Here’s a hastily put together video of the wildlife that live in and around the ”contact site”. This is where I walk most days. My walks bring me so much joy. I kind of feel like J. Krishnamurti, who used to feel that walking was his meditation. For me there is only You and Everything else – no separation. The longer I spend in the wild, the more I blend in and the animals get used to my presence. Yesterday I sat 1 foot from an Echidna, as he dug for ants – no fear, just oh it’s you ! If I didn’t have a family, I could live in the remote outback, far from people or do an Into the Wild disappearance act. But my family keeps me grounded in my relationships with people. And that reminds me that there is only one.
Right now a magpie is tapping on my window for some water – he who must be obeyed ! Bye for now.
Enjoy the video. This one’s for K.
Finally was able to sit down and watch this. Now that I have, I think kangaroos are even weirder than before! They’re like some kinda cross between a deer, dog, and t-rex (it’s those tiny little arms and big claws). They seem to always be scratching themselves.
Were those wild cockatiels? I didn’t realize they were native to Australia, or were they imported? We have some flocks of wild parrots around here, but that’s because they escaped from someone’s home and they’ve bred.
Thanks–this was fun
I would love to visit Australia someday! It’s pretty high on the list, though airfare is really expensive so it won’t happen anytime soon.
Hey K – glad you got a chance to enjoy. It was a bit long and unexciting. They were all kind of unexciting that day – no action cause they were all eating plain grass, not the wicked stuff
Yeah kangas are pretty weird. These ones have to deal with midges and horse flies biting em all day, so they get really itchy. Most kangas are not like that. The ones in the vid eat, fight, mate, play and scratch. I’ll try get some fighting on vid next time. The birds were sulphur crested cockatoos – native here. They tend to bother tourists who feed them bread and sausages and then they end up eating our house/garden etc and being a general pest. But the one’s in the vid were doing the right thing – eating seeds etc. Bit like the situation with bears and human rubbish. A lot of the local cockies as we call them have been bastardized and have forgotten how to be wild. Cockatiels are smaller and actually a much nicer bird – one of my favourites. We have some wild ones about 200 km north of here.
Hopefully you’ll make it to Oz one day. I’m pretty sure you’ll like it. I too would like to get back to the states one day – just not sure where – somewhere quiet, free of rednecks and guns. Is that possible ? Not that we don’t have our fair share of rednecks here !
Will try make some more wildlife vids as I find time and the weather improves.
I too would like to get back to the states one day – just not sure where – somewhere quiet, free of rednecks and guns. Is that possible ?
Certainly! Not all of America is plagued with violent morons, I promise
What kind of climate or attractions are you looking for?
Sorry K I was a bit stupid. Yeah of course it’s not all like that ! But the whole gun thing unsettles me, given that we have really tight laws about gun ownership (not that most farmers don’t have them and many go out spotlighting – shootin roos and stupid things that move in the bush like bloody possums – sorry trying to sound like an Ozzie redneck !).
This might sound bizzare but I know my last life was in America and I would kind of like to trace some of those routes from NY (upstate especially) to California – bit of a Forrest Gump style journey. Also I like the idea of seeing the areas along the Canadian border. No real interest in cities mostly the natural world. Would love to see somewhere that is surrounded in Sequoia forests. I also would like to visit some non tourist shaped/lost plains Indians peoples, who really know their culture and history. To learn from them would be good. Also, there are a few prophecies/stories that I know are known by a small handful of people and I want to meet them to check the stories.
Coming from a warm climate it would be kind of cool to experience a season of snow. I’v only seen snow 4 or 5 times in my life – the most was when I went to Vancouver in ’86 for 10 days. Loved the cold and the snow.
Virginia and Maine also sound really nice. But you know maybe anywhere would be ok. Might take a few years till we have money to travel overseas again !
One day !
I don’t want to downplay the problems inherent in gun ownership, legal or otherwise. There’s definitely a gun culture in many parts of the country and gun-related tragedies occur daily. But I can honestly say that I’ve lived in America my entire life and I have never seen a civilian gun used in a violent situation. Most (not all, but most) of my friends and family would say the same. Even when I lived in states where gun ownership is legal, most people I knew didn’t have guns and if they did, they used them for hunting or marksmanship at shooting ranges.
Perhaps what makes America different is that if you want to find areas where guns run rampant– whether due to crime or ideology–they are easy to find. But unless you live in ghettos or you’re super into gun-rights, they’re just as easy to avoid.
You might really like visiting California for the beautiful coast and the small towns that dot the shores. California truly is breathtaking, and the redwood forests are exquisite! You could also visit the Sierra Nevada mountains in eastern California and see both the giant sequoias and snow. Mt Shasta is a five hour drive from where I live. There’s even snow on Mt Shasta in summer.
The Southwestern US is another area you might consider. Visit Boulder, Colorado where I used to live, and you will find snowy mountains, gorgeous ponderosa pine forests, and not a lot of gun-totin’ rednecks. Arizona, while controversial and definitely with more gun nuts, has the vast Navajo Nation and beautiful Sedona, as well as the Grand Canyon. The southwest is probably the easiest place to find the native american nations you’re interested in. It also has a lot of UFO lore–Roswell and Dulce in New Mexico, the San Luis Valley in Colorado, and of course, area 51 in Nevada