Saturday, and Amy's time here is nearly at an end. One thing we all wanted to do while in Australia is see kangaroos. I mean, they are everywhere, aren't they? Hopping gaily across motorways, eating crops, generally being - well, everywhere. We were somewhat surprised that in her five months here, Cat hasn't seen a single kangaroo. So, having researched the all-knowing Internet, and, with rain forecast for Sydney, we decided today was the day to hire a car and head over Sydney Harbour Bridge and north on the Pacific Motorway up to Morisset, where we were reliably informed, at its picnic area, we could get up close and personal with real live wild kangaroos.
Did I tell you that the roads in Sydney were quiet? I lied. On a Saturday the world and his family head out of Sydney towards the north. And those from out of Sydney, to the north, head south into the city. We crawled along the main road, Andy driving, with Cat as navigator and Amy and me as back seat drivers. Literally. Well, until Amy fell asleep... after all, she and Cat had been out on the town til gone two the night before. Then it was left to me to make sure that the driver and navigator were fulfilling their roles adequately.
We finally made it to the motorway, and the traffic thinned. Unsurprisingly motorways in Australia are much like those in the UK - three lanes, one of which is mostly unused - the slow one that is. What is different is the view - acres and acres of deeply wooded hills, an occasional cleared area with low buildings and fences, and once an enormous inlet sliding along beneath us. Beautiful.
We finally made it to the little town of Morisset, a fast growing place which began life as a sawmill town when the railway was built. In the 1908 a psychiatric hospital was built there - in the 1960's it housed a staggering 1,600 patients.
Now, the place we were making for was a bit tricky to find. Oh, ok, it was nigh on impossible. The website had no directions, save a street name. There were no tourist signs to guide us. Frustrated, hungry and lost we found ourselves suddenly at the edge of a housing estate by the shore of Lake Macquarie - an enormous salt water lake - twice the size of Sydney Harbour. Here we took stock, and then set off again.
Another drive around and eventually we decided that to get to Morisset picnic area we would have to go through the hospital grounds. And go through them we did. Twice. No kangaroos. No picnic area. A cricket match, a bowling green, loads of low brick buildings, and two signs warning of kangaroos, but no sign telling us where.
This was beginning to feel like a huge hoax.
But we're nothing if not stubborn. And hungry. So we tried a track we'd missed before and suddenly were back by the lake again, and the place was the picnic area from the website! Yes! But... no kangaroos. We were so hungry we almost didn't care. We unpacked our picnic and admired the view of the lake as we devoured it.
Picnic over we decided to explore a bit - and two kangaroos bounded across our path. We followed through a gap in the trees and there they were! Sitting in family groups of seven to ten. One or two on lookout, others sleeping, others scratching, their spindly front legs with delicate almost human hands. Every step we took revealed more groups. They were completely unfazed by us, and they were utterly fabulous.
We stayed there for some time, wandering among them and watching them as they watched us. It was well worth the trek.
In the evening, while making supper, I opened a drawer to look for a colander. Seeing what was inside I squealed and rapidly closed it again. Both girls shrieked. I could only speak in monosyllables. "This big" I said, showing the size with my hands. "Spider." "This big". It was a huntsman - and not big for its type, apparently. It looked huge to me!
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