Close Encounters of the Australian Kind
Dɑys Ƅefore I moved tо Australia with my Australian husband, tɦere ᴡaѕ travel deals a sҺow on TV thаt caught mʏ eye " The 10 most deadly creatures in the world- I jokingly said that if all ten came from Australia then I was definitely not going. Little did I know that I would have to thank the South American Tree Frog for being the one creature out of the top ten to NOT live in Australia and so here I am!
My first encounter with a local arachnid came late one night when I wondered why there was a large frog shaped thing on the wall by the light switch as big as my hand. It all became clear when the light was switched on as it turned out to be a Huntsman Spider that got the shock of its life as much as I did and reared up on its hind legs and jumped at me , just missing my head and scampered away as fast as I did but in the opposite direction . These spiders, I later found out are not harmful, in fact, its good ,apparently, to have one in your house to eat the blowies (Blue bottles flies). I never did find my uninvited guest again but hoped it had been as traumatized as I was and moved out. My Husband told me that a whole can of insect Spray wont kill the big ones (mine was medium size) and they often used to fall on him when he used to clean the family car under the car port If only he had told me about that BEFORE I moved half way across the world .
The waters seem no safer to me then the indoors. With the box jelly fish and killer whales, I am petrified to go anywhere near the ocean. Imagine the day I had when my husband decided we should go sailing in the Whitsundays, I was not keen on the idea but I reluctantly agreed.
Whilst sailing through this breathtakingly beautiful part of the world, we passed turtles swimming in shallow water and delighted in dolphins that followed us in the deeper water .I began to get confident and so after a week of refusing to go in the water, I ventured in, and then after a while I got brave and swam about 20 metres from the boat.
The water is so amazingly crystal clear here and so blue it is mesmerizing, that is until you see a dark shadow in the depths below you that seems to be coming nearer and nearer. It would be an understatement to say that I almost ran on top of the water shrieking like a banshee. I leapt up the ladder to find my Husband in fits of laughter pointing to what I had been swimming from " not ɑ shark aѕ I had automatically assumed ⲟr a jelly јust a Clown Fish . Wᥱll it WAЅ thᥱ size ߋf a dinner plate but I guess I wɑs the clown!
