Jan 25, 2007

Another parasite experience

On Tuesday evening we went out to Nudgee Beach with a barbeque in the backpack. Sarah and I had made tempeh and dory (fish) kebabs. As usual, I am incapable of portion control so there was plenty left for Wednesday lunchtime. We trotted off to Mary Cairncross Scenic Reserve. Sarah wondered how I knew there would be barbeque facilities there. They are everywhere so it would have been highly unlikely if they weren't. Luckily, I was proved right and they were close-to-nature barbeques heated by fire. We found one that had embers still going so was very easy to get going again. I was in seventh heaven. That Sarah is a bad influence upon me so we washed our lunch down with red wine.

After lunch we went for a tame rainforest walk. Sarah spotted some pademelons (very small kangaroos). They seemed to be quite used to people and didn't jump away until Eloise started to walk towards them. Once I had returned her to the path she started to scratch at her right foot. Initially I thought it was a twig stuck in her sandal but on closer inspection realised it was moving. I hurried to get her buckle undone and tried to grab this moving creature but it resisited being removed. At this point I began to panic... "Neil, get it off. Oh my god, get it off quick. It's borrowing into her foot for god's sake" and possibly some other language that cannot be repeated otherwise more of our hits will be from people searching for pornographic sites (ever since Neil entitled one of his entries Wet cam we have been having looking at our site!). Luckily Neil managed to get the leach off Eloise's foot. It was peculiar as it kept jumping into a different part of Eloise's foot each time Neil tried to move it. The leech was about 3-4cm long and was very skinny and incredibly mobile. Once we got it off Eloise's foot and landed on the boardwalk it stuck itself at its mouth end and appeared to wave in the wind. It looked just like a leaf. After that paranoia set in, as it does with those pesky mosquitos, and I kept imagining leeches in the pathway.

Still want to visit?

No comments:

Post a Comment