Funny Travel Story: Froggy

My mother’s nickname at school was Froggy because of her long legs. Now my mum‘s in her eighties but she still attends school reunions where former classmates call her Froggy.

Those long legs are decidedly creaky these days and next month she will be off to hospital to get a new knee with a new hip soon to follow. I hope she will be rebuilt better than before and that her froggy legs will be able to keep her hopping around for another few decades.

Frogs are an under appreciated beauties of the natural world. I stayed in a cottage in Kenya once where a family of teeny tiny frogs lives in our toilet cistern. Every evening I’d lift the cistern lid to see what they were up to. Every evening they froze until I put the lid back on then returned unwatched to their secret froggy lives.

In Costa Rica gigantic bugs and fabulous frogs were lurking everywhere including the rare, diminutive blue poison dart frogs and their equally attractive but deadly red relatives.

Green tree frogs are the loveliest of all. On close inspection their emerald skin is often dotted with gold, their eyes bronze unblinking orbs, the pads of their feet endowed with superhuman properties. Never mind Batman and Spiderman. Where is Frogman when we need him?

One morning, while living in Noosa, here in Australia I stuck my hand in my mail box and jumped back shrieking after briefly clasping a cold, pliable form. Froggy had found a cool, dark place to hide on a hot summer’s day.

Here in Noosa you are most likely to see tree frogs at night. This is a recent visitor. A silent spy listening at our window, a decadent decal to brighten our world.

Have you ever had any surprise visits from wildlife?

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