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Whenever I'm in Australia or NZ, I attempt to imagine what the reaction of the first settlers here might have been to the strange new world they had come to... we've seen -- or can see -- almost everything on our planet online, but they had only slight and completely subjective news from the first explorers...
I got a small dose of their experience yesterday as we walked over to an expansive grassy area near the parking lot: about 100 meters away, i saw two dark objects; at first i thought they were large rocks, but the realized they were wombats; a mother and baby. as we got closer, i realized that my lifelong idea of the animal was wrong: instead of being about the size of a small dog -- a beagle -- the mother was about 5 feet long and stood perhaps two feet at the shoulder. Solid and thick, she reminded me exactly of a small hairy hippopotamus, and as they grazed on the short grass, her slightly lumbering movements were heavy and deliberate. Despite our slow approach, the pair quickly moved into the taller bush and disappeared.
Tim tells me that some people keep wombats as pets and their size gives them substantial weight around the place: if a wombat wants to sit where you are, he'll just come over and push you out of the chair. after realizing how solid and chunky they are, i can believe it: the mother must have weighed a good 250 lbs, all in a tight little package.
Surprise number two:
turning toward the larger fields, i couldsee a number of animals bent over,
silhouetted by the low evening sun:
Forester kangaroos. the nearest was
at least a hundred yards away and stood
up to watch us as we watched it with our
binoculars. back to the sun, its furry ears
were highlighted; i could see the small front
paws almost touching each other, held in front
of its chest. in the field beyond, another four
were grazing, bent over like old men examining
something on the ground. One hopped acoss,
perpendicular to our line of sight, and i could see
how he used his long thick tail for balance: it was
one (slightly) fluid movement -- if you can call hopping
anything but jerky. push off with large rabbit-like rear
paws, quick balance with tail, and land on those large
rear paws again, small hands held up to chest.
Other animals: black swans and black parrots...
gorgeously empty Baker's Beach...
Baker's Beach at sunset, view to Badger Head
and a drive home on roads lined with eucalyptus trees glowing in the last flames of the sunset.
Bennet's wallabies stood in the cleared verges along the road; some watched and others
bounced away back into the bush as we drove home..
If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time - Edith Wharton
