Kangaroos, Kookaburras and Tea

It amazes me how many people don’t know Australia is a continent unto itself. Can you imagine coming to the United States for a week by spending a day in Boston, one in New York City, another in Chicago, one in San Francisco and a final day in Los Angles and then saying you’ve seen America? Evan worse make that a few hours in each city—if you were cruising and putting into port more than likely that is what it would be.

Yet Americans do this all the time when traveling overseas. Although Australia is shaped a bit differently than the U.S. it is still about the same size. I have many fun stories from down under from two 3 ½ week visits.

One delightful adventure meant a ride from Sydney up into the Blue Mountains where we had afternoon tea in a lovely park setting. Our van driver’s wife had made and sent with him a delicious spice cake. Kangaroos, including several mamas with a Joey in her pouch, played around us all afternoon. We watched with fascination as they hopped around, but we respected their territory and did not try to pet them-----that came on another day on another trip when I visited a sanctuary where the animals were tame and used to people.

Kookaburras in the trees serenaded us as if saying welcome down under as we sipped our tea on the beautiful warm sunny day. As I write this my rusty brain is trying to remember the kookaburra song we sang as kids some sixty-five years ago:
Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree
Merry merry king of the bush is he
Laugh kookaburra, laugh kookaburra
Gay your life must be.
In the second verse I think he eats the gum drops, while we begged him to leave some for me. I haven’t thought about that little song for years--- since my now middle-aged children sang it.

Our van driver told us a many interesting things about Australia’s national animal, but except for its name I’ll save the rest for another day. When European explorers first saw the strange jumping animal, they asked an aborigine, "What arw they called?"
He answered, “Kangaroo,” meaning I do not understand your question.
Repeated, the question received the same answer, and that is how the kangaroo got its name. True or not, I have my doubts, but it makes for a good story and the ending to today’s ramblings.