A 2 Week NSW Road Trip - Part 2

After spending a few days trying to keep cool in the Chitchester state forest we packed up camp and headed south to the Watagen Mountians inland from the central coast.  When we were packing up I noticed Jessie had some blood below one of her eyes but I could not find and cuts or scratches and she seemed fine so we hit the road.

We were camping in The Pines campground at the Watagen mountians so named as you are camping among the pine trees.  We were the only ones there when we arrived so we had our pick of sites.

When we unfolded the tent to set it up we came across a huge leech filled with blood ewwwww.
And then it dawned on me... the blood on Jessies face in the morning.
So I called her over so I could have a better look now that I knew what I was looking for.  It was then that I notices that her pupil was fully dilated on one side which lead me to look not around her eye but at the eye itself.  And there it was a big lesion on the eyeball that I guessed had been caused by the leech.  Because it was up under here eyelid and she is black like the leech we did not notice it. Plus we think it was there all night.  We were a bit unsure how serious it was but it was late afternoon so we decided to take her to the local vet the next day.
Turns out that was a good thing as the vet told us she had never heard of a leech on the eyeball before and could not find any information about it anywhere, additionally the lesion could have easily gotten infected due to the hole the leech had left and the blood blister it left could have ruptured leaving her blind.  The vet gave us eye ointment to be put in her eye twice a day and advised us keep her out on the sun, wind, dust and water (back to having her breathing down my neck in the car) and to book a follow up appointment in 5 days time.  So we called ahead to a vet in Lithgow where we knew we would be and organised a follow up appointment.

You can just see a bit of the blood blister in the corner of here eye.  This is about 3 days later one the pupil dilation had gone

So to keep Jessie out of too much sun but not too bored we made sure we went walking early in the mornings before it was too bright and spent time hanging out by the creek to keep cool.  We had 2 40 degree days while we were there so trying to keep cool was a  priority.  Thankfully we had plenty of shade over our campsite.

Early morning Walks

Keeping cool by the pool the water was FREEZING

There was a resident Satin Bowerbird at the campsite trying to attract the ladies.  When courting the males build a bower from sticks grasses and reeds and decorate the area in from of them with items of a particular colour usually blue.  I managed to get a few photos but it was hard to get one of the bowerbird at his bower but I hid in the bushes for a while and fianally got a few.

The beautiful colours of the satin bowerbird

The bower and the decorated dancing area in front

Mr Bowerbird in front of his bower

We also saw a really big freshwater crayfish in the swimming hole it was about 15- 20 cm long he would have made a good meal but we left hem where he was.

Part of the reason for our trip was to see family that we might not get to see again before we move to New Zealand.  We spent a day with Hubby's Aunt, Uncle and cousins who I had not met.  It was lovely to see them and our visit coincided with a birthday so we celebrated with a lunch out.  We left Jessie at their place with a bone and she was fine with that for a few hours.

Hubby's family

We also had time to catch up with my Great Aunt Maggie (my Pops sister) her daughter and grand daughter.  We have not seen my Great Aunt for about 4 years so it was lovely to see her looking so well.  We left the Watagen mountains and had lunch and spent the afternoon with my Great Aunt before heading west to Lithgow and starting our journey home.

My Great Aunt and family

After just this one week on the road we were both feeling very relaxed and we had so far had perfect weather apart from the rain on day 1, and the good news was we still had a week to go.