Thursday was my first trip into the Perth Metro in ages – I’d gone to get the car serviced and so had a day to kill. The weather was horrid, lots of rain and not very warm so killing time was not a thrilling prospect. Usually I walk over the Causeway Bridge, around Heirisson Island and then into the Perth CBD. With the rain falling and nearby construction work making a racket I didn’t expect to see much so imagine my surprise when I literally bumped into an Emu.  Now people living overseas expect that we have kangaroos running down the high streets koalas hanging out of every tree and sharks and crocodiles waiting to eat people in every small pool of water. Well it’s just not like that, and seeing an emu wandering round the metro area is pretty unusual occurrence. Poor thing didn’t look very well – it had a very large open wound on its left side. Emus can be a little bit intimidating as they’re not adverse to walking right up to you and looking you in the eye and some of the ones I’ve met do this by looking down at me. Well this one played pretty cool and just walked with me for about 500m and every time I stopped to take a picture it stopped and waited. We met up with a couple of kangaroos who were very wary of the emu. They kept a very close eye on it – didn’t pay me any attention at all. Once we got past the lake it decided it had had enough and walked back up the track making that odd sound of theirs which sound like someone has turned a plastic bucket upside down and is banging on it like drum.

As I walked back to the Causeway I was joined by a young female kangaroo. She was very curious and wanted to know if I had anything to eat. She did did this by pawing at my hand – obviously other visitor have been feeding them so they can get selfies. She didn’t seemed fussed when no food appeared and she was content to follow me round to the gate and watch me leave.