Ingrid and Marcel World Journey

Some specimen were then conserved in spirits and sent back to the old world, where in 1799 the English scientist George Shaw gave it the name platypus anatinus (platypus being derived from Greek and meaning flat foot, anatinus meaning duck-like) . It was then discovered that the word platypus already belonged to a type of beetle and could not be used. Independently the animal had been described as an ornithorhyncus (Greek for bird-snout) paradoxus in 1800 by Johann Blumenbach. In order to respect the rules of priority the animal was recognised as an ornithorhyncus anatinus.

Why am I telling you all this? Because after weeks of hoping, after being unable to observe them in the Eungella National Park at Christmas (the access road was flooded) and hours of patient searching: yesterday I saw a platypus. He dove up about 3 meters in front of us and showed us his cute face with ist incredible bill and his twin looking tail and slowly swam away.

Ornithorhyncus paradoxus. Isn’t it the best animal name you’ve ever heard?

We come to Australia once in our lives, and what happens?? They get flooded!

However we do live a good life: we escaped the closed roads and flooded cities by a week. It’s funny to watch the news and see the town we were in just a short while back completely swimmimg in water…. thinking that the campsite we stayed at was directly by the river, picture our super campervan floating around with us in it…. Lucky we are.

Actually we haven’t had this much sunshine since we arrived in Australia. The first month and a half we had cold and rain, with a peak at Christmas (we basically spent the time under a tarp in front of our van) when it rained non-stop for 3 days, but since then the days are hot and sunny, with the odd refreshing shower in the night. And this is the tropics, we’re supposed to be in the rain season!

The only effect of the floodings we can feel is the lack of fresh items at the grocery store: no more vegetables except the old potato, just old cuts of meat, half empty shelves everywhere. It’s OK, noodles are also good 🙂