Guest appearance from Deidre:
While Alan “the Kangaroo Hunter” Howard and I have been in Canberra, he has been very proud of the fact that there are kangaroos in back yards and I didn’t quite believe him. Anyway, to try and prove his point (and “I wanted to see them too!” which I think was more the point) we decided to go on a night time tour… taking the trusty torch which was brought with us for this very reason.
This was not the first time for trying to find kangaroos.
Apparently Kangaroos are nocturnal creatures.
We travelled up to Mt Ainslie where we took the car a little off the beaten track to hunt down Kangaroos. We only found two – one light coloured and another which was darker – but obviously “cautious” of the car and its full beam lights as they hopped away quickly before we could get a decent view.
On the way home, Alan decided to take me to Fern Hill, an area he used to live in, and an area renowned for wild kangaroos and bushland. However, in the last 5 years much of the bushland has been removed and house plots have replaced it. The disappointment for Alan was noticeable by his persistance to not give up on finding a kangaroo. There was a special track that Alan had walked many a time which he found after a little driving and we proceeded to go off road again. I must admit that this was rather exciting – although a kangaroo was not to be found.
Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be able to call him the Kangaroo Hunter anymore – because there don’t seem to be any Kangaroos that want to be found… I relate this to how the Crocodile Hunter would not have his name if there were no crocodiles… if you get my drift.
I never realised how in touch with the wild animals of Australia Alan is… but he will always be the Kangaroo Hunter to me….
– Deidre
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