Q is for Quirky signs: An echidna on the road

A gate on a walk - reclining kangaroo is a delight

Travel delivers some quirky moments and not least of all these come from the caution signs on the highways here in Australia - with their images of the weirdly wonderful animals of this great continent - kangaroo, emu, echidna, wombat, koala.

So I have been watching the verges for glimpses of the wildlife, there have been loads of kangaroos but no sign of the others.

Yesterday as we were driving to the summit of Mt Buller, I saw my first Echnida, just off the road, about a rugby ball size, short quills, with its strange little face and it's long snout of a nose.

No sooner were we out the car than it sensed danger and started to burrow furiously, hiding its face underground!

Fred and Guy tried to encourage it to surface without any luck, we all hooted with laughter when the Echidna came up for air - its stuck it's long nose out of the ground and took a breath. So odd, so how about a wombat next?

Postscript: on the road today I noticed a dead animal on the roadside, we turned around and it was a wombat, much larger than I expected, full bodied and strong looking. Would have preferred to see it alive though.