A mother’s work is never done. A tale told through Eastern Grey Kangaroos

It’s Mother’s Day here which is a day that might be a big deal on your radar or it might not but I’m not one to let a festival pass by uncelebrated. My son is currently living down the coast so I didn’t get to see him today but he did call which made my heart happy and I shuffled myself off to a Lush filled bath, book in hand and didn’t get out until Matt summoned me mermaid-like with his siren song of garlic mushrooms and fake’n bacon on sourdough. So freaking good. I’ve stayed in my pjs all day and done sweet FA so the irony of the title of this post is not lost on me 😉 Still.

We don’t have Eastern Grey Kangaroos around here. We’re more of a Swamp Wallaby kind of town. I absolutely love swampies so that is A-OK with me. Having said that though, one of my favourite things to do when heading further south, is to keep an eye out for Kangaroos. We usually start seeing them popping up from behind the huge swathes of waving yellow grasses just before the turn off to Huskisson and having just spent a few days in Jervis Bay, I’m happy to report it was Roo Central.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I spend so much time planning a holiday, even if we’re only away for a couple of days, researching and finding all the best spots to see and all of the interesting things to do, that sometimes, the holiday struggles to live up to the expectation. And even though our mini break was essentially rained out and could have been an unmitigated disaster, the kangas helped to make up for the crappy weather. As we drove down Ellmoos Road in the Booderee National Park we spotted a couple of Eastern Greys, a couple of Swampies blending very much into the roadside bracken and one very lovely Red-Necked Wallaby. Those ones I can definitely guarantee that we saw. We also thought we saw loads more but they turned out to be tree trunks in various degrees of degradation. What can I say? Our eyes are old 😉

And while we got to spend plenty of time roo spotting throughout the National Park, I have to say, my very favourite encounter was this not so little joey hopping noisily up to mum (yes, noisily. Those massive hind legs and sturdy tail do make a definite thud against the ground when they bound past you) and getting a little extra sustenance from her pouch. After one particularly torrential downpour, she took the opportunity to lick the excess water off of her joey’s fur 😍 Ah, a mother’s work is never done! And trust me, after coming home to pizza boxes and beer bottles and washing up not done and air conditioning left running for God knows how long, to a stained lounge and a distinctive scent of eau de dog pee in the air and after transferring across some more money to the now adult son but still my baby boy, I get it. And I suspect we wouldn’t have it any other way!

To those of you who celebrate, hope it’s been a particularly lovely Mother’s Day and to those of you who don’t, hope your Sunday has been brilliant!