Wild Places and Open Spaces

Click HERE for some pictures.

We had a great visit in the with our new friends on Australia Day in Tasmania. January 26, 1788 was the date on which the First Fleet, under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Sydney Cove and set up the Colony of New South Wales. In Devonport, there were no festivities going on, but everyone had the day off and many were celebrating quietly with their families near the beach.

The wind that day was really strong, and weather reports were calling for ‘gale force’ winds. Great….we were to sail to the mainland the next morning…

Athough the next morning it was still very windy, and was throughout the sailing, the boat ride was unexpectedly fairly smooth. I still took a couple of sea sickness pills, which settled my stomach. Apparently not all were well though…all the female washrooms had the putrid smell of vomit – almost enough to turn anyone’s stomach upon walking in.

We treated ourselves to another buffet on the boat, and watched the shearwaters and albatross flying at sea as we ate our meal. The shearwaters (which I have spoken of before) are truly amazing to watch at sea. They fly effortlessly, without even flapping their wings, up and down on the air currents all day long.

We had one more thing to find on the mainland before leaving Australia – the elusive Superb Lyrebird. We had kept our eyes peeled for this bird, but had never come across one. A fellow we had met about 2 months earlier, had recommended an area to visit where we may come across a lyrebird. So, on our way up to Sydney to catch our flight out, we made a stop at Tarra Bulga National Park.

Lyrebirds are mostly ground birds, and the males are known for having beautiful tail feathers – that look much like a lyre. They are also known to be great mimics – they do have their own call, but often mimic other birds or other inanimate objects! A ranger once told us a story about a lyrebird he had heard mimic the sound of a digital camera taking a picture!

It was a rainy day, but we were on a mission…we talked to a ranger and decided what hike to do on her recommendations. The forest seemed quite lifeless, other than the light rain hitting the flora and forest floor. That is, until Jim saw some movement out of the corner of his eye…it was a male lyrebird scratching at the ground for some food. He didn’t notice us for quite some time, but as usual, as soon as Jim was about to take a photo it ran away. We were lucky though, to have such a good, long look at a lyrebird, let alone a male one with its beautiful tail feathers.

The next morning Jim set out early to find some more lyrebirds. We had been told that they were easier to see at dawn, so he was going to give it a shot. I decided to stay dry and cozy in the tent, being content with the sighting the day before. So, a couple of hours went by, and Jim still wasn’t back – I started to get worried. We almost never do things alone, and this outing of his consisted of driving a windy dirt road to get to the area to hike in. So, of course all bad things came to mind, and as I was psyching myself out in the tent, deciding what to do, when the car drove up. He popped out and said, “Yeah, well, didn’t see much.” I wasn’t surprised, but then realized he was once again playing my gullable nature as he said, “yeah, I stopped counting at 14…!” So, in the span of a couple of hours, he had seen 14 lyrebirds! He did manage to get a couple of photos as they were running off, as all noticed him almost immediately. So, Jim walked around with a much deserved proud face for the rest of the day.

From here, we continued our way up to Sydney. On our way there we stopped on the way to do a few hikes. One in particular was memorable because it was our first encounter with a snake that stood its ground…

It was a sunny day, and on sunny days the snakes are usually out in full force basking in any bit of sun they can. Walking along the path, I stopped when I spotted a small snake making its way into the brush from the trail. Upon investigating the area further, Jim saw a bigger snake beside the smaller one….only this snake did not appear to be afraid of us at all. Usually, snakes are not much concern as they would much rather be on their way than have anything to do with humans. However, this one decided to investigate us further, which was new for us. The snake started slithering out of the bush onto the trail, and we started backing away, not taking our eyes off him. He came right out on the trail, and flattened his head/neck (many snakes do this when they feel threatened) right out as he moved toward us. It was a venomous tiger snake – we had encountered many along our journeys, but none as bold as this. We backed off far enough that he stopped advancing, and Jim snapped some great photos. The snake turned to go back into the bushes, so we approached it again. He wasn’t backing down, so he once again advanced, and I am sure would have had a go at us if we didn’t back up again. One thing we do have is respect for animals – especially ones that could kill us!! We thanked him for the photos, and were on our way, watching the bushes a little more closely the rest of the hike.

Back in Sydney we did some more family visiting – we saw all my cousins again and were treated to some wonderful meals once again. We visited friends of my mom’s and looked through old pictures they had of when I was young and pictures of my mom and dad – particularly noted were the funny plaid pants my dad used to wear. Was a really nice visit. We cleaned up the car, and left it with my uncle as he is going to sell it for us – a crappy job that he offered to do for us which helps us out tremendously.

In a nutshell, Australia has been a wonderful experience – the thing we will miss most is the amazing wildlife it has to offer. Words cannot express all of the feelings we have had when seeing such wonderful animals for the first time, and then continuing to see many of them on a nearly daily basis. If anyone has any interest at all in wildlife, we would urge you to visit the land down under – we can now point out the ‘hot spots’ for wildlife watching!

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 1st, 2007 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.