05 April 2010

Mondays Adventures ....

Monday morning started bright and early for us. Four thirty am to be exact. We were trying to do the impossible ... to duplicate a moment in Gary's life 20 years ago.

Gary was on business in Melbourne 20 years ago and went to a National Park. While driving in the park, he drove by a troop (yes, troop - thank you Jen) of kangaroos. A TON of kangaroos, with emus wandering about amongst them.

Gary, being the wise man that he is and knowing that a single kick from a kangaroo could kill you - threw caution to the wind and started wandering out amongst them also! Got some BITCHIN' photos! I was stunned when he called me from Australia and very impressed with the photos.

So off we went to Wilsons Promontory National Park to find that twenty year old troop of kangas (or, as we were calling them all day - a ganga kanga - thank you A.J.).

Trouble hit early:

The easiest time to find kangaroos was right at sunrise. We had miscalculated the time (or Gary miscalculated how long it took him to drive there the first time) and the drive became a three hour drive rather than a 1 hour drive.

But - I took advantage of the light and the beauty that is called 'Australia' and snapped a few shots:







No ganga kanga anywhere in sight! We decided to take a side road and found a flock? Gaggle? Bunch? Herd? Of Emus!

The father figure:

The fluffy baby:


"Excuse me, Ma'am, but your photograph just stole my soul ... and I would like it back ... NOW!":

Thankfully, since they could do me a lot of damage, they were more afraid of me than I was of them. They were not afraid of the car so as Gary backed the car up, I took photos out the window for a bit:

Taking photos out the window got to be cumbersome, so I got out and just started wading into the crowd:


They were not happy about it:

Slowly they inched farther and farther away from me:

Until it was hard to get a decent shot:

The twins:

Father figure saying something not so nice to me in parting ...

Got to the end - and the ocean and I snapped a few shots. Melbourne has its own Great Ocean Road rock formations:
And that ganga kanga? Never found 'em. Did find one, lone, single, solitary, skittish guy who immediately fled into the grass as we drove up.

Pretty decent photo out the windshield (and blown up 100%):


Best shot of our solitary kangaroo:

So - wild emu photos and sunrise photos in hand, we turned back - me a happy girl with what I had - I'm not greedy (I already have my ganga kanga photos after all - 'Roodiculous')

Saw this flower on the way home and liked how it photographed:

Well, it is late Monday night. I am off to bed, then to pack and a noon flight home tomorrow. I will be in the lounge tomorrow morning and I am sure I will have something to post!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lori, you are much braver than I around those...Emus?...Emie?...Bunch of flightless birds! They have a pretty nasty reputation for disemboweling predators, Good thing you don't look like a dingo!