Australia – Ripped Kangaroo!

I think I’ve broken my Dad! Temporarily anyway. He woke this morning having not slept well due to an aching foot and hips.
We were up early again and this time we decided to walk again 5k to Python Rock in the hope of seeing a Lyre Bird.

It was a very quiet walk and although we saw a pademelon and heard the Lyre Bird again we just didn’t see it. Just saw a few of the Log runners and Yellow Robins.

Dads foot was hurting him on the way back and all of a sudden my foot started hurting, (in sympathy I think). After breakfast he fell into a doze on the bed. Rather than walking all day again I suggested we drive down into the Kerry Valley to see what other birds we could find.

It took an hour to drive down. It’s such a twisting and tortuous route. It was cut by the O’Reilly’s Dairy farmers in the late 1800’s to get their milk down to the valley by horse (Only the Irish would have a dairy farm high on an inaccessible mountain). Often by the time they got it down it was curdled and unsaleable!

It’s arable land in the valleys, cattle and horses being the main thing in huge wide undulating fields. There were numerous reservoirs and small creeks. We did get a couple of new birds when we stopped, a tawny grass bird being one. Thank god there are only two varieties because the wretched thing would fly/hover for a few seconds over the scrub before disappearing into it. Blink and you miss it.

We stopped for Coffee in the Returned and Services League (RSL Australia) at Beaudesert which is similar to the Royal British Legion of which my Dad is a member. The receptionist wasn’t sure if she was allowed to let us in but she did anyway and we had a good coffee. Dad was very interested in their display cases.

Later while stopped on the side of the road to look at a Black Shouldered Kite, the police pulled up thinking we were in trouble, probably because the hazards were on and Dad was marching off away from me. They were very friendly and polite (not that I would expect anything less).
We pulled up again to look at large Eastern Grey Kangaroo, the first proper Kangaroo we have seen this trip. When it stood up we could see it was ‘ripped’ with very powerful muscles along its forelegs and chest. Dad got out to look with a warning from me that if it moved (it was a fair way off) towards him, he was to get back in the car. They can be very dangerous and it was definitely checking us out.

Back at O’Reilly’s after dinner we found we were not so tired and feet not so sore so we decided to try a night walk looking to nocturnal marsupials. Kitted out with my head torch and two others we hooked arms in an effort to keep Dad from falling off the boardwalk. We saw not a thing!

Tomorrow is Dad’s last day and we head back into Brisbane bird watching all the way.