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Easter Trip Reports - post'emhere! 7-Apr-2010 At 2:51:24 PM Hendo

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At about 6pm or so on Thursday I was eagerly awaiting Sam and Eug to drop by and pick me up to head off to the Warrumbungles. Sam set his GPS to the Bungles and we were away. We headed up the F3 a little way and were pleased to find the traffic fairly light. Soon we were heading down Putty Road; slow and windy. Our initial excited conversation died down with the sunset so we plugged in one of my always popular mix cds. In the dying light Sam repeated that he wasn’t keen on driving at night because of the chances of hitting wildlife. We tend to drive at night to save daylight hours for more entertaining activity so we told him to keep going, it will be fine. After popping out the top end of Putty Road not a minute too soon we made a short detour to Singleton Eagle Boys for a quick dinner stop. I was amused when we walked by one of the pubs along the main road and overheard some bloke telling another bloke to ‘stop molesting grown men in public’ with a completely befuddled reply of ‘why?’. (potentially dangerous incident no. 1)

Anyway, back on the road and a couple of mix cds later it’s about 11:00pm and Sam mentions he would like to stop for the night. We are getting low on fuel and will need to fill up at
Coonabarabran about 180km away so we aim to sleep somewhere near the town, fill up in the morning and head up the hill to the national park. I’m starting to feel a little sleepy so this is fine.

I’m sitting in the back seat enjoying the music when I look up to see a kangaroo standing still in the middle of the road. His left side is facing us and my eyes are drawn to his own shiny, yellow, dazzled eye. He is not very far away and getting closer very, very quickly. I don’t think it took any of us very long to realise what was inevitably going to happen. Sam doesn’t flinch and the bonnet buckles upward with a quiet thump. We are still moving along quite quickly with the kangaroo stuck to the front of the car. In becoming at one with the car the kangaroo has done maximum damage. I remember thinking it quite strange that the kangaroo was coming along for the ride and almost imagined us continuing along with a partially obscured view. Thankfully I wasn’t the one driving and Sam hit the brakes. At this point Qantas became detached from the bonnet and launched 30m+ through the air forwards and slightly left off the side of the road and down the embankment. It was strange seeing this black spinning blob go flying away from the front of the car so quickly. (potentially dangerous incident no. 2)

Stunned, Sam stopped the car. I mentioned we should pull over to the side of the road, got out grabbed my headtorch checked the front of the car and found there wasn’t anything that needed urgent attention. I walked to the other side of the road and peered down to where the groaning and thrashing noise was coming from. The kangaroo was a good 10m or so down the hill, half sitting up with its neck twisted toward me, opening its mouth and baring its teeth in an unusual way. I think it was struggling to breathe. It seemed to be trying and failing to stand up. I quickly went back to the car and rummaged for the wheel brace.

By the time I got back to the road the kangaroo had managed to move. The grass was about 1m high so I couldn’t see it. I walked over to where it was previously and saw it lying much more peacefully now a few meters away. I noticed its left leg had snapped off half way up its shin and the white bone was poking out. The fact that there wasn't any bleeding seemed strange. Though it was still alive I was pleased to see it was much less energetic than a few moments ago and I wouldn’t need to fight it or hold it down. I think I killed it with the first blow but made a few more just to be sure. It was a ‘healthy’ looking male, so no joey.