A Close Encounter of the Roo Kind

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When we collected our Wicked Campervan the guy at reception told us that the greatest single cause of accidents to the vans was caused by them hitting Kangaroos on the road. And to watch out when they are active; dawn, dusk and at night when they will get stunned by the headlights and freeze in the road and the next thing you know they are in the van with you.

So what do we do the first night - we had to drive to the Penguin Encounter and on the way we saw the road signs warning of Roos and lots of carcases on the side of the road. So driving back in the dark Bill went along at a very sedate 40kph - and not a Roo in sight.

The next 5 days we drive along and see lots more Roo road warning signs and roadside carcases, but not a glimpse of a Roo, either in the bush or in the road in the distance.

We are now coming to the end of our time with the van and decide to leave a town called Robe early in the morming to drive 300 kilometers to the outskirts of Adelaide. The first couple of hours we see Roo road signs and more carcases but no live Roos.

Until suddenly, driving along at about 100kph, on an empty road with no traffic, a large adult Roo (about 5 ft tall) hops out of the bush on the other side of the road 😞. Bill jams on the brakes (which are virtually non existant), Sue screams, the Roo hops right in front of the van, which by now is about 3 metres away and then hops to the side of the road and we miss his tail and hind quarters by a Roo's whisker 😊

A lucky escape for the Roo and a lucky escape for us - was he playing the Roo version of chicken !

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