Sheila

19 February, 2010

We have a lizard! Nick and I noticed her around about a week before the kids spotted her, and when they did they were so excited. She's just a little skink and for awhile hung out under our fridge - quite a feat as there really is no "under". Now she seems to be in the little-used grill, because she pops up from behind it occasionally, typically when we are doing something with the fruit basket which is above the grill. Nate held her for a bit today, and then Maya did (squealing all the while) and then Eli did (also squealing) and then she jumped! She was outta there. Nate is good with her though, quite calm, and she'll happily hang out on his arm for ages. Sometimes days go by without a Sheila spotting. Nate and Maya have drawn portraits of her. It's all very cute.



Okay, so I wanted to write about Hervey Bay.

We stayed at the Scarness Beachfront Holiday Park. It was absolutely beachfront - the steps Duedown to the sand were a few metres from our motorhome. This was the first caravan park we stayed at that was right on the beach, and we were excited about it because getting all of the sand off before getting into the motorhome always sucks a bit - now we would be able to walk straight into the shower! Awesome. And to boot, the area we were staying in has the safest swimming in Hervey Bay. No stingers, very calm waters, very shallow.

On our first night there, we went for a walk on the beach but not a swim. Just a short walk away was a playground, so the kids played there for awhile. And that was the last time we ever went to the beach. True story. The next day it rained all day long, and we stayed in. The day after that we went to Fraser Island. And the next morning, we were off. Funny stuff.

I'm always paranoid about keeping the screen door closed, especially at dusk. On our first night, it was very windy and Nick pointed out that there weren't likely to be any mozzies out in that kind of wind. He was right. We even had dinners at the camp kitchen, after dark, and there were no mosquitoes. It was a nice hiatus. Bonus.

One more thing of note is the bat colony! Wow, there are a lot of bats at Hervey Bay, and they come out at dusk. As we sat at the camp kitchen eating our dinner one night, there appeared in the sky a bit inland of us a huge group of bats, all flying south. The group just didn't stop either - as far as we could see behind them there were bats. Thousands upon thousands of bats, all flying south in a large line. It had to have been at least 10 minutes of solid bats. Some broke free from the group and came to check out the trees above us, but they all continued on. We saw this the next night as well. It was incredible. I Googled and found that this is a normal occurrence.

So that's that.