The signs? They advertise lunch spots for the crocs - think of it as natural selection - they take only the stupid.....
<note to self... NO Caramel slices and NO SWIMMING. Also, watch for small scary snakes.>
Yikes. Yikes. Yikes. I remember you mentioning the sign. Didn't think of the one feed, that's sort of like the saw that you don't have to run faster than the bear, just faster than your camping companion.
PD - You contain a realm of safety features!
My friend is leaving tomorrow for LA and her trip. Of course, her nearly new car chose yesterday to quit starting altogether. She'd just had it in the shop. She was a little sputtery when we spoke a few minutes ago. Things not going so awfully well. She's just leaving the car in her garage and NOT RUNNING, relying on me and other friends to get here last-minute errands done. I am beginning to worry and hope she leaves this little black cloud behind her. Not the best of luck, just now. She's lost her itinerary in two different spots now... what would Freud make of that? I wonder if she wishes her b/f were coming along???
If she happens to call on you M... you'll be glad to know she is a cat person. Her cat is a 22 pound black and white named Whiskas... he does enjoy his tucker. She having a housesitter whose main command is to put him on a diet! (AGAIN) LOL. Poor fella, he needs to lose about 4-5 pounds. Tough for a kitty!!! So, I'm off on my mission of mercy.
Ladies, please be careful in the bush. Now I'm worried about you and all the snakes that are about. How did the Aborigines ever manage to make it through a long lifetime???
There is no evidence that they DID have long lives Piffka - (but I doubt it had aught to do with snakes etc - really, you are overrating the dangers - you folk would lose more people to mosquitoes these days than we do to wild-life) - I suspect they had lives as short and hard as most nomadic hunter-gatherers seem to have had....
Australia has most of the most poisonous critters on earth, right?
Actually the same thing about baby snakes can be said about baby spiders. Baby widows (and I imagine baby trapdoor spiders) are just as venomous as their parents.
Ah, how I love Oz.
There is no evidence that they DID have long lives Piffka - (but I doubt it had aught to do with snakes etc - really, you are overrating the dangers - you folk would lose more people to mosquitoes these days than we do to wild-life) - I suspect they had lives as short and hard as most nomadic hunter-gatherers seem to have had....
I've heard a lot of Australia by friends, who visited our antipode (and here as well).
(Just remember that as a schoolboy of 14 a started writing to different embassies: booklets from the Australian
and the Mao bible from the Chinese
was the first stuff a got.) :wink:
Found a nice link, just to add some culture in the thread
Australian National Library - online exhibitiion
I had to play around a little to get that link to work, but once I did, what a wonderful resource. Ought to be bookmarked by everybody interested in Oz. The exhibitions I had time to look at were marvelous: Ellis Rowan, the flower hunter, and Augustus Pugin, the designer. Thanks, Walter ~
Sorry, Piffka!
I've corrected that - now it should work.
Deb's right - despite the many and various vicious critters - hardly any people die, and they're usually doing something stupid. Snake bites are usually (but not always) in people trying to kill the snakes. Swimming in known crocodile places is a prime example.
Even drownings mostly happen when people have a fair amount of alcohol on board, and/or are not taking the most simple safety precautions. (such as swimming between the flags).
It's Deb's "lesser buffalo" theory.
Piffka -
Deb and I both live in cities - well, not right in, but in the near suburbs, and critter attacks are pretty rare. Although Deb does live near a park ....hmmmmm. Have to watch them boids, Deb!
(and I have an attack cat - so I bleed a bit!)
Looking forward to hearing from your friend, Piffka!
I'm glad to hear I'm over-rating dangers. That is good. You two have managed to steer clear of these creatures, that's an excellent sign. And trust me, I would only swim between the flags (if then!). I'm more of pool swimmer. Lakes and rivers have never had the appeal to me that they have for some people. I think fresh water smells funny.
It was creepy to hear you say that a snake chased you, Margo. I have a friend who says he was pursued by a timber rattlesnake once and it was quite large and long. THis was in eastern Washington, in the highlands of the Okanogan. V. frightening to him, and he's an outdoorsy sort.
Oz is just a whole nother place.
Thanks Margo. Janet left this morning. She'll be in LA for a few days and then head down. Somewhere she's given me her itinerary. I hope you do meet her. She is quite a character and lots of fun. Very English still, though she's now an American citizen, but she loves Australia. If it hadn't been for marrying her last, late husband, she'd have continued to live there, I think. She had a sort of retirement "gap year" and lived... I want to say in the northern part, but hmmm, I could be completely wrong about that! Somewhere in Oz!
