Cat-astrophes

So I promised to elaborate on 'jungle experiences'...

Firstly, being a Sydney-sider, there are a few little beasts I have almost forgotten about. Frogs. Frogs EVERYWHERE...and not just frogs...TOADS. Big ugly noisy cane toads. Yuck yuck yuck. If it wasn't the sight of a big fat ugly thing sitting in the middle of the road croaking, or a big flat ugly thing squashed in the middle of the road...it was the thousands upon thousands of baby ones leaping out of your way at every step you took.

However, it wasn't just ugly toads, there were bullfrogs and...my personal favourites...tree frogs. The tree frogs were nothing like the toads. These little froglets were civilised. They would be found sitting on the dining tables, or more commonly - on my bed. Here is a photo of the first little guy moments before he jumped on my face.

Apparently my face was pretty exciting, because he invited his friends over. There was another one in my bed the next day...however he was much smaller and painted a pretty shade of brown. He just missed my face though when he jumped for it...

It was party after party there. The frogs told the geckos about it and they moved in too. This baby gecko was found next to my bed - and that is my hand that he is sitting on - so to give you an idea of size, he fit on the length of one segment of my finger. He was flopping his tail around, so it looks a bit funny - but I assure you he is intact...

The geckos were a welcomed addition to the 'house' - the 'house' mind you was a series of bungalows that used to be made of synthetic hessian connected by decking and timber walkways (photos to come). Three had been rennovated to make two bedrooms and a kitchen. The geckos are tenants that pay their rent in mosquito erradication. They come out at night and run around the ceilings eating anything that moves. Just make sure you cover your food whilst eating it, or else they'll deposit something else in it...

Also around the island were little sunbirds. Imagine simple sparrows - but paint them bright yellow and black. Now give them long licky tongues. And there is your sunbird. These little fellows were very elusive, and it took me the full five days to finally get a photo of them, and that required hiding out in gardens and amongst trees....

Lastly...my friends father (who was accomodating us), is a bit of a bush tucker man. He asked my friend and I to cook dinner one night and provided us (much to my disgust!) a duck (the one bird I can't bear to eat). What's more, he then proceeded to tell us about how he caught the duck (!!!!!).

Anyway...I can still say that I haven't eaten duck, because this little guy had his last revenge
by utterly destroying a pair of tongs. This was one tough rubber ducky! Now there were more animal/food adventures...but...you guessed it....that will have to wait for another post.

NOTE: no animals were harmed during this post (or prior to it)

xxx