Turtles

Back from my joglet this morning, have brunched n washed up both dishes and running clothes and am now sort of killing time till it’s swimming time (half day ticket at the spa starts at 2.30pm so shall be there promptly)!  Dad is going adventuring in the deepest darkest forest he can find nearby!! So, here goes…

While walking round the lake one day we noticed what looked like the ribs of a sunken boat across the waters, but when we eventually got nearby we saw to our delight that these were in fact just old tree trunks but the interesting bit is that on practically each was perched a turtle (we reckon about a foot long) and sometimes a young one too! They were perfectly still and just looked like they were sunning themselves, most had their left back leg stretched out behind/sideways as if flexing the muscles!! They looked very ancient and timeless or do I just mean from another time?

We only saw one swimming and because of the colouring (or rather, lack of it) and he/she disappeared pretty fast in the murky lake water – and spent what seemed to be an age underwater – wonder how often they have to come up for breath? First time I’ve seen wild turtles, live ones at least. Sadly, in Turtle Bay in eastern Australia we did see loads of baby turtles on the sandy beach but they were all dead as if they hadn’t reached the sea in time and just expired from exhaustion or dehydration.  In olden days the Aboriginals would come to the beach and feast on both the turtles and eggs – a feast courtesy of the seas but that is being very strongly discouraged now.

Haven’t seem an amazing amount of wildlife as yet, dogs seems to be the most prolific animal in this area –  guard dogs? Last night we were woken by an alarm going off somewhere nearby and that seemed to have set off every dog for miles – the yowling/howling was almost musical, didn’t stop me getting back to sleep thank goodness.

Time for a cuppa….x