In the caravan, the windows wind out for ventilation and the canvas pop-top skirt has some zip-fastened flaps, also for ventilation. In both cases the gap is covered with midge mesh.
Now, granted, my food doesn't appeal to everyone, but I seemed to have stirred the local insects to an absolute frenzy.
So I was cooking away (in my case that consists of 20 minutes of frantic vege-chopping, 2 minutes of protein-slicing, a few spoons of minced garlic, ginger and chili, a squirt of lemon and lime juices, and a healthy gurgle of olive oil. Lowest flame possible. Leave alone for 60 minutes. Done. V tasty. Steve's staple.) and watching David Attenborough on TV (courtesy of the jolly clever inverter!).
Started hearing tic! tic! ... tic!tic! tic! accompanied by a low frequency hummmmmm. Turned down the TV and the noise became quite prominent. There were hundreds and hundreds of blowies hurtling themselves against the midge mesh. Very angry about something. Perhaps they didn't like the ginger. Not everyone's favourite.
The sun set, got darker, and I ate the food. The Blowies blew off. To be replaced by tiny beetles that had found their way in through the tiny gaps near the door latch. (Note to self - seal forthwith). I found this out while I was reading Innocents Abroad, having a bit of a chuckle, when I felt a bit of a tickle on my arm. It was a tiny black beetle about the size of a flea. It didn't jump off, so I'm guessing (hoping) it wasn't a flea. Then some more on my arms and legs.
I decided that was enough wildlife for the evening so stopped reading, turned off the reading light and music, and tried to sleep.
Tic! Tic ... Tic! ... Tic! ... Tic! Tic!
This lasted another ten minutes until presumably whatever it was realised there was no longer any light to fly towards.
Finally. Some silence.
Then the breeze picked up.
Tap! ... Tap! Tap! ... Tap! ... Tap! Tap Tap!
This went on for a while. At the rear of the van, then on the side, then at the rear again, and so on. It was much louder than the earlier blowies and while it did cross my mind I concluded that it probably wasn't some giant insect trying to gain entry. So I put on my very thick tradie brave boots, grabbed the freebie pen light, and poked my head out for a look.
It was the straps used for unwinding and winding the two awnings. Each awning has one strap, and these were loose and flapping in the breeze.
Tap! Tap!
After a while the wind did die down. Then the Boobook (Morepork) started, just a few feet away from the van. [There's the age showing again].
Boob-ook! ... Boob-ook! ... Boob-ook! ... Boob-ook! ... More-pork! ... More-pork! ... More-pork! ... More-pork!
Well I knew what that was.
After a long while I drifted off. Then drifted on. The boob was still -ooking. And -ooking. Drifted off. And on. Boob. Ook.
And later, between the Mores. And Porks ... an occasional Thump!
Boob. Ook.
Thump.
More. Pork.
Boob. Ook.
Thump.
That one puzzled but I was pretty zonked by then, and didn't have a floodlight to investigate properly [Note to self ...]
Finally drifted off, only to be woken at stupid o'clock by my phone. It was still dark-ish so again I donned my brave boots, grabbed the little freebie light, and the phone, and slowly went out.
It was somewhere between nautical and civil dawn. Everything was dark and grey but I was able to make out shapes. About 50 metres away in the dimness was a large black wallaby, about the size of an Eastern Grey kangaroo (about 5 feet high)
So I grabbed a quick phone-camera shot, which suffered in the low light, before the wallaby thumped off around the water tank and up into the national park at the back of Glen's bush block.
By then I was wide awake, so I boiled up some water for a jolly refreshing Lemon and Ginger tea.
By the time I finished that it was daylight, so I wandered around to get some stuff out of the ute. I happened to glance at the windows and midgemesh, and noticed the corpses of a whole bunch of what could only have been suicidal attempts by smallish flies to smash through the mesh.
Ow!
Ouch!
Ow! Ouch!
Ouch! Ow! Ouch!
These were small but not tiny - about 2cm long.
The remainder of the day was uneventful. I continued reading Innocents Abroad and Started Marcel's Letters, and waited for Saturday - the Echuca Show!
Until then ...
Be seeing you!
