The Grampians
So on day two we headed away from the Ocean and into the Grampians. The Grampians are a small Mountain chain just in between Melbourne and Adelaide. This past January nearly 50% of them were scorched in one of the worst wildfires they had ever seen. So as we headed into the hills we stopped at this aboriginil cultural center to shop and watch this video about how a Giant Emu ravaged australia and eventually helped shape the land because it died. Yeah, an absolutely compelling story. So while we were waiting to go in and view I was walking around outside and looking at some of the amazing birds when i stumbled a little too far away and almost literally walked into…yeah, you guessed it a Kangaroo. I was nearly 3 feet away from it when it popped it’s head up and looked right at me. I tell you it scared the crap out of me. My heart was absolutely racing as it nearly looked me right in the eye, it was huge. I called a guy over and when we went back it was still there and then one popped it’s head up right next to this one. What a beautiful animal. We later discovered in the field there was about 10 in total. A little educational fact…the word Kangaroo means “I don’t understand.” It’s an aboriginal word. When the Europeans would ask them what a Kangaroo was that’s what they would say so that’s what they thought it was. At the end of the day we headed up this peak to view the sunset and to see all the forest that was burnt to a crisp in this fire. As the group approached a viewing site that overlooked the whole valley i noticed a few in the group decided to light up a cigarette. I thought this was incredible seeing as what we were looking at, burnt forest. They were European and as you may know, they smoke alot. So i noticed on girl in particular lit up her cigarette and then tossed her match over the railing. Holy crap…are you kidding me? They just had one of the worst forest fires in the history of their country and she just flung a match over the rail. Luckily another guy noticed and we had a laugh over it, but i thought it was and still is amazing.
Tags: Australia, Kangaroos
Gagnonius
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