Ostrich vs. Emu

I am not sure why, but I always thought that ostriches were native to Australia.  This is not the case; however, the Emu is related to the ostrich and is the oversized avian version of the ostrich in Australia.  As Catherine and I trudged back and forth across the Flinders mountain range, we would see groups of emus from afar effortlessly skipping along.   We fantasize about the possibility of harnessing an Emu and riding it across the valley.  We speculated that they would be difficult to direct and that we would not make it to our desired destinations, although we would make it somewhere at a very high speed.  

If we ever did hope to capture and domesticate one of these large birds our chance came one morning as we were preparing to head off for the day.  These normally skittish birds are generally viewed from afar as they blindly, sprint away from any noise or shadow; however, on this particular morning the Emu that visited our camp was a very curious bird.  He danced back and forth checking out the camp and seemingly sizing us up.  He would run towards us, and then whenever someone moved it would duck away, but only so far and momentarily he would return to our outpost.  For whatever reason, this particular bird was more intrigued than intimidated by our presence.  It was a great opportunity to look at this massive bird up close.