In December last year I drove from Sydney to South Australia to view the total solar eclipse (about 2000km or 1200 miles) and back again a few days later. On the way I had the following encounters with wildlife:
- A cow standing in the middle of the road on two seperate occasions, causing me to stop until it moved. I wasnt sure if honking my horn would get it to move or if that would frighten it, and the others nearby, too much. On other occasions cows weren’t on the road but by the side so I slowed down.
- Many kangaroos by the side of the road, especially at dusk, one of them jumped at my car as I passed, narrowly missing the rear.
- Hitting a bird (unknown breed) which resulted in a flurry of feathers. I think it was killed
but could not find any sign of the body when I stopped. - A farmer herding hundreds of sheep, they were grazing on the roadside and being slowly herded by the guy from his car, using cattle dogs (there is a drought in NSW so they were eating the grass growing by the side of the road). I just stopped by the side of the road and waited for 5 minutes while they passed.
- Emus also hanging around near the road, requiring cautious driving.
I wanted to see some nature on my trip but not at such close range, which I’m sure is (was?) the preference of the bird I hit as well.
The trend of not entirely positive contact with nature has continued since my return. About a week ago a Kookaburra hit the windscreen of my car, luckily it flew away and wasn’t injured. Then last night I had a small snake on my loungeroom floor, I used a broom to coax it outside and all was OK again. No idea if it was poisonous or not.
I have no problems with snakes when they are outside or at the zoo but once they start entering my loungeroom that’s another matter. It worried me most because I never wear shoes inside. Combine this with the fact that I usually have few lights on, mainly a reading light, and the potential for stepping on it was high. I’m just glad it moved and I saw it out of the corner of my eye.
I have constantly have huntsman spiders in my house as well, I generally leave them alone unless they are too big, I carry the larger ones outside using old newspaper.
I like nature and animals as much as the next person, I just want them to stay off the road so I don’t hit them and out of my house so they don’t freak me out.