We have just arrived back from several weeks holiday in Australia. We had a great holiday, visiting all the sights and marveling how like New Zealanders Aussies are. And how many of their shops are the same as ours - Bunnings, Subways, MacDonalds, etc etc.
But we (unfortunately) had one unique Aussie experience. We went on a car trip for a few days 'way' up north. Well it seemed like a long way to us but on a map its about 1/4 of an inch. Australia is such a big country. It was 7.30am and we had made an early start, facing a drive of over 600 kilometers back to the city, and were cruising in the car through a national park.
An isolated road, just low scrub on either side, when two kangaroos leaped out of the bushes and ran across in front of us. There was no way we could miss them. The leader made it across, but we just clipped the second one. Unfortunate for Skippy and for us too.
He/she flipped across into the bushes and we were left with a dilemma. Do we stop and go tramping through the bushes (probably snake infested - we were in Australia after all and had heard all about tiger snakes)looking for a wounded animal? If we managed to find it then what would we do with it? Or what would it do to us?
Apparently if you hit a kangaroo you are supposed to check to see if it has a joey. Which one of us would put their hand into the pouch to see if there was one? And if there was, what on earth would we do with it? We were miles and miles from civilization.
So we drove on, feeling rather sick. The car sustained some damage to the bumper/fender and the front panel. The panel beater later told us we were lucky, sometimes the 'roo can come through the windscreen.
The kangaroo however was not so lucky. If he/she survived he will have severe bruising at the least.
Most of the local people there have big 'roo bars on the front of their vehicles. There were several dead kangaroos through out the park, lying on the side of the roads. Obviously they are a hazard. And the cars are too - after all we were in their territory.
4 comments:
Though I had to fight my way jealously past the "several weeks holiday in Australia" part of your first sentence I did read on.
And I think you were right not to get out, it might indeed have been dangerous.
And, as you say, which of any of us would put a hand into a kangaroo's pouch to see if there was joey there.
We visited Big Bend National Park, in Texas, a number of years ago, and the same thing happened except it was a roadrunner (an attractive and iconic bird, though not rare or endangered) that literally ran under the car as we drove by. It was goner. I felt SOOOO badly, fearing it had a nest of eggs or chicks that would now also die. I cried, "We're here to watch the birds, not to KILL THEM!!" But whenever something like that happens, I remind myself that all the carrion-eating creatures, of which there are MANY both macro- and microscopic, will benefit from every other creature's demise.
tie me kangaroo down sport tie me kangaroo down<><><>the dingo ate my baby<><>i am so lame
how come you holiday in YOUR WINTER????
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