A Drowning Kangaroo (post and photos by mary)

The Big Lagoon, Francois Peron National Park – wild, beautiful and empty where clothes are an option!

Australia has been a non-stop series of adventures and unusual encounters with nature.  Having hit the west coast Matt and I looked forward to discovering a good variety of marine life.

We didn’t expect to encounter a drowning kangaroo.  There we were, once again all  alone in the vast coastal Francois Peron National Park,  part of the World Heritage peninsulas near Denman.   We had engaged Rocky’s 4WD, lowered the tyre (they spell tire’s this way here) pressure to 20 psi and plowed thru the sandy track up to the point to see dolphins, turtles, sharks and a big gang of cormorants.  We were instantly greeted by a black swarm of flies, who made us their landing pad and stuck with us for the next 24 hours.  Our only relief from the flies was to dunk our naked bodies under the sea water at our camp in the morning.

At Peron Point, a high cliff overlooking a rounded beach, home to hundreds of cormorants.

The flies drove us to madness and out of the park.  On the way out we deaked down a side track to see the Big Lagoon.  We found a most beautiful, perfectly round turquoise lagoon, ringed with sand banks on the shore and in the centre contrasting against the dark blue of the sea grass bed.  Too irresistible; snorkels and flippers on, in we went seeking coral life.  Alas, the darkness we swam 200 meters out to the centre was a large sea grass bed.

The Big Lagoon with its sand banks and reed beds surrounded by sand dunes.

The current was getting really strong as the tide was turning, so we thought we should swim up into the current to reach the shore.  Just as I turned, I came face-to-face with some sort of creature.  My mind raced (always afraid of some thing that will kill me), a turtle?  A sea otter? (i am sure they don’t have them in these parts), a small dog? (it had big ears).  I screamed through my snorkel to get Matt’s attention.  Swimming towards me was a very frightened kangaroo!  We could see the fear in his eyes and could see that he was just barely holding on, paddling his little fore legs to beat the band.  He was a long way from shore and had a long way to go.

OMG!  What is that swimming by us?  Poor Skippy.

At first he followed as we called to him but the current was just too much for him.  We couldn’t bear just swimming away from him knowing he was in distress, but were a bit wary of its long claws and strong back legs that could slice through us easily.  You never know what wild animals will do when they are about to drown.

Matt cautiously extends the heel of his flipper and like any drowining soul the clever wretch gratefully reached out her hand like paw and climbed on.

The relief in Skippy’s eyes, she was calm and accepted that Matt was saving her surrendering to the flipper.

Skippy pulled as much of her body onto the flipper and if you look closely, you would think that she was using Matt’s snorkel!

Matt, the hero of the day, handed me the underwater camera, took one of his flippers off and swam over to the little guy offering the foot of the flipper.  It was like little Skippy knew what Matt was offering and his little paws reached out to the life line and held on. He then crawled up onto the flipper and gratefuly accepted Matt’s ride to the shore.   Soon enough the strong current go the best of Matt so he gently put his hand under Skippy’s pounding chest and put his flipper back on to propel his way.  Skippy just looked at Matt and snuggled up to him without flinching.  After taking photos of the rescue mission, I gently held Skippy’s tail and helped Matt bring him to safety.

Rescuer and drowning victim stop and pose for the Canon D90 water camera.

So trusting was Skippy to let Matt hold her under her beating chest; she just snuggled right up to him!

Matt let go of Skippy once it was shallow enough for him to stand.  He hopped away three leaps and stopped to catch his breath.  All three of us sat in the water looking at each other.  Skippy watched us with great interest and we were sure his expression told us , “thanks”.  Five minutes later with his legs sturdy and heart rate slowed he boing, boinged out of the water and took off!  Life was his to enjoy for the rest of the day.

The distance to the shore was considerable from all sides where we found her.  She never would have made it.

Safely on wet but solid ground.  Catching her breath, getting back her strength and saying Thanks!

What a remarkable experience we had.  Went in expecting to find coral reefs and exotic fish, or maybe a dolphin and instead, we had the privilege of rescuing a drowning kangaroo. We felt that we were really meant to make the turn off to explore the lagoon.  Not something you get to do everyday!