GodlessAstronomer
Lifer
Okay so the thread title is a bit of an exaggeration, but I had a scary moment today.
I took a drive at 4:30 this morning to head up the east coast of the South Island for some photographs. In hindsight I should have checked the weather before going, because the photography was kind of a bust, but I digress.
So I reach a nice rocky area on the coast about 45 mins before sunrise. I figure I better stop here and scope out a nice place for some sunrise shots. I park up and jump out of the car ready to do some exploring.
I'm walking along the coast in a particularly rocky area, doing my best to keep my balance. By now it's about 30 mins before sunrise, so it's pretty dark and my eyes are just starting to adjust. I'm feeling my way around on some rocks, stumbling and probably looking like a fool.
I step over a big rock and slip a little, knocking some stones over. All of a sudden I hear this great big "HHHHIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS!!" from directly in front of me. Like the sound a cat makes when it's angry, only way louder. I look up from the rocks I'm navigating and about 4 feet in front of me is a 100kg seal staring directly at me and looking REALLY pissed off! Well as soon as I saw the bastard I jumped and fell backwards. Now, I don't know shit about seal behaviour and had no idea what to do - all I knew is that this prick looked just like a rock in the dark and if there's one seal here there are probably many more.
So I slowly backed away, he followed me for a couple of steps then just stood his ground. I thought for sure he was going to maul me and feed me to his adorable seal children. I was prepared for fisticuffs with the wanker - thankfully (for him, amiright?) it didn't come to that.
That was my interesting moment of the day.
/blog
I took a drive at 4:30 this morning to head up the east coast of the South Island for some photographs. In hindsight I should have checked the weather before going, because the photography was kind of a bust, but I digress.
So I reach a nice rocky area on the coast about 45 mins before sunrise. I figure I better stop here and scope out a nice place for some sunrise shots. I park up and jump out of the car ready to do some exploring.
I'm walking along the coast in a particularly rocky area, doing my best to keep my balance. By now it's about 30 mins before sunrise, so it's pretty dark and my eyes are just starting to adjust. I'm feeling my way around on some rocks, stumbling and probably looking like a fool.
I step over a big rock and slip a little, knocking some stones over. All of a sudden I hear this great big "HHHHIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS!!" from directly in front of me. Like the sound a cat makes when it's angry, only way louder. I look up from the rocks I'm navigating and about 4 feet in front of me is a 100kg seal staring directly at me and looking REALLY pissed off! Well as soon as I saw the bastard I jumped and fell backwards. Now, I don't know shit about seal behaviour and had no idea what to do - all I knew is that this prick looked just like a rock in the dark and if there's one seal here there are probably many more.
So I slowly backed away, he followed me for a couple of steps then just stood his ground. I thought for sure he was going to maul me and feed me to his adorable seal children. I was prepared for fisticuffs with the wanker - thankfully (for him, amiright?) it didn't come to that.
That was my interesting moment of the day.
/blog
