So after being on our island for about a month now (just short a few days), I am realizing we are becoming quite accustomed to the creatures of the land. So accustomed that we're not really blinking our eyes at some things anymore, whereas the first week we were here...I was looking for a shot gun to ward off all the new strange beasts. But as life goes, we seem to have blended with the rhythm of the island, we're sunburnt, bug bitten, salt caked with a constant layer of sweat mixed with +50' sunscreen...we've become oddly comfortable.
Our first week here was pretty nuts though, we would go to bed with the sound of fruit bats either having an epic UFC style fight or hosting their own cricket match in the trees right outside our windows. We don't have air conditioning and the lows at night are about 23', so we hear everything. Toss in the odd possum screech and you have the sound of a poltergeist...terrifying our children and wondering if we had made a big mistake. No one has explained to me yet why fruit bats break large branches off trees and then (apparently in my mind) chuck them with vitriol at our house to clang off our metal roof...such a lovely sound at 2:30am. Just picture an angry baby screaming (with wicked diaper rash, not fed and overtired) right outside your window only to be answered by an equally upset partner just a few metres away banging sticks together. This went on for at least a week...screech, chuck a stick and hit the house, screech some more, etc. The sound would die down around 4:30am....yes I checked. We had a heavenly one hour of quiet till the sun began to rise around 5:30am, this was declared boldly by the small but proud flock of kookaburras on the island--you have to look them up online to hear what they sound like but just imagine monkeys that have had their way at the espresso bar. Their calls would then invite the lovely flock of lorikeets to answer. These are classic east coast Aussie birds, you'd probably pay a pretty penny to have one they are so captivating. Green outside with red and blue under their wings and round their heads, they are beautiful with one fault. Their sound is atrocious. Sooo, imagine being kept up for a chunk of the night with a baby screaming (fruit bats in our case), to drift off to heavenly sleep to be wakened to the sound of some idiot grinding the gears of his 1988 Toyota Tercel right outside your window...but there's 50 idiots in front of your house all grinding their gears....ahhh, the sound of lorikeets in the morning.
What's most interesting now is that we hardly pay any attention to these sounds any more, either they have ceased or my ears don't hear them.
Perhaps a couple more examples confirm that we are melding with the culture. On the weekends one of the staff here host a movie night for the kids allowing parents to have a couple hours at the cafe to watch the sunset...a lovely unexpected discovery for us. If you've seen Shonet's instagram photo you know where this is going. Towards the end of our evening, as the dark was setting in a large 'moth' came flying right at me, instinct told me to wave my hands (I obediently complied) and the 'moth' dropped flat in front of me and would have landed on my plate (had I been eating). So again, imagine a lovely evening, with the moon coming up, drinks around a candlelight overlooking a harbour full of parked boats and a moth disrupts the romance. But the moth was not a moth, it indeed was a bat...it must have hit a window nearby and fluttered down into the cafe to wind up perfectly landing in front of me as though I had ordered an appetizer of bat. We didn't scream or overreact, but rather pulled our chairs back, called a waiter and kindly asked him to clean this up. Whilst the young waiter scurried off to find something to pick it up with, the bat woke up. He lay there with wings spread out, cocked his head up, looked one way then another, decided he didn't want to be an appetizer and up he flew, fluttered around again and off he disappeared into the black. After a brief apology from the staff, and some disinfectant, we sat back down (at the same table) to finish our time time together...not really commenting about the 'bat incident', and everyone in the cafe got back to their conversations. When you get 1 1/2 hours of free child care/week it takes more than a bat to dislodge a date.
I'll share one more experience, I believe this happened the same evening of the bat. So after the movie we have to travel back to our little cabin all on bikes (there are no cars on the island). So in the dark with some headlamps off we go. Shonet and the boys launch out far ahead of Olivia and I, and we slowly enjoy the warm dimly lit nighttime ride. In the distance I can see a fairly large bird on the side of the road, its rearing itself up and then striking the ground only to jump back in one movement. I thought to myself--no way! I had imagined this but didn't think I would see it...this birds eats snakes. As we got closer there was an all out 'Wild Kingdom' event occurring (without Marty Stouffer) between a brown snake (one of the fiercest snakes in Australia) and this strange bird. Attack, dodge, strike...repeat. What a show! I I had Olivia stop and I put both our flashlights on the event, which looked like was going in favour of the bird. It was only when we stopped that I realized what predicament I may have put us in. Olivia cannot get on her bike here without an adult holding and helping her get started, that would be me. I had regrettably positioned ourselves between the snake and the forest which it had come from and may want to return to. As the snake and bird exchanged blows they were drifting closer to us, now maybe 7 feet away. Its pitch black outside, there's no one around and I'm surrounded by jungle...watching one of the most dangerous snakes alive fight for its life. What a bonding moment with my 6 year old daughter. Once again, a dumb landlocked Canadian experience. Thankfully someone driving a golf cart came along the opposite way and distracted the creatures enough for me to get Olivia on her way and me to quickly follow; I'm not sure how the fight ended but I think the snake got the better of it as I heard the bird give a screech and hobble away. This was a highlight for sure but has been forgotten amidst Tim Tam runs and layering on more sunscreen.
So we're adjusting to island life. Shonet gets up every morning and jogs along a lonely path even though she came across a 6 foot python just the other week. The kids have come up with cute names for the 3 foot iguanas that lumber past our cabin every day. We're back in the ocean occasionally as long as there's only a handful of blue bottles. And this Friday, Shonet and I will sit out again to watch the new shade of the moon come up and perhaps this time I'll order my bat deep fried. :)
Our first week here was pretty nuts though, we would go to bed with the sound of fruit bats either having an epic UFC style fight or hosting their own cricket match in the trees right outside our windows. We don't have air conditioning and the lows at night are about 23', so we hear everything. Toss in the odd possum screech and you have the sound of a poltergeist...terrifying our children and wondering if we had made a big mistake. No one has explained to me yet why fruit bats break large branches off trees and then (apparently in my mind) chuck them with vitriol at our house to clang off our metal roof...such a lovely sound at 2:30am. Just picture an angry baby screaming (with wicked diaper rash, not fed and overtired) right outside your window only to be answered by an equally upset partner just a few metres away banging sticks together. This went on for at least a week...screech, chuck a stick and hit the house, screech some more, etc. The sound would die down around 4:30am....yes I checked. We had a heavenly one hour of quiet till the sun began to rise around 5:30am, this was declared boldly by the small but proud flock of kookaburras on the island--you have to look them up online to hear what they sound like but just imagine monkeys that have had their way at the espresso bar. Their calls would then invite the lovely flock of lorikeets to answer. These are classic east coast Aussie birds, you'd probably pay a pretty penny to have one they are so captivating. Green outside with red and blue under their wings and round their heads, they are beautiful with one fault. Their sound is atrocious. Sooo, imagine being kept up for a chunk of the night with a baby screaming (fruit bats in our case), to drift off to heavenly sleep to be wakened to the sound of some idiot grinding the gears of his 1988 Toyota Tercel right outside your window...but there's 50 idiots in front of your house all grinding their gears....ahhh, the sound of lorikeets in the morning.
What's most interesting now is that we hardly pay any attention to these sounds any more, either they have ceased or my ears don't hear them.
Perhaps a couple more examples confirm that we are melding with the culture. On the weekends one of the staff here host a movie night for the kids allowing parents to have a couple hours at the cafe to watch the sunset...a lovely unexpected discovery for us. If you've seen Shonet's instagram photo you know where this is going. Towards the end of our evening, as the dark was setting in a large 'moth' came flying right at me, instinct told me to wave my hands (I obediently complied) and the 'moth' dropped flat in front of me and would have landed on my plate (had I been eating). So again, imagine a lovely evening, with the moon coming up, drinks around a candlelight overlooking a harbour full of parked boats and a moth disrupts the romance. But the moth was not a moth, it indeed was a bat...it must have hit a window nearby and fluttered down into the cafe to wind up perfectly landing in front of me as though I had ordered an appetizer of bat. We didn't scream or overreact, but rather pulled our chairs back, called a waiter and kindly asked him to clean this up. Whilst the young waiter scurried off to find something to pick it up with, the bat woke up. He lay there with wings spread out, cocked his head up, looked one way then another, decided he didn't want to be an appetizer and up he flew, fluttered around again and off he disappeared into the black. After a brief apology from the staff, and some disinfectant, we sat back down (at the same table) to finish our time time together...not really commenting about the 'bat incident', and everyone in the cafe got back to their conversations. When you get 1 1/2 hours of free child care/week it takes more than a bat to dislodge a date.
I'll share one more experience, I believe this happened the same evening of the bat. So after the movie we have to travel back to our little cabin all on bikes (there are no cars on the island). So in the dark with some headlamps off we go. Shonet and the boys launch out far ahead of Olivia and I, and we slowly enjoy the warm dimly lit nighttime ride. In the distance I can see a fairly large bird on the side of the road, its rearing itself up and then striking the ground only to jump back in one movement. I thought to myself--no way! I had imagined this but didn't think I would see it...this birds eats snakes. As we got closer there was an all out 'Wild Kingdom' event occurring (without Marty Stouffer) between a brown snake (one of the fiercest snakes in Australia) and this strange bird. Attack, dodge, strike...repeat. What a show! I I had Olivia stop and I put both our flashlights on the event, which looked like was going in favour of the bird. It was only when we stopped that I realized what predicament I may have put us in. Olivia cannot get on her bike here without an adult holding and helping her get started, that would be me. I had regrettably positioned ourselves between the snake and the forest which it had come from and may want to return to. As the snake and bird exchanged blows they were drifting closer to us, now maybe 7 feet away. Its pitch black outside, there's no one around and I'm surrounded by jungle...watching one of the most dangerous snakes alive fight for its life. What a bonding moment with my 6 year old daughter. Once again, a dumb landlocked Canadian experience. Thankfully someone driving a golf cart came along the opposite way and distracted the creatures enough for me to get Olivia on her way and me to quickly follow; I'm not sure how the fight ended but I think the snake got the better of it as I heard the bird give a screech and hobble away. This was a highlight for sure but has been forgotten amidst Tim Tam runs and layering on more sunscreen.
So we're adjusting to island life. Shonet gets up every morning and jogs along a lonely path even though she came across a 6 foot python just the other week. The kids have come up with cute names for the 3 foot iguanas that lumber past our cabin every day. We're back in the ocean occasionally as long as there's only a handful of blue bottles. And this Friday, Shonet and I will sit out again to watch the new shade of the moon come up and perhaps this time I'll order my bat deep fried. :)
Incredible! Great stories, and storytelling Ken! Look fwd to each one! Hey, any spider encounters?
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