Dragon Siting in Sydney

 I saw a water dragon.

Never heard of them, have you? Or if you did it’s only because you saw one on the cover of some book that kid with the bad haircut in your geometry class was always carrying around. You’d never read stuff like that, so you wouldn’t know what a water dragon looks like.

But I do—I’ve seen one.

The Lair

Actually, I only saw part of it, really, today when I found its lair. It’s called The Kiama Blowhole, which is such a terrible name for anything remotely touristy it should have given the dragon away, right? But no one else seemed to realize it was the home of one of the largest of all the dragons in the southern hemisphere!

The famous Snorting Water Dragon of Australia!

Known for both its stealth and beauty, the water dragon is electric blue, has exactly seventeen ridges on its back and nine spikes on its tail. It can breathe underwater and, according to legend, if it swallows enough water it can sustain a non-breathing life above the water for upwards of eleven months. It has been decades since the last siting of this endangered and dangerous species—when in 1944 a Japanese kamikaze submarine gunner washed up on the coast of Malaysia claiming to have been saved from the sea by a sinewy bold of electricity. Purportedly, the Malaysians, convinced he’d been a little too into the sake, never saw the tail of the great beast waving goodbye.

But I have—I’ve seen it. Or part of one, anyway.

                                                                                                 

Actually, I didn’t s much see it as hear it. It was rolling around in its lair as it slept, half-submerged in its water-cave. He snorted water into the air, through the hole in the top of his cave, booming as he breathed in the surf. But how could it have been anything else?

Oh I suppose you could believe that the tide comes into this volcanic rock formation where, due to the pressure of the water and the odd shape of the grotto it splashes into, the waves spring up a little higher than normal, misting into the air and spraying the rocks with the sea. You could believe that. Your choice, really.

(wow my blogging has been terrible recently, hasn’t it? In my defense, I’ve been furiously planning my next couple of steps. They are now mapped out and hopefully I’ll have time to write less random, more substantial updates. Hang with me!)

These two lovebirds claimed they couldn't see the dragon, but they'd fed me kangaroo rump,banana cake, cheesecake, muesli, and given me my first taste of fish'n chips. Also, driven me around for the last week, washed my clothes, and let me read their theology books.