Thursday, August 11, 2011

E-postcards from a chilly paradise

Mama's visiting!


We went on a night hike chasing pademelons and ring-tailed possums with night vision goggles!



And now we're on Heron Island swimming with sting rays and sharks along the Great Barrier Reef!

2 comments:

  1. Is pademelon anything like watermelon? And why must it be hunted only at night?

    Curious in Little Rock

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  2. Dear Curious,

    Pademelons, like most Australian mammals, are nocturnal (though we did spot a few during daylight hours). They look a lot like small kangaroos. Some tour operators offer nighttime "spotlighting" walks, but using normal visible light flashlights-- or "torches" as they're called here-- can damage the eyes of nocturnal animals, so night vision goggles or infrared flashlights are preferable. Unfortunately, the night we went there was a very bright moon, so the forest creatures were being more cautious than usual and we didn't see any out in the open. We did find a colony of glow worms hanging out in some roadside brush, which was pretty cool!

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