Australia Wildlife - Lizards & Leeches

So, we love the Australians.  But some of the other creatures that inhabit this beautiful country are a bit scary.  I have watched enough Nat Geo and Animal Planet to be sure that there would be a family of deadly funnel webs living in a dark corner of my apartment.  But I have looked and looked and not seen a single insect yet.  Several butterflies.  So, cross off insects.  Time to go hiking.

The Royal National Park

We are about 15 minutes from the entrance to this park.  It's wonderful!  For the first weeks we were here, I think we went nearly every day.  Our favorite place is Wattamolla.

My grandson -- hello, Jakob! -- is extremely interested in lizards.  Might say a bit obsessed.  He wanted me to send him pictures of lizards.  Of course, I didn't want to fail in this, but I never thought there would be much chance.  Until ...

This beautiful fellow just ambled across the parking lot at Wattamolla.  A nearly four-foot long monitor -- called a goanna here.  He didn't skitter off either.  He walked slowly and purposefully.  You could see the power rippling along his body.  I was NOT tempted to pick him up.

The next time we were there ...

An eastern water dragon joined us for a picnic.  He stayed still and submitted to our attention quite placidly.  Maybe half a meter long, he had a larger friend basking across the pond.

 

Then this lovely blue-tongued lizard.  They are common in gardens and people love them here as they eat garden pests and are calm and relatively tame as lizards go.  The blue tongue is a defense mechanism that they use to scare off threats.  We didn’t know that and stayed back so as not to frighten him, so we got only a brief glimpse of his tongue.  But it was really, really BLUE.

 

 

Bob has become very good at this lizard photography and I am the lizard queen grandma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Rain Forest

 

We asked about snakes before we headed off and they told us there were few reported, but lots of leeches in the wet weather and we should take precautions.  Okay, hiking boots, long pants and duct tape should do it.

 

 

 

 

It was beautiful there, but we couldn't go too far as the creek was pretty deep.  We finished early and decided to stop at the mall on the way home.  My shoe wardrobe was lacking something to wear in Sydney.  You know how it is -- twelve pairs of shoes and not one would suit.  No worries – the mall is on the way home.

 

The tape looked a bit odd, so we peeled it off in the parking lot.  Hmm.  I saw a spot of blood on the top of my foot between the tape and my boot.  Bob found a lot of one sock covered in blood.  And --- eeeoooo! – the little bugger was still clinging to his jeans.  Flick!  The now quite distended leech landed with a plop on the pavement.

 

 

 

We resisted the temptation to strip off right there in full view of all the other shoppers, but a careful examination turned up nothing.  Mine had had a light snack and left.  Bob's was still sitting there -- on the pavement that had been in the sun since morning.  I looked at it -- him, whatever --  as he stretched to get as much of himself off the blistering pavement as he could.  I could almost hear a tiny voice,  "hot!  hot!  hot!"

 

 

Of course, a leech on a rooftop parking garage has no future to speak of.  They may rate fairly high on the ick scale, but they are harmless.  And they are pretty amazing:  in one nip they inject anesthetic, vasodilators, anticoagulant and anti-inflammatories -- a skill doctors cannot claim.  And these are the types that are used in medical treatments.  There is a leech "farm" not far away that ships them all over.

 

I popped him into a little plastic cup I keep in the car for things that I want to collect.  We released him and he won't cause any trouble for a while.  He doesn’t have to eat again for a year.

 

Next, something more attractive -- BIRDS!!!!

 

 

Living in Australia 3-3-2013

Living in Australia

It's pretty amazing here, lots of good things that I really like. We have to remember that Cronulla where we are, just 16 miles south of Sydney, is an upscale beach resort and perhaps nowhere in the world is much more diverse than Australia.  Having said that, all Australians are blond, tall, thin, fit and attractive. Except the boys, who are dark-haired, fit and attractive and surf. And apparently all Australians have a lot of money, because it is very expensive here. Cronulla is much like Los Angeles with a relaxed beach atmosphere, but without the freeways, traffic, smog or the possibility of seeing Mario Lopez or Simon Cowell's ex-girlfriend at the market.

Let's go shopping

We love Cronulla, but eventually we are brave enough to actually leave it and we learn lots of things. First we must deal with feeding ourselves and we learn it is a wonderful prospect. There is abundance here, beautiful fruits, vegetables and meat. It is everywhere -- a wonderful fish market is two blocks from us, bakeries line the sidewalks with gorgeous breads and pastries. But sooner or later, you must find a supermarket -- Woolworth's. Yes, the same one as the elderly among us remember in the states. Supermarkets are for the most part located in malls. I thought this was a bit daft until I saw it.

WOOLIES

Westfield Mall in Miranda maybe10 minutes away is shaped like a gigantic ameba, having devoured one at a time nearly all it's neighbors in the downtown area. It is so large I still don't know half what is there.

MIRANDA'S WESTFIELD MALL SPRAWL + PARKING ON ROOF

First, we park

Parking in Australia is, for the most part, underground or on the roof. It seems to be a large country, but not all of it is that attractive, so the parts that are are in great demand. So, no big parking lots. There are a lot of driving rules here and negotiating any parking facility means executing several figure 8s. It does all work though and seems quite safe. There are no stop signs here -- only stoplights and roundabouts. Lots of roundabouts. The view from the top of the mall is lovely with Sydney in the distance.

Once safely parked, you enter the mall. Wow. It's huge. Hot air balloon ascensions could be held in it. There are few escalators as we know them. There are moving ramps, a vast improvement over those hideous, dangerous rolling stair things we have, hazards to children, the elderly and anyone holding several suitcases. You can safely take a baby stroller up one of these. Everyone can use them. Perhaps impractical for all uses due to their size, they are wonderful.

Once inside the mall, amazing sights are everywhere. You can buy anything and everything without ever leaving this comfortable, convenient place. That was our own idea back before we decided that malls were bad and everything should go back outside -- so you can park and re-park your car often. In the mall, there are the anchor stores, which here seem to be grocery stores. There is Woolies at one end, Franklin's at the other and side shops containing beer and wine, deli's, bakeries, cheese shops, fish and meat markets. And in the grocery stores, that is all duplicated with each store's own deli, etc. It is just simply a food bonanza.

The food is all beautiful. Of course, there is the odd thing.

And some unusual Easter basket candy . . .

And for your personal needs, an aisle with cosmetics and so on. For a price, of course.

This, I have no idea. Perhaps needed if your gag reflex isn't quite up to par.

And also in the mall there are chemists -- our term for pharmacies. They are wonderful. I went into one because I had a sinus headache. Undoubtedly, I had a lingering sinus infection. No time to deal with it before I left, so now what? I asked for a decongestant. The pharmacist came out and guided me over to the pertinent area and helped me choose one. He said you probably should see a doctor. I wondered how I would be able to do that. He said, oh, there is a clinic near the entrance to the mall. I strolled down there, paid $50 in cash and was seen immediately by the doctor. He was a very nice Indian fellow and he had friends at the university in Ann Arbor. We chatted, he checked a bit and said yes, sinus infection, here is a prescription. I took it directly to the chemist that was adjacent to the clinic, handed it over at the counter and in minutes received a packet of antibiotics for $18. From walk-in to prescription in hand, the entire thing took 15 minutes tops. Would have been less had the doctor not had friends in Michigan. Amazing. I had time to shop for some shoes.

I love Australians! They are just wonderful and friendly and anxious to help. We have met so many people. On our first day we were walking to the shopping area in Cronulla to look for the Vodaphone office. We must look perpetually confused as very soon a lovely woman asked if she could help us. Robyn said oh, I'm going that way so we can walk together. We were fast friends quickly and took her phone number and promised to call. A few busy weeks passed and I had not called yet, but intended to -- so much to do always! The other day we took the train to Sydney and then the ferry to Manly. Pictures will follow later. On the way home we realized that Bob had left the backpack he was carrying in Manly -- somewhere in Manly. Had my binoculars and his phone in it. Oh well.

Later that evening we were sitting in the living room talking and there was a knock at the door -- Robyn! Expressions of surprise all the way round and she said did you lose a bag? The bag was turned in at the Manly police department and when they looked at the phone, it only had one number in it -- Robyn's. Angela at the Manly police guessed it was the bag of an American tourist (is this some kind of national trait, leaving one's belongs about?) So, she called Robyn and Robyn somehow realized that the bag belonged to the two phantom Americans from weeks before. She thought she remembered that we said we were at 87 Kingsway, so she struck out and found a likely looking building and walked around until she heard American voices. It was full-on dark by then. Arraugh! I about fainted at the thought of her walking around in the dark approaching strange doors, but obviously she was perfectly safe.

We went back to Manly yesterday and fetched the bag. I told them at the police station that if they where in need of a detective, Robyn was their woman.
 

What a wonderful place!