The Stranger – Weekly Photo Challenge – Foreign

Dear Friends,

One afternoon this week I went bushwalking in the Freycinet National Park on the east coast of Tasmania. I was having a rest on the side of the track when I had the strange feeling that someone was watching me.

I turned around slowly and was surprised to see a wallaby sitting at the edge of the bush. She was staring at me as if she’d never seen such a puzzling creature before.

She realised that she’d been caught out, and at first she pretended that she really wasn’t interested in me at all.

But eventually her curiosity got the better of her and she came closer. She was so inquisitive.  “Who and what are you?” she asked. I introduced myself and she had never even heard of Justin Beaver, the yodelling traveller from Germany. I know! I could hardly believe it either.

“Are there any more beavers around here?” she said.

I reassured her that I was the only beaver she was likely to meet in Tasmania and that seemed to be the answer she was looking for, because she came even closer.  She examined me from head to tail and agreed that I was as harmless as I looked. “Where is your pouch?” was the next question. I showed her the pocket on the front of my lederhosen but she wasn’t impressed – much too small to carry anything of value apparently.

It was time for me to finish my walk so we said farewell and went our separate ways.  She was in a hurry to leave and I suspect she wanted to tell her friends about her thrilling encounter with a handsome foreigner!

As Yo-Yo Ma once said: “Good things happen when you meet strangers.”

Justin.

• Posted in: beavers ♦ travel
• Tagged: Australia, beavers, Freycinet National Park, Photography, postaday, Tasmania, Travel