We are getting soft - really soft! The choice of campsite was a victory for an abundance of luxury. Instead of the good old pit toilet, we ended up with proper ones, add to that hot water, even hot showers and to make it almost ridiculous, we ended up having access to washing machines! :-D So needless to say that the Sawpit Creek campsite was a huge success.
After a long day of driving followed by some hard walking - and it was really quite hard lugging 4kg of camera equipment around in the alpine countryside - we could probably all need a bit of feeling clean. The campsite was indeed quite fantastic, while the day was slowly coming to an end, things started happening around us. A couple of residing kangaroos came in close to investigate what dinner plans we had and a couple of fast moving Treecreapers had us fired up, however, the flash of red came from a spot behind the eye - not above! Making them juvenile White-throated TCs .. i.e. I still miss the Red-browed Treecreaper.
I think, I have always been quite alert to the various types of insects around down here in Australia - as a tourist arriving you often are, since you have heard all the stories about deadly spiders and other nasty critters. But that alertness has probably been pumped just a notch by investing in a macro lens. Extra alertness or not, I do not think I have ever seen as many interesting bugs crawling around in our vicinity and that was even before it got dark!
Highlight of the bright hours was probably our little green friend below. Measuring in at somewhere around 15cm it was quite a lot of insect. It is not a Praying Mantids, since it misses the heavily spined raptorial front legs, thanks to Jarrod for pointing that out :-) I think the call was "stick insect" from the Phasmatodea group.
All good! A truckload of campsite coziness, good (spicy) dinner in the pots, excellent company and some exciting Australian wildlife, what more can you hope for? Except maybe for a seriously butt kicking world class sunset?
Those last hours before the sun goes down are some of the best time you have when camping, all the running around and seeing stuff during the day is over and you can finally allow yourself to just sit there and relax. Looking at the pictures above and below makes me want to go again! :-) This night in Kosciuszko we had planned to delay our sleep and instead use some time equipped with spotlight and camera and see what types of wildlife would be around.
To be continued ..
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