My luscious golden locks flow freely in the wind as a toothy smile stretches from ear to ear. I speed across the reddish, dirt ribbons of roads as the scorching sun beats down and the horizon melts into a sky-terrain soup. My adventure lasts all day long, taking periodic breaks for some rest and the cool shade. Only a few moments later, I hop back on and take off once again.

What, might you ask, would my means of transportation be? Logically, one would think a sports car perhaps. Red Ferrari? Pink Corvette? The Batmobile? These are all very acceptable answers but I’m afraid they’re all very wrong.

“But I wasn’t thinking of a sports car, could it be an animal perhaps?”

Black Stallion? Double-humped Camel? A Cheetah? These are all, again, very acceptable answers with the exception of the last one. I would highly recommend that you don’t attempt at riding a cheetah for they have been known to tear a human limb for limb. The animal I am, in fact, writing about is a Red Kangaroo.

Though I highly doubt my dreams would come true nor do I really want to attempt a go, I have always been curious as to what it would feel like to spend the day in a mama kangaroo’s pouch. The thought of Australia adopting my idea as its new tourist attraction makes me sick, as it is inhumane and probably would not sit well with the mama kangaroos, but it is still a desire of mine. Mixing wildlife with human life is not always the best idea, but for just one day, I would change the rules of nature to achieve my dream.

As babies, humans instinctively want to be swaddled tightly. A Kangaroo’s pouch, I’d imagine, is much like this swaddling sensation. Relaxing comfortably as my host mom takes me for a magnificent journey through Australia’s greatest sights would be the only completely enjoyable way to see Australia. No smelly tour buses. No aching feet. No rude tourists to deal with. No screaming children. Just me, my marsupial mom, and the wonders of Australia.

My fascination with Australia sparked after watching Finding Nemo for the first time. The characters gave life to an unknown underwater world and I instantly wanted to know more about this mysterious country. The Great Barrier Reef, unlike any other ecosystem in the world, forced me to realize that these animals exist outside of books and the zoo. After my exciting encounter with Nemo, I yearned to know more about the terrestrial life of Australia. After weeks of casual reading I came across the Red Kangaroo, unlike any other animal in the world. It wasn’t until then that I made the connection between the Red Kangaroo and one of my favorite fictional characters.

As a child, I loved my friends from the 100-acre-woods. The innocent adventures of Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh and company always made me long for the same stuffed animal bond. In particular, I fell in love with Kanga and Roo. Kanga’s kind-heartedness and calm way of scolding Roo is the mother-daughter relationship I have always strived for. Though Roo, a joey, is transferred in her mom’s pouch, she is still very open to the nature and world around her. Kanga protects her joey when she feels necessary, but does not confine her child to the darkness of the pouch. My mother is much like Kanga. I do have boundaries which are put in place only to protect me, but by no means do I feel shielded or excluded from the way I want to see the world.

The longing to be closer to wildlife; to see what really goes on in the animal kingdom of Australia is important. What better way to achieve that than take an off-road adventure in the confines of a mother kangaroo’s pouch? To see Australia through the eyes of an original inhabitant would be the most grandiose way to see the land and the comfort of the furry pouch is an added bonus.