HOLY [INSERT ANIMAL NAME HERE]!!!!!

WOW.  They’re humongous, and look like a Bigfoot/deer-mix!  Scared the livin’ bejeezus outta me! 

After a 6 sweet days of being pampered by and playing with my friend Sunny in Brisbane, I’m on the road again (just can’t wait to get on the road again!): jetting up the Queensland coast in a tiny, superfast little Hyundai rental car.   (Rather be driving Miss Millie Magnificent, but the Tasman Sea is a vast body of water and unfortunately she can neither fly nor float.)   This week’s Mission Possible:  SCUBA dive & snorkel the Great Barrier Reef!

So at dusk yesterday, I was driving along to my destination - Town of 1770 (teacher Ness says, read up this cool little village, pop. 58, and on Captain Cook!).  Only a minute after turning off the main highway, I saw my first wild kangaroo.  Just like when I saw my first moose in 1996, tromping out of the woods in broad daylight on the University of Alaska campus, regardless if I was by myself or not, I exclaimed, “A [INSERT ANIMAL’S NAME]!!!!” (In this case, of course, “A KANGAROO!” I tend to do this when an animal sighting surprises me.)  This roo was the size I’d imagined them to typically be – about 75 pounds or so.  Cute and harmless, like Winnie the Pooh’s  Kanga.  Awesome!  I’d really hoped to see a wild roo or two while in Oz.  Check!  I was all smiles until, less than kilometers down the road, I swerved to avoid running over a roadkill – sadly, a koala (cute even when deceased).  L  This road trip was quickly turning out to be an Aussie animal safari.  My level of awareness cranked up to that of super-alert, a bit nervous, music off, driving-at-dawn/dusk-in-deer-infested-Northern-Wisconsin mode.  RIGHTLY SO.  Another 10 km further down the deserted road, I narrowly missed hitting A CREATURE FROM A HORROR FILM and I SCREAMED, my hairs standing at attention!  IT had to be 175-200 pounds, and looked like a thin brown gorilla.  The Thing’s head was less than a meter away; with wild, shining eyes staring into the headlights with a ferocious look, as if it were going to attack the car – or jump in front of it.  As my heart rate slowed to normal and the goosebumps subsided, my thoughts ranged from the freaked out, “OMG!!! WHAT IS THAT THING!?!?!? ARE THERE MORE?!?!  AAAAAAH!!!” to the more relaxed, “Wow!  I can’t wait to find out what that was…couldn’t possibly be a kangaroo, but what else that huge (and scary looking) lives on this continent?”

This morning’s inquiry at the camping ground office revealed that THAT THING was the largest species of kangaroo – a Red..  Probably a full-grown male, judging by the size of him and the length of his boxing arms.  Whew!  Not Bigfoot.  Er, actually, he is Bigfoot – Ozzie-style!

P.S.  You know those startling jungle bird sound effects in the movies that go something like “Ooh-ooh- ooh- ooh- ooh- ooh- oah- oah- OAH-AAH-AAH-AAH”?  My hypothesis is those sound effects come from Oz birds.  The 1770 Camping Ground is squawking with them, which is a little eerie even on a bright, sunny day!