Down the Rabbit Hole

Land Down Under

30-Day Blogging Challenge-Day 25 prompt
On October 25, 1616, the Dutch discovered Australia. Write a journal entry as one of the explorers

The rich, red clay was caked inches deep on the toes of my hiking boots. I had walked for a few miles along a rough cut path that looked like a blood-stained artery against the thick-bodied brush and scrub that seem to cover every other space. The land wasn't so much forested as it was consumed by the wild and dense vegetation that had begun at the edge of the beach. The white, soft sand dropping away suddenly, replaced by the strange red clay, ever thickening trees and low creeping scrubs.

I'd scarcely been walking for three minutes and already the path was narrowing under my boots. I could no long hear the sounds of the sea birds and pounding surf. There was an odd silence, as if the wild wood around me was absorbing all ambient sound. The trees, brittle wooden structures that seemed to wind and bend against the elements, grew taller and broader. I could discern some tracks in the red power of the earth, something with oddly toe-ed feet and another that looked to be made by a side-winding serpent.

The silence around me was shattered by a sudden crashing of tree limbs twenty feet ahead of me. I caught my breath as a creature leapt from the undergrowth and stood, looking at me in the middle of the path. It was a large animal with red fur covering its broad and thick body. It stood nearly as tall as me,with a long,heavily muscled tail it seemed to rock back on for balance. It had a surprising delicate head and feminine face head with large, brown eyes that turned to take me in. Then with a quick flick of it's large and donkey-like tuffed ears, it was gone, thundering away into the woods.

This place was only beginning to amaze me. There was an entire world to be explored beyond the lagoons and beaches, a wonderland of red clay and giant jumping beasts!