Avoiding making a fool of myself in front of other people is often on my mind and often it's in vain. In the case of that cricket oval in rural Victoria back in 2015, it was definitely running through my brain, but as to whether it was justified or not, I'm yet to figure out.
As in, yes, I probably looked like a dork to anyone watching when I ran back into my car as a kangaroo came bounding right for me. I'm fairly certain my arms flailed in a manner reminiscent of George Costanza escaping a minor kitchen fire at a child's birthday, but what was I meant to do? Hold my ground against a giant rat crossed with a human?
For such a beloved national icon, kangaroos have always made me a little uneasy. Maybe I've watched too many YouTube videos of jacked-up male roos with abs and pecs whiling away the afternoon with a pleasant round of kick-boxing. It's hard to say.
What I do know is that at Halls Gap — a small settlement that acts as the tourist heart of Victoria's stunning Grampians National Park — I was trying very hard to show no fear. It wasn't just the couple of dozen kangaroos on the cricket field for whom I was putting on the act, but the sprinkling of other tourists. I'd just seen a couple — possibly Chinese — casually walk across the oval, the kangaroos equally nonchalant in response.
Then a pair of tourists of a continental European persuasion upped the ante by taking their toddler for a stroll amid the marsupials. It was at that point I turned off the ignition, got out of the car and thought, "Yep, I'll go for a little meander with the kangaroos, too".
