And the rain came down
Hi. I'm back after several days of no wi-fi, and we're experiencing another first in our Australian experience - rain. After two weeks of unrelenting sunshine, it's now tipping out of the sky and we're stuck inside having some welcome down time.
Since my last update, we've been up a volcano, down a waterfall, and across a lake in a canoe. We've also seen emu, wallabies, echidna, geckos and skink. The echidna was particularly exciting. We were very lucky to be walking along a mountain track when we heard something moving around in the undergrowth. It sounded bigger than a bird and at first I assumed it was one of the many wallaby we've seen over the last few days. Looking into the undergrowth, however, I saw one of the strangest creatures I've ever seen emerge from the bracken. The echidna is flat, with paddle-shaped feat, just like a platypus, but coated in yellow tipped spines, like a porcupine. It's face is invisible amongst the spines, with just its needle-like nose emerging, and it moves slowly and purposefully like a hedgehog. It seemed completely unafraid of us and carried about its business as though we weren't there, burying into the fallen bark of a nearby tree to search for ants. I could have stayed watching it all day, but we had other things to see, so I waited till it shuffled from sight and hurried on up the mountain.
Easier to spot where the emu. We had spent the first half of the holiday without encountering a single one so, when we were visiting the dormant volcano at Tower Hill, I was delighted to spot emu tracks and we followed them to a patch of scrubland where a mob of emu were pecking and grazing at the dirt. We crept up on them, amazed at how close we were able to get and congratulating ourselves on our stealth. Then we headed back to the picnic ground for lunch where we found emus at every table, posing for photos and trying to steal sandwiches.
When we got to our next destination, the emu were so bold that even a game of quoits brought them running, mistaking the sound of rope hitting wood for food being dropped. Since emu can be intimidated by any creature bigger than them, we found ourselves attempting to play quoits with our hands above our heads, pretending to be the biggest emu around. This worked perfectly well until we bent over to pick up the quoits, at which point we became too small and the emu charged. We retreated at speed to our cabin and declared the game a draw. The emu, on the other hand, considered it a win.
Since my last update, we've been up a volcano, down a waterfall, and across a lake in a canoe. We've also seen emu, wallabies, echidna, geckos and skink. The echidna was particularly exciting. We were very lucky to be walking along a mountain track when we heard something moving around in the undergrowth. It sounded bigger than a bird and at first I assumed it was one of the many wallaby we've seen over the last few days. Looking into the undergrowth, however, I saw one of the strangest creatures I've ever seen emerge from the bracken. The echidna is flat, with paddle-shaped feat, just like a platypus, but coated in yellow tipped spines, like a porcupine. It's face is invisible amongst the spines, with just its needle-like nose emerging, and it moves slowly and purposefully like a hedgehog. It seemed completely unafraid of us and carried about its business as though we weren't there, burying into the fallen bark of a nearby tree to search for ants. I could have stayed watching it all day, but we had other things to see, so I waited till it shuffled from sight and hurried on up the mountain.
Easier to spot where the emu. We had spent the first half of the holiday without encountering a single one so, when we were visiting the dormant volcano at Tower Hill, I was delighted to spot emu tracks and we followed them to a patch of scrubland where a mob of emu were pecking and grazing at the dirt. We crept up on them, amazed at how close we were able to get and congratulating ourselves on our stealth. Then we headed back to the picnic ground for lunch where we found emus at every table, posing for photos and trying to steal sandwiches.
When we got to our next destination, the emu were so bold that even a game of quoits brought them running, mistaking the sound of rope hitting wood for food being dropped. Since emu can be intimidated by any creature bigger than them, we found ourselves attempting to play quoits with our hands above our heads, pretending to be the biggest emu around. This worked perfectly well until we bent over to pick up the quoits, at which point we became too small and the emu charged. We retreated at speed to our cabin and declared the game a draw. The emu, on the other hand, considered it a win.
Comments
Post a Comment