Feeding some kangaroos and emus (back right of picture) in Warratah Park. Notice baby Joey peeking out from Mama's pouch immediately to my left.
Kate and some cockatoos at the Sydney Botanic Gardens. These birds (remember Kojak?) are like pigeons in the US, only a LOT louder. We saw a women in the Gardens feeding them, with the birds landing in flocks around her, and many perching right on her shoulders and arms.
Comments or questions to: Bike2Grin@AOL.com or BettwyK@MtnBrook.k12.al.us |
Creatures and Critters Ok. Imagine you are walking down the street, and a huge pet store suddenly flings open its doors, and all the exotic birds, fish, and other animals come running out and fill your entire world. That's Australia. The only Koalas we saw were in the Warratah National Park, and they are carefully managed to protect them. Visitor are only allowed to view them with a guide, and only for short periods of time. Kangaroos in Australia are viewed much the same as deer are in the US. Somewhere between a nuisance and a destructive pest, kangaroos must be hunted to keep their numbers in check. All the wild kangaroos we saw were very shy and skittish. Simply stopping the car, even a hundred meters away, would cause them to raise up on their hind legs, then bound off out of sight. Kate was the expert at spotting them in the fields, since they look pretty much like rocks when bent over grazing. We never stopped commenting about the birds. There was one type that Kate liked, about the size of an owl and colored bright pink, that flew in flocks and screeched like a banshee. We saw these birds all over the wine country. We also saw the ibis (looks like a cross between a crane and an ant-eater), ducks without webbed feet, parrots, and peacocks. If (when) we return to Australia, we will certainly bring a tape recorder for all the bird sounds, because they are as exciting as the photographs. One event, which you'll have to take on faith since I didn't bring a camera, is the day-long SCUBA diving trip John, Susan and I made to Anemone Bay on North Solitary Island, about 8 hours north of Sydney. North Solitary Island sits about 8 miles offshore, and is (you guessed it) the northernmost island in a string of islands about a third of the way between Sydney and Brisbane. Anemone Bay gets its name because it contains the world's densest collection of sea anemone. The sea floor looks like a bad 1970's deep shag carpet, swaying in the currents. We saw literally thousands of neon-colored fish, dozens of grouper, and many wobbegong sharks (they look like big, camouflaged cat-fish). Despite being sea-sick for most of the trip, I had the adventure of a lifetime when I got to snorkel in the open ocean with a humpback whale. During the return trip, three pods of humpbacks were spotted, and we stopped to watch. The first were two large adults, swimming in absolutely perfect unison. Even their breathing was timed exactly. A smaller, younger whale followed them closely, and put on a show for us, flapping its tail on the water and even breaching for us once. The second pod was several whales simply swimming along. We didn't see much of them except their backs. The third whale had stopped along our return course. We killed our engine to watch him a while, then Mic (an Australian in the group. Do you love the name???) and I grabbed our snorkeling gear and went to look at him in the water. He passed about 30 feet in front of me, and about 20 feet under water. He circled the boat and slid up to the side on the surface, not five feet from where Susan was sitting. I had made it back to the boat by that time, and the whale submerged beneath the boat heading right to me. He was about ten feet ahead of and below me when John slipped into the water for a better look. The whale decided to leave at that point, but being that close to an animal that size (maybe 35-40 feet long), in the open ocean, made the entire trip worthwhile. |
