Come & Explore

Through the back gate and down to the creek..

Over the past 25 years I have spent endless hours scrambling along rocky creek banks, discovering peaceful pools and sitting a while to study the reflections and observe the inhabitants.

Sometimes I wander through wet grass in sheltered valleys, listening to the chatter of birds as they search for ripe banksias. Here I often meet wallabies grazing. They watch me cautiously and then disappear into the undergrowth with a thump and a crash. On occasion I come face to face with a dingo or a tiger cat. They wheel about and dissolve into the grasses.If I feel energetic I may clamber up a nearby ridge and share the space with a soaring eagle, looking down on the little world of Secret Gully. But wherever the spirit leads, there is always something interesting to see, and when I return, a story to tell.

It may be about wallabies..

...Squinty lived on a small plateau on top of the hill from where she could survey the surrounding valley floor she didn't seem to worry about us and in fact grew quite fond of the garden and the shade that the young orchard started to give...

Or spiders..

...the next major mark to appear was the ever increasing cobweb covering. It started quietly behind the headlights but soon spread across the entire body. You can’t stop them. The spiders simply hide somewhere deep inside the cavities when you declare war. It’s got to the stage where the local mechanic insists that I open the bonnet myself and cut a swathe through the webs before he ventures his hands inside the engine bay...

Pythons..

...Monty, the python had joined our little campfire party for the night. He was still there when we finally went to bed, his eyes now a dull red with the reflection of the embers, but next morning he was gone, back into the bush we supposed. That is until I saw the tip of his tail poking out from under a large sheet of black plastic stored next to the path. A kamikaze frog jumped onto the black plastic causing a shimmer of delight to go the full length of the hidden python. The frog hopped off to the creek, none the wiser for his brush with death...

Or pelicans..

..I stayed very still and watched as the first swept over my face, so close he could have grabbed me with his long beak. I could see the look in his eye and the wrinkles in his leathery feet. A second pelican followed and a third and fourth and more in close succession until eight of the great birds had swept over me...

And eagles..

...and then I looked behind me and realised what it was. Only a few short paces away, sitting regally on a low branch of a tree was the largest, most handsome wedge tailed eagle I had ever seen. He calmly looked me over, his great talons and massive beak glowing in the morning light...

Or goannas..

...the old goanna decided a closer inspection was needed and step by large step it moved into the very small available space in the garden shed. At such close quarters, it seemed to be never ending. It’s head and arms passed underneath my legs and stuck out one side of the chair, while its fat body and back legs stood ponderously at the other. The long tail was still trying to get through the door...

Even the humble seagull..

...hanging about in the background are the more delicate members of the silver gull clan. They are probably the observers, the artists and musicians. True to form they are a bit undernourished, but I suspect that it is these gulls who sing their beautiful soft cries on warm summer days as they drift out over the waves to celebrate the great joy of life itself...

Not to mention ants..

...the supreme ants in secret Gully are the little black ants. Even the bull ants treat them with great care and respect. One time I watched with interest as a very self important looking bull ant march mindlessly towards towards a black ant freeway. Within seconds he was begging for mercy with packs of black ants fastened onto each leg. He was lucky to escape alive and fled off performing a violent rhumba, shaking his tormentors off his legs with every step...

10 fascinating stories with 40 photos for just AUS$5.