Thursday, August 2, 2007

The animals crossing the street....





You know... I was thinking this afternoon, as my boys told me that seeing Kangaroos on the side of the road was no longer a big deal, that each country we have lived in or traveled to has had (or has) very unique critters that you have to watch for "crossing the road"!

I remember moving to Thailand ~ boy was I young and naive ~ and seeing my first elephant walking down the main highway. I was by myself, but oh how I wished I would have had someone in the car to share my amazement and excitement with... I was on an 8 lane highway with an Elephant!!! Can you imagine ~ that would be like driving down the main highway in Atlanta, heading north at 5pm, rush hour traffic... you look to your left and you see Dumbo! This was normal! For 3 years, I enjoyed seeing the occasional elephant in the lane next to my car. I have to admit there was excitement each time!

In Australia, not only do we see Kangaroos on a daily basis ~ hence the boys scolding me for my ever so enthusiatic pointing out of the now common creatures ~ we have to watch for wombats and emus... and they have street signs to remind us of the necessity of looking out for these ~ should we forget for a minute that we live in the Bush Capital!!! Wombats and Emus... not too long ago I would have thougt these to be creatures from a Harry Potter novel ~ not something that could damage my car if I forgot to carefully watch for them crossing the road.

In Indonesia, it was a water buffalo here and there... and a monkey or two in Bali.. and late at night a creature called a musong.

The most interesting by far would have to be the Highway from New Delhi to Agra ~ India. In a three hour drive, not only did I see a bear... in a tutu, I might add... I saw dozens of camels... riders on top of them like this was normal... riding a camel down a major highway!


And just think... when I go home to Louisiana, I am still thrilled to see the ocasional deer or rabbit run across the road!



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