Today really tipped the balance on the dead roo vs alive roo scales :-)
Justine and Rachel went to loads of trouble to organise a completely brilliant road trip and picnic for me to go and see kangaroos and any other wildlife we could find. Lisa came too. She's seen a kangaroo before!
We drove south from Canberra with me at the wheel of the 4WD Subaru. We needed the 4WD too! We entered the TIDBINBILLA NATURE RESERVE that was our destination via a dirt road and a few km found we had to ford a fairly wide (20 metres?) river. Not everyone was completely happy about that! But we lived to tell the tale.
Up until this point.... not a single roo had been spotted. It was not looking good on that front though loads of fun was still being had. But on arrival at the park's visitor centre and picnic area, the kangaroo-ometer went immediately into the red. There were loads of kangaroos. A "mob" of them in fact. I used all my "bush tucker" tracking skills to sneak up as close as possible to the roos to get the first of many photos. Cool!
And then we tucked into an enormous and delicious vegetarian picnic that Justine and Rachel had arranged. Excellent.
Partway through the picnic, Justine went to the visitor's centre to find out about Koalas in the area. On return she presented Martin with a bag containing three cuddly Aussie critters; a Koala, a very cool Emu and of course a Kangaroo. They have been duly named Rachel, Lisa and Justine.... though which one is which is to remain a closely guarded secret.... to avoid the inevitable arguments; "I wanted to be the Koalaaaaa!!".
After eating and watching the kangaroos we headed further into the park where we saw more roos, wallabies, an Emu with a youngish chick and a couple of Koalas in an enclosure, including "Lucky" who survived the Canberra bush fires of a few years ago.
What a great afternoon that was!
A few video clips