Kangaroos!

So despite a trip to Alice Springs falling through, the weekend was salvaged. On Sunday, Shannon and I went mountain biking at Lysterfield Park, which is about a 45 minute drive from town. We took the train, because the car was otherwise occupied, but even that wasn't such a big deal.

This was the first time I'd been on my mountain bike since November, and I just got it into Oz (thanks for the bill, United). It was good to ride it. The weather was fantastic, too. Not too hot, not too cold, and not too many clouds. Just a couple of big fluffy ones.

Lysterfield is where the 2006 Commonwealth Games mountain bike race was held, and the course was pretty good for racing. The singletrack portion is 10-12k, and loops the outside of the park. It crosses over a number of fire roads so you can get back to the start pretty quickly and easily when you need to.

But the possible highlight of the ride for me was the wildlife. We had three kangaroo spottings. The first time, there were three standing up, having a snack (one with a joey, in pouch) and two or three laying down being lazy.

Spotting number two was clearly the best. I had stopped on the trail because there was a 'roo ahead that I was watching. I got this strange feeling, and had a look to the left, and there were about 10 kangaroos standing up staring at me. It's like they were looking into my soul. So strange. One with joey, in pouch. A couple guys rode past and scattered some of the 'roos, then more came, and this went on for a while. I probably watched them (and then me) for nearly 10 minutes, and probably saw somewhere in the vicinity of 20.

Spotting three was from a longer distance, but the one 'roo who was rolling around scratching his back was pretty hilarious. There were four or five in that bunch. Not sure about joeys.

Next time I go, I'll take my camera.