This past weekend was pretty big for me – I saw my first kangaroo(s), saw Bells Beach, where they filmed Point Break (RIP Patrick), and got up-close and personal with a magpie – the crazy head-hunting Aussie bird.
Yesterday late-morning Timmy and I hopped in the car for an extremely scenic drive to St. Leonards (not to be confused with St. Leonard, Quebec), where the Tankard’s beach house is. Our first stop would be a golf course where many kangaroos graze and people from all over would come see them in action.
There were just a couple very slight disappointments for Timmy and I… One is that the golf course now had signs all over, clearly stating that pedestrians/tourists are NOT to go on premises to see kangaroos. Also, it seemed as if they were controlling where the kangaroos could hang out, and, lastly, the poor things were tagged!! As if 50,000,000+ kangaroos living in the wild in Australia isn’t enough, this golf course feels the need to control the 200 they have on their property. Unbelievable.
I was taking these shots over a fence, and there were golfers nearby, and we were technically there “illegally” so I had to be quick. There was a cute little joey with it’s mother, first in the pouch then it came out. Really cool.
Our next stop was Bells Beach. It was a cold, overcast, rainy day. There was NO ONE surfing, and only two people on the beach, but it was really cool to be there, and it’s quite the sight. I took a few shots, one of Timmy freezing his ass off, clearly only there for me…
As we were leaving Bells Beach, Timmy spotted about 200 kangaroos hanging out on a farm. We quickly pulled off the road, parked on the grass, grabbed my Flip video camera and jumped the fence to get closer to the animals, who were NOT TAGGED, just doing their thing. I know, I know, “Daniel, where’s the video footage??” – I still need to get better internet connectivity, please be patient. We must have been talking/yelling too loud as we were running towards the roos, because they all quickly stood up and were staring right at us. Timmy was afraid they would attack us, I was afraid some crazy Aussie farmer would pull out his shotgun and shoot us for being on his private property!
We got pretty close, but Timmy wouldn’t allow me to touch any of them…
When we got to the beach house, Dennis (Timmy’s dad) was outside feeding a magpie (pictured above). These birds are really nice looking, but can do some major damage if you get too close to their nests.
We had a great time at the beach house, despite the weather not being too nice to us. We went for dinner at the local pub, where I had my first chicken parma – excellent. We also noticed this pub has a HUGE beer garden, which should be lots of fun this summer.
Later, back at the house, we watched Geelong destroy Collingwood in the last prelim final before the Grand Final this Saturday (pronounce “satday”). We also discussed snakes and spiders, which then led me to a spidery nightmare and sitting up in bed for 2 hours freaking out. I couldn’t wake Timmy, he hates spiders as much as I do…
That’s about it! Stay tuned (still) for videos and photos to come, I’m going to try and add some LA photos from my time there back on September 8th. Had another great weekend!
Now we’re off to some street music festival (back in Melbourne) and tonight, I’m not quite sure… I’ll let you know.