Up Close and Personal with Kangaroos

• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

Living in Australia means having the opportunity to meet its national symbol at one point or another. For us, that point of time was last week, where we had the chance to meet and touch the kangaroos in their natural habitat. Of all the places to see these marsupials, who would have thought that one would find them on the grounds of a mental hospital? It’s true, we saw with our very own eyes at least a hundred of these kangaroos roaming freely around the Morisset Psychiatric Hospital, about 100km north of Sydney. And we wouldn’t have known it if not for one of the fellow Malaysians we met during the pot luck session.

One of the many kangaroos

Morisset Park facing the beautiful Lake Macquarie

We reached there some time after 4pm and saw many kangaroos jumping around us, almost oblivious to the presence of humans. Well, oblivious at least, until they saw pieces of bread being offered. At the sight of food, these kangaroos came charging towards us, almost too quickly, but did not cause us any harm. In fact, they would stop right next to us waiting for food to be served, and jump away when there was none after a while. It was quite an amusing sight to watch.

Some of the kangaroos roaming around the grounds 

Feeding them bread

“Do you have food for me?”

“Don’t bite me”

Walking past the kangaroos

I was not one of the brave ones to feed them, even though it didn’t seem to be harmful. I preferred to be standing at a distance and observing their behavior while capturing some candid shots. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have caught the shot of a kangaroo getting really close to one of our friend’s butt. Or another shot of a kangaroo standing tall and looking as if it was asking for food from one of our friends.

Actively jumping

*sniff*

 Enjoying its bread

“More bread please?”

Even though this was not the first time I saw kangaroos, it was indeed the first time that I was so close to them. And we were lucky to spot one of the kangaroos with a joey in its pouch. Super cute! If you don’t mind the hour-plus journey up north, the Morisset Park is indeed a nice place to visit. Surrounding the Lake Macquarie, it is a perfect fishing and picnic location too!

Spot the joey!