Today, the canny kangaroo

I woke up today, Wednesday, March 29, thinking maybe today was the day.  I was going to go check and see if I could get internet on the porch by the office.  But first, I decided to go see if there were kangaroos.  If they were like other animals, many of them feed in the morning and evening.  I wandered to the field at the back of the cabins.  There’s a little grassy area and I stood and waited silently.

There seemed to be some movement across the field.  I wasn’t sure.  I stood still and continued to wait.  YES!!!  It was a kangaroo, also standing and watching me.  I was so excited.  I ran back to the cabin and got Stef.

How exciting.  Our first kangaroo.  She looked pretty big, even from the distance, with a powerful tail.

We stood outside, watching and taking photos.  It wasn’t quite sun up and the light was coming through the trees and grass.  I stood there and suddenly out of the corner of my eye something quickly moved on my left-hand side. 

It was just a blur.  I turned, I pointed my camera and clicked off a couple of frames.

And then all I had was backside.  But I love the feet.

It was another kangaroo, a small one, Momma and baby.  They stood mostly at the edge where the grass was taller, in the shadows, but they were easy to see once you knew what to look for.

How exciting it was … kangaroos there for us as we appeared to be the only residents.  Worked for me.  They kept an eye on us, but didn’t seem that disturbed.  But we didn’t approach or try to annoy them.

After a bit I started to itch.  My wool socks?  Probably not.  Most likely, little bugs.  But it was worth it.  And that was just the beginning of the day. 

We were off to see some things, to walk around, to do our usual wandering.

Govett’s Leap is one of the places that even locals like to visit due to the beauty of the valley and the falls.  The area was named for William Romaine Govett, an assistant surveyor who came upon this place in 1831. 

This stonework looked to me like a wishing well.

 Once again, we were greeted with cloud cover, pretty in its own way.  But a bit of clearing gave us a view of the falls there, at the edge of Grose Valley. 

Looks like marshmallow crème.

The clouds moved in and out, covering and uncovering most of the falls.

We followed some of the trails around until we reached a number of the lookouts.  The trails are steep in some places, or muddy or have puddles, but you do what you have to in order to get to the view. 

From there we went to Evans Lookout and views of what they call the Grand Canyon.  It’s much like ours, with a river at the bottom and grand cliffs, except it’s covered with trees.  It’s as beautiful as our Grand Canyon, but has a lushness because of the greenery.  Both are spectacular.

The color and formation of the rock cliffs are also reminiscent of the U.S. Grand Canyon.

The cliffs on the other side appear to be a different color in the lighting.

The view takes your breath away.

We stopped for lunch, and you never know what kind of things you'll see painted on the side of a building.

The wind-eroded caves also required a bit of a walk down a trail, but everything we’re seeing is worth any walk we do.  I worried about bugs or snakes, and just tried to keep a look out and not touch anything. 

The breaks and cracks in the rock made odd patterns.

We peered up at the cliffs, and noted the odd patterns there, as well.

Our journey today also took us to Anvil Rock, where I think someone has a great sense of humor.  And we did more walking to other areas.

Someone had a great laugh to think of people climbing up here to see "Anvil Rock."

When we finally did our walkabout into Pulpit Rock, I was expecting more of the same … but not this time.  By now we’d seen so many rocks and valleys and trails, I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for.  So this may or may not be Pulpit Rock.

Does that look like a pulpit?  I don't know.

Most of our walks weren’t long, only about 15-20 minutes one-way.  But I counted each round trip as a walk.  I figure we need to do three walks a day. Today was more than three.

It was level walking here, but don't let it fool you.  There was a lot of up and down today.

There were many interesting plants.  But I didn't touch any of them.

Many of the areas we visited are near Grose Valley, encompassing a large area.  A river runs through it, and we could see it in the far distance.  There are so many beautiful areas, so many waterfalls, so many rocks, that after a while it’s a bit difficult to keep them all straight.

Later in the evening after we came back, we were treated to seeing more kangaroos, three of them in the field this time. 

What you looking at?  Take note of the claws.  Looks as though they could rip off your face.

One was quite small, and so it seemed like a real privilege to see it.  After a bit it was close to dark, so I needed to try to get online to post a blog.  I went up to the office and sat.  I kept hearing these loud noises and finally determined the birds were dropping seeds or nuts or something on the tin roof of the building.  It was quite loud and sounded like a heavy hail storm.  I got the blog finished and posted, but not before being eaten alive by mosquitos.