Local Lizards

My next blog was supposed to be about Australia. I haven’t gotten through all the video yet, so no Australia. However, I did have an interesting experience today.

Right before we left the US I ruptured a tendon in my heel. It turns out not to be a very functional tendon, but it is pretty painful when it is ruptured. I was told to take anti inflammatories while I rest it and be nice to it and let it take a few months to heal. I did this as much as I could in a home with three flights of stairs… Anyway, I decided I’d try running on it today. So, I head over to the park. I’m jogging along at a pretty slow clip and I look down a path I wasn’t planning on taking. This path was right next to the harbor. I see this:

I may have said “what the….” out loud. This is a pretty wide path, and that thing was a good meter long. So, naturally, I got closer. The lizard seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place it at first. Finally, the name “monitor” popped into my head and off to Google I went. Sure enough, it was a Malaysian water monitor. I named him George (Malaysian water monitor is a mouthful!). George didn’t care much for me and he slunk off into the brush and into the harbor. Here’s a short video:

Fun fact: Malaysian water monitors can grow to 3 meters long. So, this guys wasn’t really THAT big after all! Also, they are venomous, although only mildly venomous to humans. Turns out it’s a good thing that George sounded the retreat… the alternative doesn’t sound a whole lot of fun!

Clearly, I should go running more often!

♥ Rebecca