While Barry the koala is sitting in the tree and leisurely munching on his eucalyptus leaves, Kelly the kangaroo is jumping up and down excitedly at the foot of the tree.

“But it's important!” Kelly calls up to Barry.

“But I can't,” Barry mumbles a little vaguely with his mouth full of leaves. “I have to make sure I eat my calories for the day.”

“But I can't do it without you. Please, please, come down and with me! It's not that far,” Kelly grumbles back.

“Why don't you take a photo and send it to me via WhatsApp?”

“No, you have to see this with your own eyes! PLEASE!!!” This goes back and forth for quite a while, until at some point the snake ZsaZsa gets fed up and hisses: “Darn it! Can't we finally have z-z-z-ome pea-z-z-z-e and quiet? I can't get my digestive z-z-z-leep at all. Now just go with the nag or I'll bite you in the butt!”

This has an effect. Barry's food falls out of his mouth in fright and he climbs down the tree at breakneck speed. Kelly has never seen the koala bear descend from the tree so quickly. “So, here I am, where am I going now?” says Barry, wiping a few more crumbs of eucalyptus leaves from his fur and looking as if he had never intended to do anything other than come along. “That way,” Kelly exclaims happily and hops forward with quick leaps. “Stop, stop, stop, stop,” Barry calls after her, ”a fluffy koala is not a racehorse!” So Kelly stops and waits for his friend.

He slows down and now hobbles very slowly alongside the somewhat chubby and slightly swaying koala. While Barry takes ten steps, the kangaroo only has to hop once and is already right back up again. Of course, this makes communication a little difficult. But that doesn't stop Kelly from chewing Barry's fluffy ear off.

“You've-never-seen-that-before-I-was-totally-baffled-just-imagine-that-that-is-incredible-never-in-my-life-would-I-have-thought-of-that...,” Kelly speaks without point or comma. His jumps don't seem to take his breath away at all. Unlike Barry, who is panting after just a few hundred meters. He can hardly concentrate on Kelly's words. And running also makes him tired and, of course, hungry. Hunger fills his entire mind. Unbridled hunger!!! His stomach rumbles more and more with every step and he feels as if his legs are carrying more than just a koala today.

He shouldn't have embarked on this venture so quickly. Now he has to persevere. It's almost as far back as the destination, which is supposed to be something special. So far, Barry hasn't really been able to work out what it's supposed to be. In any case, there are a bunch of eucalyptus trees with super juicy eucalyptus leaves at the destination. They are said to be particularly aromatic in the area. Mmmmhhh, delicious! Totally lost in thought, Barry doesn't even notice that they've almost arrived.

Now Kelly can hardly be stopped, with five hops he has moved so far away from Barry that the koala can almost no longer see him. Barry is also short-sighted! So he runs after the bouncing reddish-brown dot, hoping that this is the right direction.

And indeed, after a few minutes he comes across Kelly again, who is having a lively conversation with a very, very strange bird. He's never seen anything like it before. He is totally flabbergasted. This is really unbelievable! Never in his life did he think he would see such a creature. Wait a minute! Isn't that what Kelly said earlier? But that's the way it is. It's the truth. A cone-shaped bird with a blue face mask and feet so bright turquoise that they dazzle his eyes stands before him.

With a final effort, Barry quickens his steps and, completely exhausted, sits down on the dusty ground in front of Kelly and the strange bird.

“Hey, who's that?” he pants, gasping for breath.

“That's Sula,” says Kelly, ”a blue-footed booby from Middle Merika!”

“Middle A-merica!” the bird corrects the kangaroo.

“Never heard of it!” says Barry. “Where is it?”

“From here, east across the sea,” says the blue-footed booby, pointing in that direction.

“Wow. Over the sea! You flew that far. You can do that?” Barry marvels. The gannet's blue face turns slightly purple.

“No, I can't do that with my little wings. I traveled here on the ship,” confesses Sula. “I'm traveling around the world and always look for rides for such long distances. I've always wanted to go to Australia because there are animals here like nowhere else in the world.”

“Well, it seems to be in Central Me...,” Kelly looks at Sula for help.

“A-merica,” Sula helps Kelly to get started.

“... Central A-merica has some incredibly interesting animals. Like you!” Kelly beams from ear to ear.

“Thanks for the flowers, Kelly!” Sula says happily. “What do you two think about showing me a bit of your homeland? I'd love to have such friendly companions on my discovery tour who can also tell me something about the country and the animals.”

“Oh yes, we'll do that,” Kelly immediately agrees to the suggestion.

“Mmmhh,” replies Barry meekly, ”I'd love to, but only when I have a full stomach again.”

“Something to eat after the long journey can't hurt,” Sula agrees.

“All right,” says Kelly, ”adventures are better on a full stomach!”

“I'm sick!” they suddenly hear Barry's stomach say. Everyone looks in amazement at the koala bear, who shrugs his shoulders knowingly.

“Oh, a ventriloquist,” Sula says happily. But then suddenly a colorful snake head wriggles out of the koala's pouch. “I z-z-z-ink I need something between my gillz-z-z now too,” hisses ZsaZsa.

“Yeah, nap time my ass! I guess it was your curiosity that drove me out of the tree and you into my pouch? You really wanted to see what Kelly wanted to show me too, huh?”

“Well, there'z-z-z not much going on here. I wanted to have an adventure again and not just hang around laz-z-z-ily in the treez-z-z. But it was totally worz-z-z it!” said ZsaZsa mischievously, grinning like only a lucky boa can.

“Nothing surprises me now!” said Barry happily. “And I thought I had to work on my fitness.”

“I'd do it anyway if I were you, it waz-z-z pretty wobbly in there,” says ZsaZsa, pointing to the koala's belly with the tip of her tail.

All four of them start laughing. Despite the criticism of his cuddly, cuddly belly, Barry is not dissuaded from having a snack before the journey. But the other three have no objections either. So the three new friends set off to fill their bellies. And if they haven't burst, they're still traveling through Australia together!

And to bring this adventure to life, you can find the matching coloring pictures here for free downloaden❤️