Close Calls with Australian Creatures
Right before I moved to Australia with my husband, who is Australian, I watched a television show about the ten most deadly creatures in the world. I looked right at my husband and joked, that, if all ten were from Australia I was not moving. Little did I know I was not far off. Nine out of the ten creatures were from Australia.
My first, creature sighting, was with an arachnid. It was late in the evening when I spotted a large shadow, the size of my hand, on the wall. When I turned on the light, the spider stood on it’s hind legs and jumped towards me. Both the spider and I ran in different direction. The spider turned out to be a Huntsman spider, which apparently are good to have in your home and harmless. I also found out that a large can of bug spray will not be able to kill these guys.
Needless to say I am no better in the water .The slightest touch of something on my skin while in the sea sends me swimming faster than an Olympian even if it does turn out to be seaweed. I am not a strong swimmer so the currents terrify me , the knowledge of the fact that box- jelly fish AND killer sharks dwell in these waters petrifies me ” so when Husband suggests a romantic sailing holiday in the Whitsundays , North Queensland , I have to admit to not being immediately keen but I agreed .
Whitsundays, was breathtakingly beautiful. Turtles were swimming in the shallow waters and dolphins surrounded us in the deeper waters. After trip I became a little braver about swimming in the ocean.
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 a shark as I had automatically assumed or a jelly just a Clown Fish . Well it WAS the size of a dinner plate but I guess I was the clown!