School holidays presented an opportunity for us to camp away our post holiday blues with a trip to Cape Conran.
We met up with Kim, Steve, Amber, Cohen, Patrick, and Krissy, Chase, Arlo and Buzz. Steve’s brother, Frank, joined us for our last night and Matilda was in Melbourne with Aunty Emma, Uncle Dave, Nancy and Grannie.
Not ideal beach weather but we had a great time, walking, talking, cooking, eating (of course), bike riding, swimming, exploring, country op-shopping and another bottle of maple syrup whiskey bit the dust. We were treated to humpback’s breaching, albeit at a distance so we could see only the splash, still thrilling.
But most noteworthy was the unfolding of a nail-biting drama between Mr Goanna and Mama Brushtail who was protecting her baby – look at her hiding in the hollow; goanna knows they’re nearby, he can smell them and he’s patient, he’s been scouting this part of the tree for days; she plays possum and eventually moves within the tree to re-appear at another hollow on the other side of the trunk, still quiet as a mouse she waits until suddenly he snatches down into where she hides, she screams like a banshee, he jerks back and loses balance, scrambling to grip the flaking bark on the trunk and nearly falling 20+m. We like to think the baby survived but Steve thinks the cries he heard through the night suggest otherwise. Oh well, goannas have to eat too.
Back home and the echidnae are active, looking for a drink or a mate, but not the Rusty kind.
Five for the Road 