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  1. #1 foggy today 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Just had a whole week below 10 degrees which is extremely rare for this part of Australia and a week inside the clouds and fog as well at my place. I had to get out for a few km on the 'bike, was going cabin crazy. Took me 20 minutes to start the damn thing because after 18 months of regularly riding it I still forget which way the choke is meant to be and which way turns the petrol on .... anyway, just a couple of pics of nothing much for you (they always come out smaller on this forum for some reason but if you click on them they will enlarge a bit):
    bushmans..jpg
    This is a local road, the camera lies, amazingly it picks up far more light than the human eye does, to me it was very foggy!
    cows..jpg
    The foggy paddocks are all I can see as I ride along. I turned back after just 25 km as there were so many kangaroos on the road. For some reason they lose any sense they ever had on foggy days and sit in the road in groups of half a dozen or more. They stand up to 2 meters tall and weigh up to 95 kg. They don't bother moving until you are just a couple of meters away and are just as likely to jump into you as away - I got fed up of slowing to 10kph and went home! I should have gone the other way home, these potholes are real bone-shaking, back-breaking bastards on a 'bike!
    boneshaker backbr&.jpg
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  2. #2 Re: foggy today 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Jape,

    Surely you are making up the part about swarms of laggard kangaroos in the road. Those are mythical beasts that some expatriated convict wag dreamed up centuries ago, and it's a joke that just keeps on giving. If they were real -- especially those 200cm abominable yeti kangaroos -- there'd be pix to prove it. All I see is fog and potholes.

    cheers
    jkp
    Shanghai
    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  3. #3 Re: foggy today 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    Not mythical my friend, a crossbreed between imported feral rabbits and the indiginous BUNYIP - pic below
    http://www.thisisapokalipsis.com/wp-...unyip_1890.jpg
    i got no photos because I always have my bow and arrow cocked and ready when they are about - difficult enough steering 'no hands' with my knees without wielding a camera as well, sorry.
    I will take my camera soon when the fog lifts and we get a sunny day and get a pic when they are withdrawn to the shrubbery.
    The potholes are made when their fifth limb, a massive clublike tail, hits the ground as they hop toward you menacingly ...
    There is a friendly version, hangs around the billabongs or mudholes in the northern territories; it mated with a frill necked lizard eons ago, and is rather partial to 4X beer apparently.
    http://members.iinet.com.au/~bunyip/bunyip.JPG
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  4. #4 Re: foggy today 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Sorry, friend, but I'm no sucker. Those images were photoshopped!

    Count me a skeptic or, if you must, a sceptic.
    jkp
    Shanghai
    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  5. #5 Re: foggy today 
    Moto Scholar moilami's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jape View Post
    I turned back after just 25 km as there were so many kangaroos on the road. For some reason they lose any sense they ever had on foggy days and sit in the road in groups of half a dozen or more. They stand up to 2 meters tall and weigh up to 95 kg. They don't bother moving until you are just a couple of meters away and are just as likely to jump into you as away - I got fed up of slowing to 10kph and went home! I should have gone the other way home, these potholes are real bone-shaking, back-breaking bastards on a 'bike!
    boneshaker backbr&.jpg
    Cool, they are almost like reindeers in Lapland except reindeers are much smaller and don't let you come as close.

    I have by the way watched from tv kangaroos fightning and it looked very nasty. It appears they could beat the hell out of people if angered.

    Thanks of the very good pictures, looked very much like Norway xD Seriously.
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  6. #6 Re: foggy today 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    visitor2..jpg
    This is just a juvenile male came to visit my place this arvo, he would stand about 1.5 metres upright. Daddy would be about 1.8 to 2 meters tall and a lot heavier, he kicked this one out of the mob once his balls dropped. They are a bit bigger road hazard than a rabbit eh? They make more of a mess of your car as they have a habit of exploding through the screen and landing on your lap still kicking, and would likely kill a motorcyclist that hit them. When they fight they sit back on the tail and whack their back legs and claws into the gut of their opponent. They drag dogs as big as german shepherds into dams (ponds), rip them open and hold them under water to drown. Not bad for a grass eater. Tasty too.
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  7. #7 Re: foggy today 
    Senior C-Moto Guru euphonius's Avatar
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    Good grief. That tail looks as thick and strong as an anaconda! Are these critters smarter that your average rodent? Smarter than deer? Ever hear them tiptoeing around your doors and windows at night?

    Sheesh, would hate to have one decide he didn't like me....

    cheers
    jkp
    Shanghai
    2010 JH600 "Merkin Muffley" (in Shanghai)
    2000 KLR650 "Feezer Ablanalp" (in California)
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  8. #8 Re: foggy today 
    Moto Scholar moilami's Avatar
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    Does kangaroos ever attach humans?
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  9. #9 Re: foggy today 
    grumpy old sod jape's Avatar
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    They aren't very wary of us, not enough human contact over millennia I guess or perhaps because although seemingly not at all clever, they are master of their land. They almost seem arrogant. I live with them in daily contact right up to my house, day or night. They just don't care about me, the joeys (youngsters) just sit and look at me until I am just a couple of meters away, the females and juveniles tend to hop off when I am at three or four meters and the big bugger has had a few cudgel fights with me so he stamps, then goes when I am ten to fifteen meters. He has learned that I can throw sticks as well as whack him with them. You have to teach the mob living in your area and they pass it down the line through generations but many a young male needs a stick or a boot. You ALWAYS have a stick with you because of snakes. Kangaroos can harm kids accidentally, especially when cornered. They tend to run over them but do sometimes grapple. Come between a buck male and a female he fancies if he is feeling territorial and he will grapple with front arms and claws, lean back and disembowel you. Serious harm happens rarely but attacks are quite common, usually on new suburbs and golf courses and the like where they get too used to us.

    http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/a...oo_attacks.htm and of course - just search yutoob for 'kangaroo attacks', there are some funny ones.

    True stories:
    Number 1. aboriginals males carried all their small items (and sometimes their own tackle) tucked inside a big 'roo's scrotum tied round their waist.
    Number 2. like many mammals the male 'roo has a big bone in his penis and the kangaroo just has one of them but other related marsupials have up to four of the things. Females correspondingly have a matching set of uteri.
    Number 3. One night I went out for the usual pee down the garden in the dark, peed on a 'roo and when he stood up and grunted a warning a foot in front of me I nearly did more than pee!
    Number 4. as I write this I can hear the loud munching as one mows the lawn for me, literally right under the window.
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  10. #10 Re: foggy today 
    Moto Scholar moilami's Avatar
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    Darn what nasty mammals they can be xD I would for sure keep my heavy duty tire lever ready when camping in Australia. I like animals but I don't want them to mess with me, and it appears one or two good knocks with german steel could be needed for the Kangaroo to understand certain things.
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