Snakes, food, open water

Recovery ride today, so drove an hour to near the mouth of the river and then took a 50 km ride up to the Bass Strait - 240 km over the water is Melbourne. Trees unlike those at home - and some that are similar. Norfolk pines and eucalyptus remind me of southern California, Huon pines have long needles and massive trunks, then there's stuff that's unrecognizable to me, and rather surprisingly some palm trees.

I got a picture of an Eagle myself for those who were disappointed that I had to steal from Google Images - not very good, but just to prove my point, whatever it might be.

One large snake (probably a Copperhead) wriggling across the road. It was about a meter as it wriggled, so would probably be over 1.5 meters if I caught it and stretched it out. All Tasmanian snakes are poisonous, so I wasn't tempted to measure it, or get close enough for a good picture. On a trail, however was a baby white lipped snake (look close at the picture and you can see the white line along the side of its face). Wikipedia tells me that babies are born in March and are about 10 cm long - the size of this snake. They are only 40 cm when fully grown, and have such small teeth that, although poisonous, usually can't actually envenomate a human.

On the way back, stopped at the Tamar Islands wetlands. The islands remind me of the "hammocks" in the Everglades: lots of tall grass well over my head, with a few forested islands sticking out. The most impressive birds are the black swans which are impressive when swimming or floating, but when they fly turn out to have large white flight feathers on the outer half of their wings which, along with their loooooooong necks, make them truly spectacular (though their necks are so long, I'm not sure how they don't just point straight down when they try to fly).

Food is quite expensive here, though when you add it up, isn't so bad - since the tax (10% GST)is included in the price and one doesn't normally tip - thus you can subtract nearly 1/4 from the listed price to get a comparable US price. Doesn't look quite so bad then. And, some is really pretty good - lots of yuppie restaurants that remind me of Boulder.