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Published: November 29th 2011
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50 steps from our door
The Nightcliff Foreshore Hmmm, just found out this site limits the number of words you can write on the photo caption so for the ones with longer stories, I will name the photo and write the comments and you'll have to match it to the correct photo! Enjoy!
50 steps from our door -Yup, this is the Arafura Sea and it's 50 steps from our door. The rocks are multicoloured, the sand is lovely and the breeze, a nice relief from the heat. The sunsets are magnanimous. One downer is that you can't swim due to the poisonous box jellyfish and deadly crocs. I sometimes walk along picking seashells but with extreme caution, watching the rocks for movement (i.e. a rock that's really a croc) and staying clear of the edge of the water -these are the recommendations of the Northern Territory Government. Oh ya, and not to frequent the same area at the same time of day because crocs -called "salties" by the locals- stalk their prey studying their habits, for many days, even weeks, before striking with incredible speed and force. Yikes.
Bird that attacked me -I was walking back to our place from the beach (did I mention it's
like 50 steps away. SO NICE). Anyway, I crossed the street towards this big patch of grass and trees and there was this bird there making his call in an increasingly rapid and louder and louder tone. He sounded pissed off but I wasn't concerned at this point. I mean, it's a big bird, but I'm bigger. Then I realized there was another one behind me and that they were actually communicating back and forth. THEN, the one on the grass made himself look really big and put his head down with his eyes still pointing at me and he starting running towards me really fast! I kinda stopped walking forward for a second but then I thought, no big deal, it's just a bird 'cracking the shits' (Aussie expression for 'going crazy'😉! But then with lightning speed he got really really close and flew up towards my face! I screamed and covered my face and bent down as he kept swooping around me really close over and over. I then crouch-walked away from the patch of grass. "What a f***er!", I thought. It soon occured to me that they were parents protecting their nest, which was somewhere on the
Cicada
That's not my hand. Or Majeed's. Ewwww. ground between the trees. I felt pretty embarrassed seeing as there were a bunch of people watching the scene and kinda laughing. Well,
really laughing.
The next day Majeed and I went to the beach together and on the way back, I instructed him to walk towards the patch of grass (as I watched from a safe distance). He wasn't as blasé as me to keep on walking towards the grass once he heard the alarmed bird cries. In my defense, I did tell him about the attack beforehand so he knew what to expect.
Cicada -These giant bugs (usually 2-5cm long and up to 15cm!) live underground dormant for 2-17 years and then emerge in very large numbers. They make a LOT of noise and it is really amazing to hear their non-stop buzz. It almost sounds like giant electricity lines. They have 5 eyes. And when they flap their wings it is incredibly loud. We have them in North America too of course, but there are over 200 species here and they are very numerous. We went to a party on Saturday night and during dinner this cicada landed on the guy across the table from
me. I said very loudly: "There's something big on your shirt mate!" and he calmly looked down and grabbed it in his hand. Of course I needed a picture (and screamed while taking it as I had to get uncomfortably close to it to get that shot). Then he put his hand down for his dog to sniff the cicada and snap! The dog ate it in one satisfying crunch. Majeed and I almost puked but instead started laughing and hugging each other. I'm not sure why the cicada remained so still and calm throughout this horrifying process. Aussies really know how to throw an awesome party!
Planting trees -One Sunday morning we decided to help out our neighbourhood environmentalist folks and joined the Rapid Creek Landcare Group. Rapid Creek is what they call a suburb and what North Americans would call a neighbourhood. We live next door in the Nightcliff suburb (and depending on the day, sometimes google maps says we actually live in Rapid Creek :-) So on that lovely Sunday morn we planted and then watered 300 trees! We planted them along the riverbed because as we learned, having dense trees along the river helps reduce
flooding in the neighbouring housing developments. It's pretty cool to drive by there now and see the fruits of our labour!
Scroll down the page for more pictures!
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Rox
non-member comment
Hilarious as!!