Bizarre contrast – and about reptiles
This morning I flew to Brisbane then caught the train to the Gold Coast where I am attending this year’s EcoForum conference and exhibition. This meant a 4am start to catch a 6am flight so I spent some time after lunch in the hotel pool. The conference is being held in the Conrad Jupiter Casino so it was a rather bizarre contract walking from a serious environmental conference, through a casino with a Mexican band and dancers on stilts who were about 10ft tall!
The pool was wonderful! It was set in trees with fantastic landscaping. The local small wildlife was living there happily so I sat and enjoyed a wonderful soak in a spa along side exotic pools with fountains galore and a delightful small lizard (an eastern dragon) who was happily ignoring me and catching small insects. He was around 15cm long and as thick as my thumb and the most delightful company. There was also an Ibis and a wild turkey walking around the edge of the pool complex and scratching in the bushes. Totally delightful and totally relaxing!
I have a deep love of lizards which are fascinating creatures and we have such a wide range of them in Australia, from miniature skinks to the huge monitors in the North. My personal favourites are the dragons with the big collars that run at you with a huge show of bravado with their collars up making them look so wonderfully fierce. I also have fascination with turtles and have had a pet turtle called Toots for the past 25 years. She started as a tiny thing the size of my thumbnail! Yes I do have a permit for her. I do not, however, like all reptiles. I regard snakes, both venomous and not, and also crocodiles with the deepest suspicion. What an interesting contrast. I must admit though that last time I was in Darwin; there were some utterly beautiful snakes around looking for flood refuges in the places we were working. They were lovely – but highly venomous and the guys were relocating them, without harm, away from the work area. Admired from the safety of a bucket, I could appreciate them.
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