Runaway wallaby leads searchers on chase through Norfolk countryside

Gorgeous the Wallaby who escaped from his paddock on a farm in Ashill. His owners Charles and Catherine Bowes then had a chase across the countryside over several days before he was finally captured. Picture: Sonya Duncan (Image: Archant 2019)

It was a hop, skip and a jump for Gorgeous the wallaby on Friday, June 14, after he bounced out of his pen and escaped through the fields near Ashill.

Owner Charles Bowes, 49, noticed the marsupial was missing in the morning. He grabbed a net and went on the hunt.

He said: "He must have been able to jump over the five foot fence and he hopped into a meadow. I went to try a catch him with a big net but he had already got away.

"I've had him for four years after I got him from a farm in Yorkshire. It was an exotic farm with everything from wallabies to llamas.

Catherine and Charles Bowes who had a chase across the countryside over several days before Gorgeous the wallaby was finally re-captured. Picture: Sonya Duncan (Image: Archant 2019)

"By mid-afternoon on Saturday we had a sighting and he was about two miles away at the side of the road.

"We put an advert out on social media saying we had lost him and someone was able to ring my daughter saying they had seen him."

Gorgeous was spotted around the Great Cressingham Road and Watton Road area, about four miles away.

A group was formed to help track him down, with seven people searching before finding him on the B1108 at Threxton Hills, four days after he first escaped.

Catherine and Charles Bowes who had a chase across the countryside over several days before Gorgeous the wallaby was finally re-captured. Picture: Sonya Duncan (Image: Archant 2019)

Mr Bowes added: "When we were able to track him down it was a bit of a nightmare trying to catch him. In the end we had to use darts.

"I have a pen that is five foot and another that is six foot. Now he is being kept in the six foot pen as he must have been able to jump out of the five foot one that he had been in for the last two months."

The group used three darts to slow him down as they followed him through woods, barley fields and ditches.

He was returned home safe on Tuesday, June 18 with no injuries despite his adventure through the Norfolk countryside.

Catherine and Charles Bowes who had a chase across the countryside over several days before Gorgeous the wallaby was finally re-captured. Picture: Sonya Duncan (Image: Archant 2019)

As well as Gorgeous, Mr Bowes has a pet emu who he has not yet named.