The Kangaroo on the Road

Marta and Jordi had wanted to see Australia since they were students in Barcelona. Now, after a week in Brisbane, they had rented a small car and were driving west into rural Queensland. The road was long and straight, the fields were dry and golden, and there was nobody else around.

"We'll get to the town before it gets dark," Jordi said. "The hotel is only eighty kilometers away." But the sun was already low in the sky, and the light was turning orange and pink.

Suddenly Marta shouted, "Stop!" In the middle of the road, about fifty meters ahead, stood a big gray kangaroo. Jordi braked hard, and the car stopped a few meters in front of it. The kangaroo didn't jump away. It just sat there on its tail, looking at them as if they were the strange ones.

They waited. Jordi flashed the lights. The kangaroo scratched its ear. Marta wanted to get out and take a photo, but Jordi held her arm. "I've read that they can kick really hard," he said. "Let's stay in the car until it moves."

After ten minutes, a dusty truck appeared behind them and stopped. A woman in a green uniform got out. Her name was Kylie, and she was a park ranger. She walked slowly toward the kangaroo, clapped her hands twice, and it hopped away into the bushes.

"You did the right thing," she told them. "A lot of visitors get out of the car. Never do that. If a kangaroo feels scared, it can hurt you." Then she gave them some advice. "Try not to drive at dusk or at dawn. That's when they're most active. If you have to drive, go slowly and watch the sides of the road."

"What should we do if one jumps in front of us?" Marta asked. "Brake, but don't turn the wheel suddenly," Kylie said. "If you swerve, you'll probably end up off the road, and that's much more dangerous than the kangaroo."

She also told them to carry plenty of water in case the car broke down, because the next town could be a long way away. And she wrote a phone number on a piece of paper. "Keep this in case you ever hit an animal. It's the wildlife rescue line. If it's a female, there may be a baby in her pouch, and it might still be alive."

Marta put the paper in her purse. They thanked Kylie and drove on, very slowly, with their eyes on the sides of the road. They saw six more kangaroos before they reached the town, but none of them stood in the road.

That night, at the hotel, Marta bought two big bottles of water for the car. "In case we break down," she said. Jordi laughed, but the next morning he waited until the sun was high before he started the engine.