Status update

Katie Manx is partially incapacitated by post-equestrian myalgia (horses cause phenomenal bum pain, boys and girls), but was captivated by the Tesselaar tulips, and is looking forward to Devonshire tea on Puffing Billy tomorrow, despite predictions of 2-degree weather at the Dandenongs. Dear Weather Boss, it is supposed to be spring in Melbourne.

Absolutely frigid weather necessitating consumption of much baked potato and Dutch poffertjes to maintain core temperature, not to mention vast quantities of mud on shoes... but such beautiful flowers.

Five special things

Five things of importance happened today.

1. Mr. Manx and I went horseriding! We’d booked a ride with Gunnamatta Trail Rides on the Mornington Peninsula – got there late, but the nice lady there, Louise, let us go ahead with the full thing nonetheless, because we were the only riders this morning. Mr. Manx was given a piebald named Bruiser (not a terribly reassuring name for us noobs) and I a brown horse named Jet, and we followed a lady named Donna for two hours through the bush and onto the beach. It was absolutely bewitching. Even though the weather forecast was ominous, we got a lovely two hours with no more than a minute’s sprinkle. And there were funny bits, like the horses producing massive amounts of first crap, then pee (yes, I am not above toilet humour). Only thing is, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna hurt like hell tomorrow.
2. To reduce the impending hurt, we headed for a soak at the Peninsula Hot Springs. That’s a place that took a leaf out of the onsen book, tapping into underground mineral springs to produce hot pools for soaking. I was shivering in one corner at first, because all the pools, except one, were outdoors. On an eight-degree day. In the rain. I guess it says a lot about the pools and sauna that I was soon toasty enough to scuttle around sans towel. It is bliss being cooked on a cold day.
3. Hail fell soon after. My first time seeing it. I’d sorta imagined egg-sized rocks braining anyone unlucky enough to be out, but it’s really more like falling ice chips. Imagination always surpasses reality.
4. Incredible views of the sea lay generously along the coast lines. By the time we got there, the sun was beginning to set, making for some really beautiful colours. We even saw a stub of a nice fat rainbow.
5. The last item has nothing to do with Melbourne. Monty and his family made it safely back home! Welcome back!

Spotted: Up In The Tree

Heading towards Mait’s Rest in the Otway region, we were wondering why the hell there were cars parked along the Great Ocean Road all of a sudden. After all, there were just trees, trees and more trees. Then we looked up where people were pointing and saw these two.

Oochie-koochie lookie de cutie wutie pie widdle koawa baybeeeeee…

A Mouthful Of Death

While reading about the monitor lizard I saw on Saturday, I also did a quick Internet search on Komodo dragons, and found a fascinating fact.

Komodo dragons are a giant species of lizard and are also carnivorous.

Here’s what I found so interesting about the way they kill: in addition to having 60 sharp teeth, these teeth are almost completely covered with a thin layer of gum tissue. When the K-dragons bite, the gum tissue is naturally lacerated and will bleed a little.

The blood in the saliva provides an excellent growth medium for about 60 types of highly-toxic bacteria that cause potentially-fatal septicemia. In the end, the victim of a K-dragon’s bite dies either of being bitten or being poisoned.

The really clever bit is that K-dragons seem to be immune to these poisons. When they fight among themselves, they don’t die from mutual bites.

They also have really bad breath.