Blackbutt reserve
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Kirsten
07 Maart 2013 | Australië, Newcastle
It was a Monday and I seem to be the only person that is free on Mondays, so I decided to take a walk to the Blackbutt natural reserve. Armed with my camera, that I managed to fix just after I bought a new one, I started strolling the bushwalking tracks, secretly hoping to meet some interesting animals. As the true explorer that I am, I left taking the precautions of carrying around a plastic bag containing a swimsuit and a towel in case I also wanted to go to the beach and not bothering to take food or water, since I already had lunch before I left.
It might have been a fifteen to twenty minute walk to get to Blackbutt reserve and after walking around for a while I had seen enough trees and plants and rocks to get bored and inattentive, however nice they may look. This didn’t take long however, because I noticed I something touching me. I’d had heaps of mozzies (yes I am trying to sound Australian, am I doing at right?) touching and biting me during my walk, but this seemed to be everywhere at the same time and I got to the shocking conclusion that a gigantic spider web was all over me, and an 8cm big spider was hanging from a thread right next to me. It won’t look so big on the picture, because I took a 10m sprint away from it before I took the picture. I know what being a fly must feel like now, how could I have missed that web?!
Senses sharper then before, I dared to continue my adventure and got scared again, by a little fellow that was scared of me too. I lost my fear of this one pretty quickly, because it was just a funny lace monitor, that was posing quite well for a picture, because they climb up trees when they are scared. After meeting him and doing a little photo shoot with him, I continued my walk and found nothing worthwhile for a long time, but I thought I might just as well walk all the paths while I was there (and there’s more than 10km of them). No kangaroos or koalas would show and I am not even sure if they are freely hopping about there. I came to a little zoo-like place where some kangaroos, emus, wallabies, sleeping koalas and lots of birds were on display, which was quite nice to see, but I am not leaving Australia before I spot a wild kangaroo!
After this, I still kept walking until I heard a monkey-like sound. I was not expecting any monkeys here, because I was not in Africa, so it triggered my curiosity. I was right about it not being monkeys, but bats. Trees full of them. (You might think I’m stupid for confusing a bat sound with a monkey sound, but they really did sound like baboons.) Fascinating. That was about it for the day, but it had been enough, because my feet got all blistered up from walking so much. Resulting in the fact that I just stopped wearing shoes, because all of them hurt.
Next to walking tracks, Blackbutt reserve also has opportunities for animal encounters, where staff of the reserve show some of Australia’s animals close by. This is perfect for children’s birthday parties. Lucky me, getting to tag along with William to a birthday party of one of his friends. This gave me the chance to see lots of Australia’s reptiles and have a snake around my neck. Thereby, a bluetongue lizard occupies the garden here (the lazy little matey likes to be fed strawberries and grapes), so I’ve seen reptiles enough. Now’s the time for kangaroos.
It might have been a fifteen to twenty minute walk to get to Blackbutt reserve and after walking around for a while I had seen enough trees and plants and rocks to get bored and inattentive, however nice they may look. This didn’t take long however, because I noticed I something touching me. I’d had heaps of mozzies (yes I am trying to sound Australian, am I doing at right?) touching and biting me during my walk, but this seemed to be everywhere at the same time and I got to the shocking conclusion that a gigantic spider web was all over me, and an 8cm big spider was hanging from a thread right next to me. It won’t look so big on the picture, because I took a 10m sprint away from it before I took the picture. I know what being a fly must feel like now, how could I have missed that web?!
Senses sharper then before, I dared to continue my adventure and got scared again, by a little fellow that was scared of me too. I lost my fear of this one pretty quickly, because it was just a funny lace monitor, that was posing quite well for a picture, because they climb up trees when they are scared. After meeting him and doing a little photo shoot with him, I continued my walk and found nothing worthwhile for a long time, but I thought I might just as well walk all the paths while I was there (and there’s more than 10km of them). No kangaroos or koalas would show and I am not even sure if they are freely hopping about there. I came to a little zoo-like place where some kangaroos, emus, wallabies, sleeping koalas and lots of birds were on display, which was quite nice to see, but I am not leaving Australia before I spot a wild kangaroo!
After this, I still kept walking until I heard a monkey-like sound. I was not expecting any monkeys here, because I was not in Africa, so it triggered my curiosity. I was right about it not being monkeys, but bats. Trees full of them. (You might think I’m stupid for confusing a bat sound with a monkey sound, but they really did sound like baboons.) Fascinating. That was about it for the day, but it had been enough, because my feet got all blistered up from walking so much. Resulting in the fact that I just stopped wearing shoes, because all of them hurt.
Next to walking tracks, Blackbutt reserve also has opportunities for animal encounters, where staff of the reserve show some of Australia’s animals close by. This is perfect for children’s birthday parties. Lucky me, getting to tag along with William to a birthday party of one of his friends. This gave me the chance to see lots of Australia’s reptiles and have a snake around my neck. Thereby, a bluetongue lizard occupies the garden here (the lazy little matey likes to be fed strawberries and grapes), so I’ve seen reptiles enough. Now’s the time for kangaroos.
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07 Maart 2013 - 10:37
Je Buur Meisje!:
Hee!
Die spin is écht eng!
Gelukkig is het daar gezellig!
Je hebt gelijk over dat wij Nederlanders
vreemde meer moeten betrekken!
Anyways,
Have fun! -
07 Maart 2013 - 23:12
Margot:
Hoi Kirsten,
Wat heb je weer een leuk verslag geschreven! En een hele foto reportage, gaaf hoor. Fijn dat je fototoestel het weer doet. Ik heb me ook maar op de mailinglijst gezet, niet dat ik je anders vergeet hoor, maar het is wel zo makkelijk. Lukt het allemaal met de kindjes en luisteren ze een beetje naar je?
Je durft wel hoor met die slang om je nek, ik wist niet dat we zo'n stoere nicht hebben. Enne op je 18e toch nog kinderverjaardagen, wie heeft dat op die leeftijd?
Veel plezier weer verder en houdoe vanuit Breda.
XXX van Gerrit en Margot -
08 Maart 2013 - 08:02
Jacqueline:
Haay there,
Hallo Kirsten, heel veel plezier en gezelligheid toegewenst aan de andere kant van de wereld Australië!
Erg leuk om je reis-blog met avonturen te lezen, geniet van deze periode!!!
Groetjes vanuit Poeldijk, Nederland...
Jacqueline ( tennis-vriendin van je moeder...) -
10 Maart 2013 - 11:33
Wil:
Hoi Kirsten,
Wat een geweldig verhaal, ook al is het soms een beetje moeilijk alles letterlijk te vertalen voor dit blondje!
De foto's zijn ook geweldig om naar te kijken, zeker als ik je daar zo zie staan met die enge slang om je nek. Maar je ziet er goed en blij uit!! Gaat het ook goed met de kindjes? Luisteren ze wel goed naar je?
Geniet maar weer van alles wat op je pad komt,
groetjes, Wil
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