First of a Few Updates

We are the worst bloggers. It has been two months and four days since our last blog. We hope to bring you up to speed on the exciting lives of Steve and Kate in Australia.

Although, just so you all know, "Life is the same in any country. You get up, go to work, come home, eat, hang out and go to bed to do it all again the next day." To quote my brother Brian.

But, we have some fun and memorable moments that we'll fill you in on.

First story.

Animal lovers: Do not hold this against us.

We planned a weekend away in late February which was supposed to consist of camping. We traveled to the Mornington Pennisula. And we drove around for a campsite. For hours. I think we can figure out who planned this weekend:) I really do love him and he really does do a great job with these trips. We ended up staying in a hotel. Hey, it happens.

So here we are, traveling around, checking out the town and nature, just driving around in our automobile, on the wrong side of the road. As we're trying to find a place to have a snack, three giant kangaroos are staring at us. I mean, they're about (and let me put this in my terms, no actual measurements used) two car lengths away from us. It was amazing. I slowly took out the binoculars and Steve took out the camera. And we missed them. That fast. They didn't make noise, I expected to hear a 'boing' as they hopped away, but it didn't happen. It was just like grown men were running away from us. Except, I've never seen a grown man hop over a fence with both feet at the same time.

We were just truly amazed. Our first encounter with kangaroos. The Australian stereotype had entered our lives. We continue driving and notice some things moving, keep driving. You look out far with the binoculars and there are a ton of bush-like objects. Keep driving around the bend. A kangaroo hops across the road in front of our car, again two car lengths away. Then another, and another, and eventually we're watching these 5 foot to 6 foot tall animals hop frantically from one side of the road to another trying to get away from us. It's just amazing. We stay there for quite some time, just staring at them all. All the bushes actually turn out to be kangaroos, and there are heaps of them. I stopped counting after 100. It's unreal.

We keep driving and see a lone kangaroo. This is where the animal lovers should probably stop reading. For only a second, it looks scared. We're taking pictures and seeing how close Steve can get to it. It's not hopping away. Weird. Steve gets so close that he realizes it's foot is tangled up in the fence it's leaning against. It's in a distorted position. So, after a little while, Steve actually takes it's foot out of the fence with the help of his Swiss army knife no harm (from Steve) to the kangaroo. The kangaroo was not scared at all. Then the sad news. This kangaroo's leg was dislocated. It couldn't hop away. It was going to be stuck there forever. So sad. 'Should we bring it back to the US?' I said. Instead, we opted to talk to locals who then directed us to the house on the property where we had our first kangaroo sighting. This man, we were told, had a license to kill kangaroos. WHAT?!?!? We just got to Australia. It's our first time seeing the stereotypical animal. And we're going to talk to a man that kills them.

He was quite normal and very friendly. After explaining the situation to him, he agrees that it's best to put the animal 'Out of it's misery.' Both this man and Steve are telling me horror stories of a fox, being a local predator, will come along and eat it alive. Not kill it first, but eat it alive. So we wait for the man to get his gun and his 12 year old daughter and her friend. He actually said, 'I'll have to bring my kids, but they'll have to learn about this stuff some day anyway.' And I promise, he wasn't a wacko, really normal. So we lead him to the kangaroo. And right away, kanga knew what was going to happen. It was quite sad. I couldn't watch. I was trying to make sure the kids were okay. One of which was crying, shouting for her dad not to do it, and bawled up in the fetal position on the backseat floor of the car.

We got someone to kill kanga. So sad. I still can't believe it. So that was our first encounter with kangaroos. Welcome to Australia!

After that, our mood was kind of mellow. We took a nature walk and I said, 'Steve, do you think there will be snakes here?' He responded, 'I don't know.' But, being the nature expert he is, I trusted him. I'm talking and talking and talking. Then Steve talks, but really he shouts, 'Whoa!' Yep, a giant black snake is standing in our way. I'm so scared. I'm afraid it's going to swivel itself around my leg, up my body and swirl itself around my neck to kill me. Obviously it doesn't. But I walk away. I'm asking for Steve to come with me. But, being the nature expert he is, he throws a stick at it. I was so scared and angry. I find out later that he threw two sticks at it. When someone asked why, he said, 'I wanted to know if it was alive.' Come on! Luckily, it slivered away. No snake injuries.

It was an interesting day to say the least. We also saw a wallaby and an echinda, both rare animals to see.

Australia, me and my nature-expert husband in the wilderness.

So, that's just the first of a few updates. Come back real soon for more stories.

P.S. The kangaroo pictured here is NOT the one that got shot. The one we got shot was half the size.