Australia - the wildlife

'Jet-lag' is the term we use to describe the after effects of moving quickly from one time zone to another distant one. It would have had no meaning before long haul flying became a reality but today it is commonplace and there are many ways that this affects our bodies. The physical consequences of being uncomfortably seated for a prolonged period of time whilst being subjected to constant vibration and the occasional shaking caused by air turbulence will inevitably have an effect on us. The body clock alone can take days to readjust but the strange sensations of vibration coming through my feet after landing did take me by surprise. Then after emerging from our first night of sleep with our hosts, ridiculously early (local time) on the first morning, we got our first sight of the garden birds attracted by our host's feeding regime.

It appears that most things flying things here are brightly coloured and since many are unique to Australia the first thing we have to do is learn all their names. The dingo shown here is not (normally) a garden visitor, nor would he be welcome. We saw this one strolling about in a local park as if he owned the place, which in many ways they do. The Aussie magpie is considerably bigger than what we see at home and has a call that is loud enough to be heard across the world.

This particular chap is reasonably tame as a result of being offered food every day and he begins screaming for attention every morning as soon as he sees someone in the house is awake.

Moving on... 

... these fungal beauties caught our eye. They live on trees in the wooded areas near where we were staying, an area known as 'the bush' ('woods' don't exist here). Eucalyptus trees tower over everything else, their white trunks being devoid of bark and carrying strange zigzag marks made by tiny burrowing creatures.

All this in our first week of the holiday during which we explored the area, the beaches and the sand dunes. This was where we met the goanna and the white crab. The gekko, however, spends his days in the house catching flies and spiders whenever he can. Everything in Australia seems to be in one way or another different from what we are used to back home in Scotland. The wildlife, the climate, the cars, the accent, it is all part of the jet-lag adjusting process.