Digress-Straggle-Divagate: Superfluity fauna & flora x 2

Once again, I have to ask myself - How did I not know the beauty of Awoonga Dam when I lived in Gladstone?

Why is it that no one told me?

Sure, I went there once.... but only to stand on an old boat ramp and ponder how this meagre amount of water was supposed to sustain Gladstone's water supply for months (never mind years) to come.

This was prior to Cyclone Beni.

Beni provided no less than 563mm of badly needed rain within three days.

Cyclone Beni was a saviour to many a cowcockie (farmer), to all native animals and a massive plus to those who enjoyed anything outdoors.

<---------- Beni was quite intense

To put this into perspective, January 2003 provided a massive 0.4 millimetres of 'rain' in Gladstone. Then in February comes cyclone Beni with 563 millimetres.. i.e. floods. My back garden was a flow (can't find the photos to back that up right now), all the schools closed, all sports were cancelled and after the emergencies were over, Awoonga Dam blossomed (but I missed it damn it!) I was still in Gladstone for another six months before moving down the coast - MONTHS that I could have been admiring all of the following - and I think I did deviate from my intended theme again yes?

Back to the inhabitants of Awoonga

Once again, forgive me if you have already seen some of these photographs on Mel's blog but shit happens when you share a camera... so get over it :D

First cab off the rank is the Pretty Faced Wallaby. No, its not a Kangaroo.. its a Wallaby - much cuter than a big Red Roo and much less likely to disembowel those he takes a disliking to!

Talk about taking a disliking to.. this big ass moo didn't take too kindly to the magnificent Jabiru (Xenorhynchus asiaticus - yes I'm impressed by that name) and voiced his disapproval at the very nerve of intruding on his 'patch'

From this photo, one can safely assume that the Jabiru does not like his wings getting wet? It is Australia's only native stalk and this is the first time I have ever seen one.

The other feathered dwellers of Awoonga have no problem at all getting wet - they don't like the sound of the boat motor tho...

This friendly little fellow is the 'huge hoofed coloured ring denizen' ... also known as my son .. and yes.. he is gonna slap me for typing that !

The Kookaburra - I guess you are all familiar with this one but -this is the first time I have managed to photograph one with its trap open.. without food in it !

The local pelican - very graceful and wonderful to chase with the boat... makes for great fun.. albeit very naughty !

Mel wants me to photograph my local pelicans as she assures me they don better colour eyeshadow... I will take some shots soon to verify that.

This weird red weed on the water brings to mind 'war of the worlds' It looks very solid but be assured Dotti (Mel's dog) found out the hard way that it might LOOK like you can run on it.. but infact... err.. not. Which is ok if you like water.. Rocky knows differently.

Beautiful Water Lilies

Beautiful colour - it must be the run of the mill local water lily as I can not find a reference for it anywhere

This one (below) is the Water Snowflake (Nymphoides Indica) and especially pretty close up. Unfortunately, very hard to get close up (in focus) photo when you are in a floating object yourself - and of course, they didn't grow close to the edge of the dam did they?

Now, water lilies are lovely, I would love to have them dress my dining table with their divine colours and artistic elegance always - BUT.. they live in water.. and well.. should stay there?

We took two lilies home, they were gorgeous. They close when the sun goes down and reopen in the morning much to our delight. They lasted for days - we loved it.

However.... on our second journey to Awoonga ( I've actually forgotten how many times we went there? 5.. ? I think??) one lovely lady (H) who was with us decided that she wanted to make a large posy of water lilies to take home. So off we go in the boat, Christian, as always such a wonderful host, was more than happy to spend incredible amounts of time out on the water driving the boat for us.

Thank you Christian

On the walk down to the water's edge, our lovely lady (H) sipped on a cup of wine. I had poured her wine into a plastic cup as I didn't think it was a good idea to take a crystal wine glass out on the boat? Thank gawd my head works some times. As it gets quite windy on the boat, (H) held her hat onto her head with the same hand that held the wine cup. I was sitting down wind.... she looked down at her foot..... I did end up wearing 80% of that wine. Shame she didn't warn us of the impending wine as I would have happily attempted to catch the majority of it with my mouth (I was the driving the car home... so not drinking!) I'm sure Christian who was at the rear of the boat claimed some wine. We all roared with laughter as it was extremely funny.. who cares about some spilt wine.. well..she did.. as she didn't get to drink it! I will not go into full details of how our lady H got all the lilies in the following photograph.. but suffice to say that if I hadn't of grabbed her ankles a few times.. she would have been over the edge of the boat, nose first into the lily pads. What a memory.. H found it every bit as funny as the rest of us as Christian & I retold the story to those on shore later.Everyone needs to laugh like that... and we did plenty of that on this holiday.

None of this would have happened if it wasn't for my friendship with Mel. Everyone needs a Mel in their life.

Thank you Mel - I love you.