To touch, or not to touch

Phillip and I managed to get up to more than usual this weekend, thanks to him having Thursday and Friday off work. And Monday is some kind of weird Tasmania-only holiday, so we didn't have to cram everything that needed doing into one day, and were able to enjoy our weekend (with the exception of a few bumps). Anyway, he had a 5-day weekend. Which we still have one day of left to go help split wood.

We did end up helping his family split some of the wood cut up from the working bee with their brand new wood splitter. While tossing newly split wood with my sister-in-law, we found this little guy.

He's a harmless little skink, one of the

many we see scurying through the undergrowth whenever we walk pretty much anywhere.

Today, Phillip and I decide to take advantage of the particularly nice weather and take a walk to the river near his parents place and have a small picnic on some rocks in the middle-ish of the river. It was a pretty walk, but uneventful, and mostly just nice to be out in the sunshine enjoying each others company.

Near the end of our walk, walking near the road to get back to the car, Phillip spotted (heard first) an echidna.

I've seen two before this in the wild, one while on a horse ride, and the thing buried itself in the dirt so all you saw was it's spinney little back, and another from a distance while it crossed a gravel road.

This little guy was rustling through the brush eating the tiny ants that were EVERYWHERE. He didn't seem to mind us being close to him at all, and only went into defence mode (rolling up into a spiny little ball) when there was sudden movement or a car drove past.

Checking us out, making sure we aren't about to steal his ants.

Face shot? No problem! He almost licked my fingers.

No I am not kicking him. He walked to my shoe, bumped it, and curled up. I got out of his way.

That is one serious little ball of spines!

Random facts: Echidnas not only have a pouch (like nearly every other native Australian mamel), but also lay eggs. Like a platypus. Seriously, read the Wikipedia entry (or anything else you care to look up) on this animal. They are much more bizarre than I thought.