Wineglass Bay
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2004
1
65
89
Trip End
Mar 30, 2005
Freycinet National Park,
Australia
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Drove down to Freycinet Park (with a slight detour at a local wine vineyard for rations) Hiked into Wineglass Bay for some stunning camping on the beach. It was about 2 hours into the camping area, and most of the day trippers were on their way out when we were heading in. The pictures really say it all.
Kangaroos (well, wallabies) helped us make dinner ... hopping all over the place and seeing what we were up to. Really. They loved it and it was odd to see these little fellas coming over to say hello.
Lisa took the steaks from the Deli...a little garlic, butter, and salt....and we were living quite high on the hog that night!
What a stunning sunset!
With my far superior camping skills, I cleverly tied the rubbish bag in the tree next to the tent. At 1am some very suspicious and naughty rubbish bin rustling was going on. In the tent, I nearly had myself convinced that it must be someone else's (rookie) rubbish. As it just continued and got louder, I got dressed and went out. A possum the size of a VW Bug was very sneakily getting into the leftover dinner bits from the tree. The branch was down about 3 feet with his weight.
I must say that intrinsically, a Possum really isn't that scary. But when you have a childhood where, when camping, you have been bitten (attacked or ravaged really) by what was most likely a RABID 2 1/2 inch mouse that was all fur and teeth, things take on a different meaning.
I am not sure if they have Rabies in OZ, but if they do, this sucker had it. And had big claws of fury. And he had a friend. A mini-Giant Rabid Possum friend.
'Excuse me'. No movement. 'Ahhhem. Excuse me?' An irritated glance over the shoulder. Fine, have some of this flashlight right in the (giant saucer sized attack) eyes. Lisa is rustling about now...quick. 'Excuse ME'...two steps forward. Still just looking at me. I'm pretty sure at this point he thinks he can take me. I don't doubt it. I grab the branch and pull it to me and let it go. Now the other two tents are starting to rustle and lights are going on everywhere. Aren't we in the middle of the damn woods?? Giant Possum decided to lumber up a bit. (Half way up the branch). Now I give it a serious shake and he goes up a bit more. I managed to get the bag down without losing a finger.
We slept with the trash. I still wonder if that mouse had rabies.
(http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/btposs.html it was clearly this guy's, older, meaner brother)
-B
