Update from the Bush

Hope you are well and not too cold over there!

"here's an update from the Bush east of Melbourne:"

In the wilderness of East Gippsland lately the reptiles have been entertaining us! First there was the cheeky Eastern Water Dragon who calmly wandered into our camp to taste some watermelon that had fallen onto the ground. See the first two pictures - you can even see the remains of the red watermelon on his upper lip! He liked the melon so much that he stayed around - hoping that some more would fall to the ground perhaps? We watched him for a long time. While he waited he hunted - he stood very, very still for a long time, only his big eyes moving, then suddenly dashed forward to pounce on a grasshopper or a spider.

In the past, at this campsite, we have seen Water Dragons, but only briefly - they are usually pretty shy. We reckon this little fella was feeling the effects of the drought, and had come out of his normal hiding places in search of food and water. Actually they are quite big - this guy was about 50cm long! In the area they have a special name for them - Snowy River Crocodiles!

But it's the Goannas that are the really big lizards of Australia. They are so impressive - some over 2 metres long! This guy (see pic) was the fifth goanna we had seen, but every other one had run off into the bushes. As they move you can hear them on the ground (crash, crash, crash through the dry leaves), but as soon as they stop you can't find them - their colouring is a perfect camouflage. Lucky for us this guy went straight up the tree, right beside the track! So we all had a great look at him. See if you can find him on the tree in the last picture (with the man in front).

As you may have heard there were some very big bushfires in eastern Victoria this summer. Fortunately they have just got the biggest one "contained" (that means it is still burning, but they are pretty confident that they can keep it where it is). We are all breathing a little sigh of relief and hoping for some cool, wet weather this winter!

All the best, Janine, Roger & Belinda (Echidna Walkabout Wildlife Touroperator /Melbourne)

PS. Our 4 day Wildlife Walkabout (PDF) is the tour that all this (and more) happened on! The wombats, gliders and wallabies were marvellous too, and the new B&B - Snowy River Homestead - that has just been built is proving a real highlight. With four, twin-share, ensuite rooms, a breakfast room and a beautiful deck overlooking the Snowy River, it is the sort of B&B we've always wanted in East Gippsland!

 

November 2009

Even after many years (17 actually) of travelling in East Gippsland, we still see things that we've never seen before....
We came around a corner to see a heathland full of flowering Grass-trees. These little grassy shrubs have long flower spikes, with cream-coloured small flowers all over the spike, and they usually flower after fire. Well, the horizon was filled with them! And we soon realised that every nectar-eating bird was on them!

First we saw the Rainbow Lorikeets. They are well named and looked so colourful against the Grass-tree flowers.

Then we saw the Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoos on them as well! These birds are huge - our largest cockatoo - and we wouldn't have thought the flower spikes could hold their weight!

But hey - they know what they're doing! They were all going nuts. So.... we had to find out what all the fuss was about. We walked over and licked the Grass-tree flower. ......

Wow! Like smoky honey. Magnificent flavour. Our hands were dripping with the delicious nectar. No wonder the birds were looking happy!
What great fun. I'll never forget it.

All the best, Janine & Roger and the team at Echidna - Tim, Bill, Alison, Joanne, Martin, Paul, Mary and Donna

December 2008

Exciting developments in the Echidna burrow! We've started our first Wildlife Habitat - it's a 36 acre/18 hectare property in the Brisbane Ranges (you may remember, we used to do our tours in this National Park). It borders the National Park and is already home to a rare plant (Velvet Daisy-bush - pic attached), a little mob of kangaroos, a Swamp Wallaby and lots of birds. There's an aerial photograph attached - you can see all the bush to the left of the property, and just a little bit of grassland to the right near the road.

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We have planted over 200 new plants already. We plan to make it full of natural shelter and food for wildlife. Habitat destruction has always been the biggest threat for wildlife, so we are putting some back. It' only a tiny step, but lots of little steps make a difference.

Kangaroos, Swamp Wallabies and Koalas will not be the only animals to benefit from our Wildlife Habitat. Water birds and frogs will come to the two wetlands, little birds will shelter in the spiny, tangled shrubs we are planting for them, possums and parrots will nest in the specially-designed nest boxes we are hanging up for them. Reptiles will find a home in the rocky outcrops and fallen logs, and they'll never know how carefully we've arranged their new homes (the snake homes will be placed well away from the house, love them though we do!)

We've always wanted to do this, and it's so exciting. We're not planning to take our clients to our Wildlife Habitat - it's too small to house really large mobs of wild kangaroos. But who knows? Maybe one day travellers will want to view a tour company's environmental input/carbon offset scheme as part of their tour, and plant a tree to offset their own carbon footprint! Won't that be a great thing?

Please come and visit sometime. You can plant a tree if you like! But even if you can't (or if you're too busy with a glass of wine on the deck) please remember that it's your support that's made this happen!!! Thankyou.

All the best, Janine

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Onder het logo van De Maatwerkspecialisten zijn in 2009 een aantal onafhankelijke Nederlandse reisorganisaties een uniek samenwerkingsverband aangegaan. Alle deelnemers zijn middelgrote specialisten in reizen-op-maat naar een specifieke bestemming, waarbij de kennis en de kwaliteit van de reizen hoogwaardig is, gedreven door een persoonlijke passie voor de bestemming van de eigenaren, vergelijkbaar dus met de werkwijze van Walkabout. Alle deelnemers hebben zich al jaren bewezen en zijn uiteraard lid van het garantiefonds SGR.

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