Some pics from India

tjilari_emma's photostream on Flickr.

More to come... I became impatient with the slow photo uploading process...

Four-Wheel-Driving Adventures!

Last weekend we went to a secret (well just not signposted) campground just south of Hayes Creek. There we had an opportunity to justify our ownership of a 4WD.

Here we are - in low 4!







For those who don't know, low 4 is the gear setting you can choose to turn your 4WD into a tractor, the vehicle can now trundle over everything in it's path.

The campsite was gorgeous, bordering a series of cliffs cut by a creek. the rocks are gorgeous forming a chaotic staircase of blocks.





There was time for swimming.



And reading.



This is our campsite, a simple place, a retreat from the world.





Gotta watch that fire.



Emma got tired sometimes.



But found time to take some arty nature photos.









I also got tired.



But still found time to read.



It really was pretty.

Only in the Territory...

This will be a short post to show some of the madness of the place I now call home.

First up, the cover story of today's paper:

Apparently Harry the Croc is psychic and has picked Gillard as the winner of Monday's leadership ballot in the ALP. This is the front goddamn page of the only paper produced in the NT. This is what counts as news of national importance here.

Local politics is even worse:

The mayor of Palmerston has been stood down and placed on the banned drinkers list because he threatened his neighbours with some golf clubs because their dogs were too loud. The banned drinkers list is a small exclusive list of a few hundred people who are not allowed to drink, this existence of which means everyone has to hand over their licence to be scanned every time they buy take-away.

The deputy who should replace him is now being investigated by police because there is a report that he was seen nude inside his house. What precise law there is against being nude in your own house I'm not sure of, but I rarely claim to be a lawyer.

Maybe there will be a new law and order campaign based on this new interpretation of what one can and can't do in their own home. The slogans for such a campaign write themselves. "Are you now or have you ever been nude?" "If you see something, say something." "Be someone! Report domestic nudity today!"

I mean I know that there is a lot of nudity in the NT. The build-up is noted for such behaviour. Some places wait for the first sparrow of Summer. Canberra waits for the first magpie attack of Spring. We wait for the first nude drink-driving arrest of the Build-Up. This year, it was a couple. Romantic, I guess.

But if you think this is just the result of the NT News (a News Ltd. rag designed to drive out the local union-run paper of substance that preceded it), THINK AGAIN! Look at this from the ABfrickenC:

Dr David Bowman, a professor of environmental change biology at UTAS has suggested that we introduce elephants to Central Australia to help fight bushfires. I mean, introducing invasive species to Australia has always gone so well, don't you think?

Good grief can you imagine if elephants reach cane toad plague proportions? Apparently, they can also have a bit of a problem with grog, destroying African villages to get to stills. I'd like to see the the banned drinkers register work there.

"I'm sorry, Babar, I can't serve you."

"BABAR SMASH!"

That the above image was the second image that came up in a "BABAR SMASH" Google search restores my faith in humanity somewhat. It's from http://zoofights.squarespace.com/zoofights-vi/2011/7/27/double-eelix-vs-kali-babar.html. In no way will I vouch for it or its SafeForWork status.

Maybe this is just a response to the "anything goes" planning department here in the NT. UTAS Prof looked at the massive development plans for Northern Australia and just said: "Fuck it! Introduce elephants! Mad Max-style anarchy can't come soon enough for these Territorian nutbags." Or maybe Tasmanians are just crazy.

Anyway, I'm off to get three forms of ID and a note from my doctor so I can have a drink.

Darwin seems to be having a tediously long build-up this season. When we arrived in the Top End on New Years' Eve 2010, the monsoon was well and truly here, with refreshing downpours most afternoons to take the edge off the humidity.

Not this year. It is still suffocatingly hot and humid and the forecast storms each afternoon don't eventuate.

It dawned on me that the heat might be partially responsible for my sleeplessness and irritability. Pete and I had been feeling particularly virtuous about the fact we'd never used our air conditioner, but last night we relented in the interests of a good night's sleep.

But evidently, the hitherto not-experienced sound/vibration of the air conditioner meant  that our resident possum, upon return from its nightly frolic, was too nervous to take its usual route back into the roof.

Out in the  garden this morning, I looked up to see one very perturbed and fretful possum, huddling in a corner on the roof, trying to scratch its way back home, desperate to escape the rising sun and coming heat.

Awww! Too cute!

Apparently it was still there when Pete got up a few hours later, but when I got home this evening it had  disappeared (I admit we did check the ground below for any sun-struck, dehydrated possums...)

So... do we use the air conditioner tonight?! I KNOW we should be doing whatever we can to keep possums out of our roof... but how cute is this little thing?!

Baby orange-footed scrub fowl

It's so cute!

Emma's Christmas Special

Well, this has nothing to do with Christmas, actually, reflecting how I feel about the day.

We're waiting to see what Cyclone Grant does with our plans for a lazy couple of days. For some reason this "waiting for potential disaster" tone of the day inspired me to post these photos that I've been meaning to do something with for weeks. Perhaps in case our awesome camera gets blown away and we lose them?!

I started an "Animals in the night" photo project a while ago, but some  of the critters I wanted to capture I could only find during the day.

So. Here they are.

I used to call these  two the love birds, but I think in fact they are Bar Shouldered Doves, having  bought myself a bird book. They were camping on a branch over our  toilet, so I had lots of viewing opportunities.  For a little while there was  only one of them, but then the other one came back (or a new partner was found).

Since the wet  season set in, they've found somewhere else - hopefully somewhere drier- to sleep.

The ubiquitous green tree/toilet frog. 

These two orange-footed scrubfowl are very territorial birds. They live in our yard, mainly on the ground, but they have been known to fly when we accidentally startle them. 

They're very flighty, incredibly hard to get close enough to to photograph (in fact Pete recently spotted what he thinks must be their chick, but only for a second, and we've not seen it since). They are a very entertaining couple- we often wake up at night to the sound of them cackling away to each other. Hence we've taken to calling them "the cackle heads".

I think they sleep among the leave litter under a big tree in our yard, but my night-time sneaking about hasn't yet resulted in me finding their nest, though they taunt me with their cackling.

I'll keep trying to get a photo of their chick.

Saluting the sun:

And here is our nightly indoor companion, entertaining us with its moth-hunting, as it takes advantage of the time we have the light on and attract all the insects:

The other night it caught a moth that was perhaps heavier than anticipated, and it fell onto the piano with half its catch still protruding from its jaw. Luckily it landed on its feet and continued its feast as  though nothing happened.

I took these photos with zoom and flash, and got that  weird effect as though the gecko were hovering in light, or under a microscope or something.

So there is my Christmas special for ya'll.