Kangaroos on the Calder

On my rounds doing representation for a youth choir, I went to Sunbury today.

My first stop was in Diggers Rest, at the delightfully early hour of 9am.  I left home in South Yarra around 7.30am in order to be on time without paying for the toll road.

After forty minutes of weathering city traffic, I got on the Calder Freeway, which takes you to Bendigo and then a great deal further north.  It's a very scenic drive, particularly when you get to contemplate the frustration of being in gridlock facing the opposite direction.

You can imagine my consternation when I noticed a kangaroo sitting in the median strip.  Because the city-bound traffic was pretty much at a standstill he had managed to get halfway across the road without any problems.

I did what you do when confronted with a brute (he was huge) and slowed down.  Then he started moving.  One hop took him to the edge of the median, where he fixed me with a steely glance before taking off again.  I didn't think kangaroos normally do the "wait, look and listen" routine, but this guy seemed pretty with it.

Cue slamming on the breaks.  Fortunately not too hard, so no skidding -- the speedo had gone from near 100km/h to around 40km/h in the 20 seconds since the encounter began.

Kangaroo leapt nimbly across the road and off into the neighbouring paddock.

Driver took a deep breath, checked the road, and hit the gas.