Close Encounters .....
 

..... of the Animal Kind!

So I'm working afternoons again which involves finishing at midnight in the middle of the Barossa. Not a problem - most of the roads are pretty fast if not a little windy in parts. One 90k stretch involves going up a slight hill and round a few bendy bits before dropping down the other side. As I try to be considerate (do meet a few cars coming the other way), I always turn off the high beam as I go over the hill so as not to blind anyone approaching the bend from the other direction.

All good, road clear so I flick the high beams back on and OH MY GOD - ROO - sitting in the middle of the road, middle of my lane, right in front of me. Thank goodness there was nothing coming the other way as I managed to swerve around him and he just carried on sitting there (thankfully had the good sense not to move I guess). Think the adrenaline kept me very awake the rest of the journey home.

I've seen quite a bit of the wildlife travelling to and from work but that is by far the closest encounter I've had. Fortunately also not hit anything so far - had a roo cross the road about 30m infront of me a while back but saw him coming as it was daylight, another bouncing alongside the car and a few seen at the side of the road. Also seen a couple of koalas, and had a possum cross the road infront of me but at a 50k section, and a roo bounce in and out of my lane at 110's but much further in front.

Anyone else got any near misses?

Re: Close Encounters .....
 

I'm terrified of kangaroos. When we were over on Straddie the last time, turned a corner minding our own business and there was a pack of them, all fully grown. They stopped what they were doing and started eyeballing us. Was like a Mexican standoff, haha! :lol:

I've never felt so unnerved. Was with my pal and our girls, and we were terrified, just put our heads down and walked on. Got up the road a bit to cross the busy street and 3 of them whizzed past us at full speed right onto the road, oblivious to oncoming traffic and almost caused a crash, they literally just throw themselves into the road without a thought to the traffic. Stupid things.

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Slow down! And if you're going to do that route often at night, you'd better fit some cow catchers because by the looks of it sooner or later you're going to hit a kangaroo and when you do the car will likely be trashed. Either cow catchers or keep enough money in your kitty for expensive repairs/a car replacement. Drive safely. :cool:

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Mate hit a wallaby couple of years back when i was front seat passenger and by god did it give off such a bang ! Got to work front passenger side headlight smashed and dent in side panel but we won as the wallaby was still on it's back on the way home ;) Lots of road kill our way so much so i saw 2 council vans picking up dead roos only last week like the local binmen! :(

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Many years ago riding a motorbike home from Ballarat to Geelong at around 8pm, suddenly saw the car brake lights ahead flashing and weaving but I could see no reason for it. A few seconds later we arrived on the scene to find 10 or 12 wallabies leaping about in a very haphazard way all over the road. We managed to avoid all of them, I did wonder if it was a group of adolescents playing chicken.
Around 8 years ago inland from Cairns a very large Grey Kangaroo decided it was going to cross the road at the exact moment we chose to use the same patch of tarmac, the result was badly damaged hire car and badly injured roo. Unfortunately all we could hear was the roo thrashing about in the deep gully at the side of the road and we were unable to reach it.

Re: Close Encounters .....
 

About 20 years ago we rode from Geelong get to Sydney and to relieve the boredom we starting counting dead roos, we got to about 50 in no time at all and called it off as it was too depressing.

Re: Close Encounters .....
 

Bit of a change to eye spy though !:lol:

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:lol:

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Eye spy is not so easy on a motorbike :)

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I heard that kind of behaviour is common when one or more of the adults has been killed by traffic or in a cull - creating mayhem in the mob.

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I like seeing roos but I do know what you mean by the eyeballing - they are funny :lol:

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I do worry about what would happen to my little car if I was to run into one, but you are probably right on the slowing down. I know I'm not speeding but I do tend to drive to the speed limit which is maybe not the wisest thing at night :o

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Think I'd feel really guilty if I actually hit something. There have been a couple hit in the area I work and it is so sad to see :(

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I have hit quite a few animals over the years and I feel terribly guilty about it. I once ran over a cat right in front of the owners house while they were stood outside. I really dislike cats but I did feel very sorry for them.

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Yeah best to slow right down on those roads at night. Some roos are huge, hitting one could put your life at risk too.

I bet you were popular with them when you stopped.