Stowaway

When we traveled from the pacific coast to the hinterland, Michaela found out that we had an unexpected traveler with us. A tiny lizard joint us and although we tried hard we could not convince it to check out. Thus we moved on with our travels. We were quite worried about its well-being and the consequences. Thus we started discussing about the odor and the hygiene of a dead animal in our car and about many other related issues. In the meantime out little traveler found a nice cool and wet place in our car. It was a bag where we put our wet tent in the morning.

Thus, it was safe and sound. While having our pick nick we decided to get our tent out into the sun to dry it.
Well, that is when our ‘Lurchi’ decided to move on as the former wet place was dry.













We were happy to see him alive and thus we had to take some pictures before we released him into the wilderness.

Thus, it was safe and sound. While having our picknick we decided to get our tent out into the sun to dry Well, that was not really the end of the story. A second time he managed to get on the car by jumping from Jochen’s arm onto the hood and then under it. Into a corner we could only see his tail, however were not able to grap him. Thus, the journey went on. Again we discussed the consequences for Lurchi while we were traveling. At one point we decided that he will make it and what adventures the new future will bring. When we arrived at Blue Mountain National Park we could not find him anymore. Thus we thought he jumped right off the car when we were at the picknick place.

The next morning, after a wet and cold night in the mountains we went to a sightseeing point called Echo Point and we enjoyed looking at the Three Sisters and Jamison Valley.











When the sun was getting too hot, we returned to our car to find Lurchi sitting in the shade of our back tire. We tried to convince him that this was not the perfect spot. At the end Michaela made sure he was save while I drove away with Matilda. However as Lurchi was not moving from the place, we first had to rescue him from other cars and then from the sun.

This time we were lucky. We found a place at a wonderful hedge with some nice flowers cold and shady. There Lurchi is now happy and has found a lot of new friends whom he can tell the stories about his life at the sea (for sure they don´t believe him that there is a place on earth which has so much water) and adapts to the life in the mountains.

Stories about the Wilderness

Australians love to talk about the dangers in the wilderness. At the end they tell you ‘No worries! All is exaggerated it hardly happens…

Take that story for example (probably never took place like that) : “ A friend of my sister’s boyfriend was bitten into the backside by a snake while he was hiking in Lamington National Park. No worries! He can breathe again and since yesterday he communicates by blinking his eyes…. “

And therefore we were not surprised to hear that an American couple that was snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef on a tour boat was forgotten at the Reef.

Just imagine you are snorkeling in paradise and seconds later you realize there is no boat anymore – what a nightmare!

The mainland was 40 kilometers away. However the next corralled reef was only some kilometers away. What else could they do thus they tried to swim over there which meant to pass the deep sea? Well, and what else is in the deep sea? Right! Sharks. The two were never found.

Some time later the police found out that they had committed suicide. It was mentioned in the dairy of the woman that was found later. Moreover their safety jackets were found without a scratch. However, this is the part Australians are not going to telling you…

Stupidity knows no boundaries

I had mentioned before in the blog ‘Down Under’ that Australian’s ecosystem is very sensitive; therefore Australians make sure that nothing destroys it. That was not always the case. In 1859 Thomas Austin a sportsman imported rabbits from England. He released them at his farm in order to hunt. That caused a catastrophe. It seems that he was not a good hunter at all. The rabbits became more and more and they expanded their territory to whole Victoria. From there they took another 100 km new territory every year so at one point they were in entire Australia. They started eating the grass for the sheep. It seemed nothing could help to eliminate them till someone found a remedy coming from South America. It was a virus, which only killed rabbits no other animals or people. This virus managed to kill 99,9% of the rabbit population. Only 1% of the 300 million rabbits of that time survived. Believe it or not after a short period the rabbit population grew again. The trend is going up…

There are terrible consequences. Some parts of Australia, which were green meadows, became forever deserts and the ecosystem, which worked for millions of years, is destroyed.

Thomas Austin was probably one of the biggest destroyers of the environment in the history of Australia. However, for sure he was not the only one. In the course of the years there were not only rabbits, which were escaping into Australian’s wildlife. Other animals escaped which never existed in the country before. Take camels for example, which were used to build the railways. When the railways were built and the animals not needed anymore, they were released right into nature. Now there are almost 100.000 camels in Australian’s deserts – btw the biggest amount of camels living in nature worldwide.

Then there are 5 million wild donkeys and 1 million wild horses. Moreover, buffaloes, cows, goats, and sheep. At the end the kangaroo, which was once, the biggest population of Australian wildlife ranks now on place 13.

Now have a guess which animal, which was imported into Australia, is the biggest killer? The cat – the domestic cat!









Nowadays 12 millions of those cats live as wild cats and kill small animals so that these are endangered. Therefore the Australian government has declared cats as a plague. Cheers to the Australian government who realized a fact which I preach since years… :o)