I hadn't been back to Swan Lake for some months -- what with one thing (weather) or another. To call it "Swan Lake' as I do is currently a misnomer as the Black Swans that nest there have now raised their chicks and flown off to lakes and billabongs unknown.
It's now 'Duck Lake' I guess. Boring brown ducks.
But there I was just before dawn with the street lights still alighted scooting myself northward over a road surface still wet from an overnight shower. Exerting myself in order to reach Swan Lake as a point of destination where I could observe the sunrise.
I usually turn back half way at the Conservation Park but today was my day to go to the road's end.Past more horse farms and the property where the sheep dog pup got swallowed by a Python....all the way to the northern end of Swan Lake where I dismount , walk through the dense Malaleuca and Mangrove scrub to the sandy beach on Deception Bay.
Golden sands. Tide up.
And this morning with showers falling over Moreton Island and a dense cloud covering the high sand dunes -- there the island vista to the east 30 kilometres away was , you know, very ab fab. I sat on one of the chairs that belonged to a shoreline house there and mused about existence and the rhythm of life tra la.
What the place needed was a barista so that I could get a double shot Expresso. But then I was the only human there awake and out and about. Just me, the sea, a few shore birds and a couple of mosquitoes (female) -- who have since 'gone to God'.
Suitably imbued with organic transcendental enrichment and tree huggyness, I mounted my Kickbike and pushed homeward. This may be a 15 km ride there and back but it sure feels longer on a scooter.
When you commune with nature you have to pay the entrance fee: work hard and build up a sweat (eg: hike, row, etc) so that you can come visit.
After I came around one corner there seemed to be a figure up ahead standing still watching me. As I approached it held its ground and as I got closer, it turned out to be a kangaroo -- a pair in fact -- on the road verges. Kangaroos I can see most mornings in paddocks by the road side but near and on the road like this is exceptional around here. (But not in Toorbul 25 km to the north on Pumicestone Passage where the kangaroos have the free run of the township.)
Eastern Grey at Toorbul (Source: Qld Birder)
So we had a stare and stand off for 5 minutes. Me observing and the two being both wary while eating breakfast at their feet.
Then I guess I lost interest before they did. After all, if you've seen one kangaroo -- one Eastern Grey Kangaroo -- you've seem em all.
