Just thought I’d give you a heads up. If you come to Australia you’ve got to be prepared for the wildlife:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/10/22/easpider122.xml
That is so shockingly gross. I’ve lived all of my life in places where if want nature, I take the subway to go visit nature. Then I come home to where the nature is far, far away. I like that arrangement. I’m sticking to it.
LOL. Are you in NYC? I encounter stuff like this all the time. Well, not quite as gross as this, but still you only have to drive 30 mins out of the city.
I am an ecologist and was working in one of the State Parks. I had to visit the same site several times a year for several years, and every time I went I stepped on the same bull ants nest and they would run up my leg and bite me. You’d think I’d learn after the second time, but I must have been absorbed in what I was doing. Every visit, I’d step on the same nest. And fall down the same echidna hole, and the same kookaburra family would frighten the crap out of me by suddeenly call out in the tree above me.
I went on a holiday to the beach in Queensland (north, in the tropics) and there was a 6 foot long saltwater crocodile that would regularly wander out of the estuary a few feet up from the pier and go for a swim in the ocean.
Giant spiders, kookaburras and saltwater crocs, oh my!
The only giant spider I’ve seen was in Harry Potter movie.
The only crocs I’ve seen, they are made of rubber and they are orange.
The only kookaburra I’ve seen… actually, I have absolutely no idea what that is. I’m assuming it’s some kind of a monkey, or a type of local beer.
never going to Australia now … 
spiders normally don’t bother me at all; but than again they’re normally not eating frak’in birds
its like waking up one day to watch a deer eat a bear.
Yeah… I know, dude. I’ve always thought that it’d be romantic to go to Australia to the Great Barrier Reefs to scuba dive… for honeymoon or something. But I don’t wanna wake up to find that my wife’s been dragged away during the night by spiders. Forget it.
Aww, come on, if you ever come here I will be your personal guide and make sure nothing bad happens to you!
LOL That makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside
I once went to a wildlife park with my parents, and Mum called out to me, “look down”, and I realised that a small chain link fence was between me and a 6ft croc - I let out a very loud expletive and Mum pissed herself laughing
Your description of a kookaburra almost had me soiling myself - is there an internet abbreviation for that? It’s a large and beautiful bird with an amazing “ack ack ack” call that gets faster and faster and it sounds like it’s laughing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kookaburra
The GBR is amazing, as long as you don’t go in stinger season, and whatever you do make sure the boat doesn’t leave without you - have you seen Open Water? It was based on a true story of two tourists being left behind after SCUBA diving on the GBR.
Seriously, it is an awesome place - once in a lifetime stuff. I just refuse to dive, I stick to snorkelling and glass bottom boats as I’m a bit of a crap swimmer
I want to show you a picture of my late father (Mick) when we went to Palm Cove in Queensland - a few metres away from the estuary where the croc (Charlie) lives, but I can’t seem to link it properly from flickr
Yeah, I saw that movie. But that movie didn’t scare me that much, because I really love water and ocean. And I love boats! Snorkeling, bumming on the beach, anything to do with ocean and beaches. Besides, no way the dive operator ever leaves people behind… something like this could never happen twice. Also, I’m gonna be chatty with the dive operators, so they’d remember me. Also, I’m taking the boats keys with me when diving. They wanna go home? Then come and get me.
Yeah, I absolutely love anythings to do with the beach as well. I think you might have found the winning combination of dive boat safety. Do you have any idea what I’m doing wrong with my pic? I pressed insert image and linked the the flickr url
I see… you used the url to the whole flickr page, instead of url to just the image! Right-click on the image you want, select “copy image location” or something like that… and use that url.
In this case, it should read:
Oh! Now I get it, thank you! My dad was a bit of a daggy prankster, so he thought this was hilarious!
Well okay but only because you say i’ll be fine. but if the spiders do get me i better get some super cool spider powers. that or some anti venom 
Then you can come back and kick my arse for not protecting you properly!
Hehe, father croc… he is kinda funny fella, it seems. 
You know, how come spiders get the ability to imbue humans with superpower, and no other animals do? Anything else bites you… you’re either itchy, or your limb’s been chopped off. But a spider bites ya, and all of a sudden, you’re slinging along tall buildings and upside-down-kissing strange women in dark-alleys. Weird.
Well it’s very inconsistent as Batman didn’t have to get bitten.
because Stan Lee says so,
but don’t loose heart i heard from a friend of a friend of mine if a radioactive moose bites you, you grow antlers and gain the ability to communicate with flying squirrels
I love the idea of living in Australia, but aren’t like ten of the most poisonous animals on Earth there?
LOL Yeah, something like that. You just take precautions if you are out bush like wearing shoes etc, and you never try to kill a snake. I remember one night as a kid I stepped on a huge huntsman while heading to the loo in the dark. When I woke up in the morning I discovered it on the sole of my foot! They aren’t poisonous though - you just watch out for the redbacks, and they’re only little