'Roo Rompin

Yesterday we decided to visit the Desert Park with friends. Since we had purchased a family membership on our last trip, and we were packing lunches, it turned out to be a nice, and free, way to spend an afternoon.

As you may know from a previous post, the Desert Park boasts plants and animals from all of the different types of desert environments in Australia. Lots of birds. Lots of rodents. They also have kangaroos. The Red Kangaroo. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they had a few kids activities throughout the afternoon, to include a guided walk through the Red Kangaroo section of the park.

We set off with a group of adults and kids and were quickly able to get up close to a lovely young girl kangaroo. She was probably about 6 feet away. The guide promptly turns her back to the kanagroos and launches into her speech of how to distinguish red kangaroos from others, why they are so springy when they bounce, why they are light on the belly and dark on the back and other things that probably included how often they get their hair done and who their favorite rapper is. By this time, needless to say, I was zoning out.

Midway through her speech, a young boy raised his hand with a question. Our guide was excited about his interest and told him to ask away!

And that sweet little boy asks, all innocent like:

"Well...um...why did that other kangaroo climb up on that other kangaroos back?"

What? All adult heads snapped up at that one. That certainly got our attention. And sure enough, right behind the guide, just a few feet away from our impressionable children...


Of course this is not actual documentation of the event since I forgot to charge my camera and came unprepared. I pulled this off the net. Believe it or not, it's not that easy to find two humping kangaroos in a format I could swipe for this. But I thought it was important for effect so I persevered.

Now, I tell you. The realization of what was going on behind that guides back in full view of everyone is not the shocking part of this story. Well "shocking" is too strong a word. I should say, it's not what makes the story funny. What makes the story funny, is that it didn't stop. And the guide didn't stop or move.

I guess it would have been like losing a stare contest. Who's gonna blink first?

Those kangaroos just kept going. And that guide just kept talking. And we just kept listening, trying not to feel like we were peeping into someones bedroom windows.

And every once in a while, my friend, in a loud whisper would say behind me:

"Will you look at that?"

or

"Man, she's gotta be getting tired?"

Then the guide starts to pass around a wood and spring contraption that emulates the kangaroos legs. You push it down and it snaps back. A serious accident waiting to happen for these kids - well at least my kids. Sure enough, the wood's slapping back and people are getting hit with it. So there we all are. Our little group in the middle of the Desert Park in central Australia, humping, talking, more humping, slapping wood, kids screaming from the pain of getting hit with the wood, more humping and my friend's ever present voice behind me going "Bet she wishes he'd just leave her alone!"

After the excitement had died down, the guide went on to explain that they are fairly young kangaroos and that the boy must have been "practicing" since he's not actually of the age yet to be doing that kind of thing.

I blame the rap music.