Being the frugal woman that I am I opted to not pay the $145.00 to take the tour to the Wildlife Preserve to see some kangaroos. Fortunately, the gray-haired volunteer at the Visitors Center told me if I hiked up to the Baudin Conservation Park I might find wallabies and kangaroos sleeping under trees. Marsupials don?t sweat and have no way to keep cool in the heat of the day. The hike was along the beach for the first half hour then turned into wild bush country with millions of trees for some of the 750,000 kangaroos on the island.

Wallabies sprang out of nowhere and ran faster than I could even lift my camera and shoot. My eyes searched under every tree, looking for movement or staring eyes. I wandered into an oasis of heavy foliage and while turning to check underneath each tree, up popped this huge kangaroo. His eyes met mine for only seconds and then he was off bouncing like a rubber ball. My camera was still hanging around my neck and in the off position.

I found my kangaroo and felt free to begin the long climb down to the beach for some shell searching. Life doesn?t get any better than tracking kangaroos and shells all in one day.