Wonderings: rambles by means of and reflections on journey… this month, James Kay displays on vacationers behaving badly within the Antipodes © Joe Davis / Lonely Planet
Wombats. Great creatures. I noticed one as soon as on the Overland Monitor, Tasmania. We had been placing up our tent when it shuffled out of the undergrowth, unperturbed by our presence, as was a lot of the wildlife on that enchanted isle. Again then, my iPhone wasn’t able to capturing a worthwhile picture within the fast-fading twilight, so I didn’t trouble taking an image. However I can perceive the will to take action.
For many who haven’t had the pleasure, think about if a guinea pig had impregnated a water vole (keep in mind them, anybody?), and the odd couple raised their offspring on a weight-reduction plan of Domino’s pizza, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and anabolic steroids. Wombats are rotund, rodent-like marsupials that attain a few metre lengthy, however regardless of their bulk, they nonetheless elicit a response of ‘aw, isn’t he cuuuute!’ from most individuals who encounter them.
That was then, that is now
If I had come nostril to nostril with that wombat in daylight, I’d have taken a snap (simply as I did of the short-beaked echidna that ambled throughout our path the next morning, nonchalantly sniffing my boot earlier than trundling on). However would I’ve interposed my mug within the body, made a moue like a person who has simply discovered a tiger snake in his trouser leg, and splayed my index and center fingers within the inevitable peace signal as I did so? I hope not, pricey reader. I hope not. And I didn’t see any of my fellow walkers bothering the beast on this approach because it snuffled outdoors our tents – drawn there, little doubt, by the scent of rehydrated cheesecake. Or sweat-starched socks.
However as cult novelist S.E. Hinton as soon as put it, that was then, that is now. Instagram was just some months outdated after we walked the Overland Monitor, and though #selfie first appeared on Flickr again in 2004, the time period didn’t enter mainstream consciousness till 2013. How issues have modified. A lot so, officers from Tasmania’s Maria Island now really feel the necessity to make vacationers pledge to not stalk the wombats with their selfie sticks, mob the poor blighters and even, imagine it or not, choose them up for a cuddle.
Do not child your self, folks – he would not desire a cuddle © Posnov / Getty Photos
As so typically, Google’s search outcomes are like a murky window on the thoughts; for instance, you’ll typically see a brief checklist of questions generally requested in relation to your topic – my seek for ‘wombat’ turned up the next:
Can I get a wombat as a pet?
Are wombats harmful to people?
Do wombats have sq. buttholes?
Are wombats cuddly?
Query one bespeaks of our species’ damaging need to cultivate any animal that appears remotely like a kids’s toy: crimson pandas; bush infants; gradual lorises; bearded tamarins, mouse lemurs; three-toed sloths… nothing is secure, not even wombats. The urge to cuddle these creatures (query 4) comes from the identical tragic place in our hearts. As for query three, I draw no inferences.
Does query two counsel the presence of a extra mature traveller, who approaches these wild animals with the respect, and even warning, they deserve – and, furthermore, desires them to remain wild? Maybe. However then once more, it would simply be the would-be wombat cuddlers googling to verify earlier than ordering one on eBay. If threatened, wombats would possibly chew, scratch and even cost a human being at a push, however the almost definitely response to an onrushing horde of selfie-stick-wielding strangers just isn’t combat however flight, any which approach they’ll. And who can blame them? I’d be down my burrow sooner than you possibly can say ‘cheese’.
Shoplift prefer it’s Purge Night time
The Maria Island Pledge (I’ll paraphrase it: don’t be an imbecile, please) has echoes of the Tiaki Promise, the New Zealand tourism trade’s try and encourage guests to have interaction their brains, present some respect and take care of the nation.
The promise fell on deaf ears when it got here to a bunch of vacationers – English, I’m unhappy however not shocked to say – who’ve prompted ‘six weeks of strife’ within the North Island, littering, threatening locals and shoplifting prefer it’s Purge Night time. By no means thoughts menacing the native fauna; these anti-social ambassadors have taught the Kiwis a factor or two about unhealthy behaviour, scandalising the nation to such an extent that there’s discuss of deportation.
When reporters tracked them down, a member of this now-infamous clan mentioned – with out a hint of irony, it appears – that they’d come ‘to see the hobbits’. Good grief. If I had been a hobbit, that is the very last thing I’d need to see rock up on the border of the Shire. As an alternative of sending them again right here on the primary out there aircraft, can I counsel Mordor as an alternative? They’d match proper in.
