This means that Stefi, Ana and I get rousted from our rooms and moved elsewhere. This time I moved to the spare bed in Pats room and the other two got to sleep in Stefis tent. The dinner table was so packed that we 3 got our own kids table haha! We thought it was rather amusing and fun.
So for a number of days we were outnumbered and surrounded by brits. We had a Sir (knight) and his Lady stay with us, they were understated and lovely people cool hobbies like beekeeping and horses - breeding and competition - jumping and dressage.
On a fun note I got to hone my sweet leatherman skillz. One of the brits had locked themselves out of their backpack with a combination lock - apparently it wasnt working. Two crunches with the Leatherman Skeletools hard wire cutters later and 5mm steel snaps :D satisfying!
I was able to go on my first early morning savannah drive to look for Giant Anteaters. The only reason we got to see one that day was because Marvin - who works at Karanambus Outstation where they keep their cattle - went out on horseback with his son at like 430am to find one. The way it was hidden, sleeping in long brown grass, no one else wouldve been able to find it unless it was stepped on. After the poor bugger got woken up, one of the brits - an avid amateur photographer - proceeded to go for an early morning jog trying to keep up with the running anteater...quite an amusing sight needless to say. Especially since the savannah landscape deceptive, under the green smooth looking tussock grass is rough and uneven ground.
The best photo I got was when it was running towards me back out to the open away from all us damn tourists!
This one has the adults distinct markings but they get much larger, it only came up to my knee or so I think.
Very cool and exciting morning. I aim to see more and take more cool photos in the future.
This week I also got to go on a couple of river trips, one in the morning and two in the evening. Aside from the amazing variety of birds and other cool animals Ill talk about seeing, being on the river itself for a few hours at a time is just amazing. I love it. After spending at least 4hrs on the river when I come back on land and sit down I feel like Im still rocking. River Legs...sort of like Sea Legs :P.
I love riding in these shallow aluminium boats, being so close to the water, I often trail a foot or hand in the water as we cruise along. Something of course you could never do in the croc waters back home so Im making the most of it!
Speaking of crocs and the like, these are some decent size Black Caiman. Spectacled Caiman - which I have seen one of - can also be found in this area. You can tell the difference by the shape of the head and their eyes sit up on their head more prominently, as well as having small horny ridges above the eyes. I think Dwarf Caiman can also be found in these parts.
The researchers at Caiman House down river tag/mark the caimans they catch by cutting out a tail ridge so it leaves an easily visible notch, allowing they to easily identify who they have and havent caught.
Forgive the slight pixalation, I wanted to zoom in a little so it wasnt just a blob in the middle of the screen.
This, if I remember correctly is a Red-collared Black Hawk standing on the bank, and if you look closely you can see that it has caught a yellow snake - I dont know what type. One of the brits in the boat said that the snakes head was missing...cooool. His wife responded with a very concerned 'oh dear...'. hah.
Not only is this photo beautiful but it is also a regular home to some of the native monkeys of the area. I have so far seen two of the local species, the Brown Capuchin and the Black Bearded Saki. Both very cute and of course extremely agile in the tall trees. The Capuchins you will often hear cracking nuts against the tree trunk. We got to see one doing it yesterday - very cool. No pictures of the actual monkeys yet, unfortunately the zoom on my camera isnt that powerful.
Unfortunately this photo doesnt do it justice but yesterday evening inbetween rain showers a rainbow appeared several times. At the time this picture was taken, believe it or not there were 3 rainbows in the sky. One, the most faint at the top of the picture and then the most visible one is actually a double rainbow - I dont know if Ive ever seen one before! It was amazing.
Just for fun a picture of a far insuperior product when compared to our Vegemite. How I miss it...hopefully that will soon be remedied with a package from Ausland :)
Since this post is already pretty long and full of lots of photos I shall make another to update you on the otter gang, introduce you to some of the domestic pets and tell of their shenanigans.
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