From reptiles to leeches in a few easy steps.

I mentioned how much I enjoy areas which are wild and beautiful but close to the city. This weekend we explored the lovely Mount Nebo which is in the D’ Aguilar National Park and is a mere 30 minutes away in the car.

Off we went with a few friends to enjoy a walk in the rainforest which is just as rich as the ones we saw when we were up near Lamington National Park.

There are tall, very tall trees, many with gnarled barks, full of moss (It has been raining quite a lot recently) stag horn ferns growing in crevices and parasitic plants plaguing healthy trees with their lianas and roots.

On this particular morning, after a day of rain, the sun was out, the path was soft with fallen leaves, the company was delightful and there was no one else around. We stopped at a particular location to admire the vastness of the view below and as we were standing there, one of the friends noticed movement on the shoe of another. We looked down and to our considerable amazement – I had never seen them before- leeches were making their way inside his shoe and sock. He was suitably appalled by this and shook them off and needless to say we moved swiftly onwards.

We walked with occasional shakes of our feet like a horse shaking a fly off its hindquarters and we laughed a lot about this, as well as suggesting where else the leeches could have moved to.

On the swift way back a short and agitated stop, literally, to admire a curled up snake, no ends visible, enjoying the sun.A first for an Australian friend.

Leeches come out in the moist rainforest and they are not the most sightly things – they are of course hermaphrodite and quite odd both in their character and their behavior. Perhaps separate sexes were a non starter as neither would have found the other "attractive."

They seemed to go for the men’s brightly coloured sneakers. Is this something that has been studied I wondered ? Whereas they seemed to be quite disinterested in my earthy coloured loafers, well, that is, until the end of the walk when I felt a pricking inside my sock and wondered what it might be. There attached to the side of my foot was a leech feeding on my blood. It seemed firmly embedded so we decided to leave it there until we got home and then  the doctor in our midst, said it would come off with a sprinkling of salt.

Arriving home I went to the bathroom and took my shoes and socks off. My sock was soaked in blood and there on the floor of the bathroom was this ginormous leech that had fed so much it had dislodged itself looking distended and almost in need of an Alka Selzter.

We picked it up of the floor and examined it carefully so here is the picture you have all been waiting for so you can say a collective EEEW.

My foot bled for quite a while, because this is how they affect you, but otherwise is fine.

Yes this place is a lesson in learning- today’s lesson – leeches.