Boing!

I finally caught a glimpse of a kangaroo in the wild long enough to snap a photo  -

Last weekend Rob and I went out to John Forrest national park to do the 15 km hike I did the first weekend I was here.  We got started a good two hours later than we should have and got a wee bit lost following a horse track that added 3-4 extra kilometers to our trek.  These two small misfortunes equalled a few brutally hot hours of hiking as we finish

ed the loop.  On the flip side, it gave us an extra stunning bit of ground to traverse and we ran smack into a momma kangaroo and her joey.

We were marching along, and as usual I was completely fixated on my feet in an effort to not end up with my face in the dirt.  Rob, on the other hand, was all eyes and ears up and out to catch any little item of interest in the vicinity.  According to him, I would have walked directly into the roos had they not bounded off just before I plowed into them.  Good thing they were paying attention…

It was amazing to me that they only bounced off about 15 meters into the bush and then just stood there, allowing me to get my camera out of the pack, position myself for a shot and actually snap one before they took off.  The youngin' was definitely the more skittish of the two, taking off before I could get a better shot with both of them.  Oh well, he was pretty damn cute anyway.

Other than a mutual cranky pants moment at the blazing hot end of the hike, as we were both suffering from creaky painful joints and desperate for cold water to jump into, it was a pretty great day.