The Land Down Under

While browsing through my favourite news sites this morning I came across an article about a juvenile Port Jackson shark found in a roadside puddle in Australia. The story goes that a member of the public was driving along a road in the town of One Tree Hill, Australia, when they spotted something thrashing about in a puddle. Upon investigation it turned out to be a small shark. Local authorities were baffled. I, on the other hand, wouldn't be. This is Australia we're talking about after all.

This is a land filled with many strange and wonderful creatures, most of which will be actively trying to kill you. James May, former host of Top Gear once said "It's terrible, it's too hot and it's full of spiders." Famed fantasy author Terry Pratchett even wrote a parody about Australia in his Discworld novel The Last Continent. At some point when the character of Death requests a book about the dangerous animals that exists there he is bombarded with a large pile of books consisting of the various volumes of "Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses and Lichens of Terror Incognita", the total books going up to Volume 29C Part 3, while a request for information about the harmless creatures merely produces a note saying "Some of the sheep".

There are some creatures living in Australia that make no sense whatsoever. Let's take the duck-billed platypus. Here is an amphibious creature with the bill of a duck, the feet of an otter and the tail of a beaver. It classifies as a mammal, but it lays eggs. And it has venomous spurs on it hind legs. Then there is the kangaroo. A large animal that hops around and turns into the Jean-Claude van Damme of the animal world when you get too close to it. Australia is also home to massive crocodiles, the occasional firestorm and many, many spiders. And just to make things even more outrageous, not too long ago Australia had Spider Rain, where millions of spiders fell out of the sky, their webs blanketing the landscape. Does this sound implausible? Well, click here to be redirected to the article. And just in case you need another reason never to go there, here is what those millions of tiny spiders look like when they are all grown up.....