Up Close and Personal with the Australian Bush

I grew up in New Zealand so the kangaroos of my childhood were two dimensional cartoon characters that wore boxing gloves and striped shorts.

Today I saw two of the real kind in a nearby bush. Long, lean, and grey, they took off so quickly, I didn't get a photo. 

I love Australian animals but today I had a better look at some of the smaller things. The miniature yellow and black striped helicopter bug with pulsating blurs for wings and the crucifix spider with its shadow twin.

Thousands of spider webs from the traditional with a central twist

to some that were a sort of multi-level bundt pan shape. 

These scrolls of falling parchment, bleed from each limb as if they have been attacked by a huge potato peeler, but they fall naturally from a paper-bark tree.

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And the squiggly bark tree lives up to its name.

I wrote about the blackboys recently. They are in full regalia with spears held high. 

And they look even better up close.

I “mapped my walk” with my phone app, and it was a very slow few kilometres but so totally worth it. After all you have to stop and smell the roses; even when those roses are tiny white start flowers or even shreds of curled up paper.

It’s all good.