.

Introduction

Travel entered my life on the international level in 1981. I went to Israel for six weeks with my confirmation class from temple in San Francisco, California, as a cumulative hoorah for ten years of studying in the Jewish tradition. I was sixteen and was excited to go overseas and experience with all five senses the sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touch of a foreign land. About twenty-five fellow classmates and a few adult chaperones made up the group. It was an amazing experience to taste falafel for the first time and to see Israeli youth (ages eighteen to twenty-one) carrying AK-47s, as it was mandatory for youth to serve in the army for two years after high school.

I remember climbing Mount Sada at two in the morning for the few hour hike, leaving early enough to beat the triple-digit heat during the day. It was probably still eighty degrees in the wee hours of the morning. I don’t remember much except for the beautiful view from the summit. After a few hours of rest on the top, gravity helped the group make a quick descent to the bottom.

Floating in the Dead Sea (it’s impossible to swim underwater because of the high salinity levels), we found cuts we didn’t know we had, because of the salt.

I remember a girl of about three years old picking her nose at her parents’ pizzeria and putting it on some dough. Exit stage left, not hungry after witnessing that extra ingredient.

Those few experiences are what I remember of my first trip overseas more than thirty-one years ago. I didn’t know it at the time, but that trip planted wanderlust in me that continues to this day.

The next adventure would be to Australia and New Zealand in 1982 for six weeks, living with a family in each country for a more authentic experience. The first three weeks was in Frankston, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, living with a family and figuring out if kangaroos would be on every corner, waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting bloke from America.

After having conversations with the parents of the family I was staying with, I realized I was living in a fantasy world, letting my mind run free with the wildlife scurrying around.

In reality, kangaroos were found in zoos and the outback and brush far away from cities, though it would be cute to see a kangaroo at a bus stop!

The other animal I was curious about was the koala bear though they aren’t bears at all. I was expecting to see them as well, but they are only in zoos and in forests, brush land and rural areas. Now only if a kangaroo and a koala would be spotted at a bus stop together; that would get the locals talking!

New Zealand was fun because I lived on a sheep farm and found out that sheep outnumber the people two-to-one. Riding an all-terrain vehicle on the farm to experience the vastness and beauty and to see the hundreds of sheep was quite amazing. Sheering a sheep was a learning experience. They were definitely naked without the wool covering them. Baa… baa…

So the trip to Australia and New Zealand in ’82 brought kangaroos and koalas in the picture because I thought I would see them on every street corner. After having conversations with my host family and realizing that they were only in zoos and in rural areas, I thought it would be cool if a kangaroo and a koala met at a bus stop and decided to take the bus to the end of the line and go places they had never gone before. It wouldn’t matter that they didn’t have change for the bus; the bus driver would be so surprised at the sight of two animals waiting at the bus stop that he would waive the bus fare and take them on a journey for free.

1

The Journey Begins

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C arrie the Koala and Karl the Kangaroo boarded the No.7 bus to the outback for a journey they would never forget. Fortunately, Karl had a big pouch for snacks and water bottles, since it was unknown when and where they would be left off and if there would be water sources and food sources at their destination.

Carrie was fourteen years old, and Karl was seventeen years old, and both had a streak of wandering and exploring their Land of Oz. Carrie had two siblings, both males, and Karl had one sibling, a female roo (short for kangaroo) that received the admiration and interest of all the other male roos in the area.

She was comfortable being solo and doing her own thing with Karl looking after her every now and then to make sure she was all right.

Carrie’s two male siblings were content to be koalas and do what koalas do—eat eucalyptus leaves. There were many eucalyptus trees in Australia, so there was no shortage of food.

Back to Karl and Carrie’s journey on the No.7 bus from Frankston, on the outskirts of Melbourne, to points unknown. Being best friends, they were going to the end of the line to start their journey of self-discovery and friendship and share in the difficulties of traveling with minimal supplies. They had some Tootsie Rolls, Marmite and Milky Way bars and two liters of water for when there weren’t enough insects and small rodents for them to consume for their daily intake of protein. They wanted to be fully alert for the journey that lay ahead every day.

After the No.7 bus came to the end of the line at Alice’s Saloon in the middle of nowhere, which was about 777 kilometers from the nearest outpost, Carrie and Karl hopped off the air-conditioned bus into the brush and barren land to start their odyssey. It was the first adventure of Carrie and Karl’s fantastic chapter of triple-digit heat without deodorant. Fortunately for both of them, their noses were stuffed up from the eleven hour bus ride from Frankston, so their body odor was the least of their concerns. After they hopped off the bus, and the bus started driving away yonder to where it came from, they took stock of what they had, which wasn’t much.

Karl had keen eyesight, and Carrie had a nose for critters, no matter how small. The two of them would make a great pair for surviving in the wilderness of Australia.

When they realized they were on their own, they decided to hop and slowly walk toward the west, since the sun sets in the west, and for no other reason than it is a spectacularly beautiful sight to follow the horizon of the sun setting in the distance, to see the various reds, oranges and purples and the subtle shades and hues of each primary color. They were able to discover enough seeds and insects to satisfy their hungry appetites for the first evening.

After travelling many kilometers their first night, they hunkered down under some trees in the grasslands for slight protection from the elements. They were smart because in the morning, the dew that collected on the stalks of grass would be sufficient for them to hydrate.

They would be able to quench their thirst and be ready to combat the triple-digit heat of the day. The grass was pretty tasty as well, with some insects on some of the stalks so that their bellies would be full.

For much of the next day after their first full night in the middle of nowhere, they were excited to be free of the city lifestyle that they had known for a while and to discover the other Australia that they had only heard about from friends and family or from their imaginative minds that allowed them to dream of something greater than their lives of city blocks and concrete.

They moved slowly so as not to exert too much energy, as well as to feel one with the earth and feel the energy of the sun, the wind, and the heat. To be connected with one’s surroundings takes patience, to pick up on the subtleties than can be felt if you pay attention and listen to the heartbeat that is all around us. They relished the touch of their new landscape and were careful not to cut their skin with rough patches of earth or rocks or sticks.

Their skins were tough, but it never hurts to be careful.

As they were best friends, they shared thoughts and feelings about what they were going through. They realized that they were very lucky and fortunate to be travelling together. They wished they could communicate with their friends and family back wherever they were scattered about.

Nobody could have conceived that Carrie the koala and Karl the kangaroo would be best friends. Carrie was a slow-moving marsupial, and Karl was a hopping marsupial.

Karl and Carrie wanted some excitement, so they ventured out toward the beautiful vastness of the Outback of Australia. They had no idea where to go, so they just put one foot—er, a couple feet—in front of the other, and lo and behold, they were on their way to untold adventures that only Carrie and Karl had the gumption and perseverance to experience.

As it was midmorning, they were a little hungry and thirsty, so they slowly maneuvered through the thistles and grass and shrubs to suck the moisture off the thin, green and tan stalks. For food, some insects and small rodents sufficed for a morning meal; it had them content and satisfied enough to start their journey.

They ambled across scrubland and shallow, barren valleys, just enjoying each other’s company and trying to find shade whenever possible, as the triple-digit heat was brutal and zapped their energy. Their exploration of their own country astounded them, as they never imagined the incredible beauty and lonely isolation that was just beyond the outskirts of the cities.

They came upon a dusty and sandy area, about one-half the size of a football field. Karl was inspired to draw in the sand with his forepaws. He sat on his hind legs for balance with his long tail scurrying about to bat away the flies.

Karl started moving the sand in patterns with his adept forepaws, and eventually a few designs came to fruition. That was amazing for a regular artist, let alone a kangaroo in The Outback. Karl drew squares, circles, trapezoids, pyramids, and rectangles. Carrie was completely befuddled by the drawings, not knowing the significance of Karl’s newfound hobby. Even Carrie took a swipe at the sand with her little fingers to draw. It was a very slow process for her to make scrambled shapes, trying to imitate Karl’s more precise designs of squares, trapezoids, circles, rectangles, and pyramids.

Carrie was having fun drawing with her fingers. She never knew she had the manual dexterity and thought process to draw shapes that conveyed her creativity. She had always wanted a dollhouse, so she added a triangle to the top of