April 15 A Mob of Kangaroos (Day 201)
We were greeted this morning by a friendly (?) curious, maybe begging (?) wallaby!
It hung around for quite awhile, maybe expecting some food, but all signage and literature admonish visitors to NOT feed the wildlife!
After he finally sauntered away we decided to move to the campground closer to the Visitors Center from which most of the hiking trails are located. We packed up and rattled back over the washboard gravel road to the Visitors Center where we upgraded to a powered site! We set up camp, had lunch and started off on our first hike to the Bird Blind!
The trail took us into a eucalyptus forest that appears to usually be marshy, but the dry summer conditions have parched it!
At the bird blind we found the marsh and observed several duck species and this black swan through cut outs in the wall of the hut above the marsh.
From the blind we continued our hike through the woods and into sand dunes that we hiked through and over to reach the long sweep of Bakers Beach.
Looking west towards the end of the peninsula where we camped last night at Bakers Point.
We walked east for several km along the deserted beach, seeing only one other hiker and a few birds. We reached another trail that led inland to Archers Knob, a hill that overlooks the beach. We decided we would try the hill and see how far we could get!
Halfway up the Knob we could see the full sweep of Bakers Beach to the east with Little Badger Head and the more distant Badger Head extending out to sea!
From the loop trail on the top of the Knob we looked west down onto the marshlands and ex-cultivated fields of the park, with the eastern sweep of Bakers Beach on the right.
We hiked down off the Knob and through a Eucalyptus forest.
We emerged from the forest onto the fields we saw from the top of the Knob, and into a mob of kangaroos! So that’s what those dots were we saw from the top!
These are actual kangaroos! The big kind, although not as big as the red and grey ‘roos on the mainland. Forester kangaroos are concentrated here at Narawntapu NP and the males can get as big as 2 meters (6.5 ft.) tall and weigh up to 60kg (132 lbs.)! They seemed indifferent to us unless we got too close, then they would casually hop away and continue grazing. We completed our loop hike and were surprised again at our campsite which was filled with wallabies grazing around the campers!
I felt a little guilty making dinner! But the wallaby spaghetti sauce was delicious!