Running with Kangaroos

With apologies for the delay, the rest of this trip's posts are coming now...

July 19, 2012

YEPPOON, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA – This morning, as part of my Chicago Marathon training, I got up at dawn and started running across our beautiful resort towards the coast. Only a third of a mile into my run, I turned a corner and ground to a complete stop as quickly as I could. Directly in front of me, just a few feet away, there were no less than 30 HUGE kangaroos. Up on their hind legs, ears flared, they were taller than me! These wild kangaroos were much taller than the ones we saw at Lone Pine. I took a few moments to enjoy the moment, in the faint light of dawn, and then very slowly walked backwards, eventually continuing my seven mile run in the other direction. The similar Chicago-area running comparison would be running into about 30 massive deer – usually you see a couple, and it’s exciting if you see seven or eight, but THIRTY? Crazy!

The run itself went well – I actually did see a few more solo kangaroos throughout the run, and found that my fastest strides were when they were running alongside me. Not intentionally, but subconsciously when wild animals are running with you, you pick up the pace!

After a quick shower and some breakfast, Kerri, Kelly, three students, and I took the same path I had earlier to the beach, and it was gorgeous! Most of the students hung out by the pool, but my logic was that you can go to a pool anywhere – seeing the sun over the Pacific in Australia is a pretty cool Aussie thing to do! In any case, their loss, and the small group of us got some fun pictures with our feet in the water, or collecting seashells.

July 19, 2012 - Beautiful morning at our private resort beach in Yeppoon, Queensland!

Eventually the delegation set off for Capricorn Caves, a national park where the real treasure is underneath, but the forested area above ground is also protected and important. When we arrived, four students got the honor of planting a tree in the “People to People garden." Afterwards the entire delegation helped in pulling weeds from a section of the forest where they were overgrown – all told we collected and tossed five huge rubbish bags worth of weeds - not too shabby!

Lunch at the national park was fine, and after we were done we got to the real highlight of the caves – naturally, the caves themselves. We had a walking tour into the heart of the caves, home to hundreds of thousands of bats at any given time. In Australia, bats are looked at quite positively, as they will eat tens of thousands of insects in a single day! As we were walking around in the mud at the bottom of the caves, we learned that it actually wasn’t mud, but bat droppings! The students appreciated that one, haha. One of the more interesting areas of the caves is “the Cathedral,” a room with near-perfect acoustics. Two of our students had the honor of singing the Star Spangled Banner from the stage, in front of everyone, and they did great! Apparently you can also get married there – who knew you could get married in a cave? Why not, I guess. :P

July 19 - Inside "The Cathedral," Capricorn Caves

From the Capricorn Caves we drove a short bit over to the Dreamtime Aboriginal Cultural Experience, and we were divided into two groups. One half of the delegation heard a lecture on the history and culture of the Aboriginal people, while the other threw boomerangs, and then the two groups switched. The boomerang throwing was quite cool – each of us got two throws. The artwork of the boomerang should always be on the inside, and you hold it like a gun as a starting position. My first throw was terrible – it bounced on the ground and then curved a bit to the left. My second throw, however, was much better and it came about 80% of the way back to me. With some real practice I am sure I could get the hang of it. Like throwing a Frisbee, it’s all about your wrist, not raw power. As such, I bought a couple boomerangs to bring home and figure this out! 

Throwing a boomerang! 

After we were done buying souvenirs we entered the theater and heard the didgeridoo for the first time. A few minutes into it, four dancers came out and performed a number of Aboriginal dances to various tunes. At the end we all took a group photo with them (no comment on their BO…). We wrapped up the day with a dinner they cooked for us, which wasn’t anything that special, EXCEPT for the fact that we got to try crocodile, and it was delicious! I am a very picky eater, but am always up for trying new things while traveling, and the croc was (as many things are) very similar to chicken – I would certainly have it again.

Our entire delegation with the Aboriginal dancers.