When pelicans attack!

There's a man who works here who has worked for the Department for something like 35 years. He is generally in good health but suffers from a degenerative eye condition which means his eyesight will get worse and worse and eventually he'll be completely blind. In the last year or so it has gotten to the point where he is now considered "legally blind" and is therefore not allowed to drive anymore. But every 5 years one of his tasks was to go out to various sites around the place and take photographs of the vegetation to monitor change over the years, and this year was one of those years. So, last week I drove him on a half-day trip. I don't mind, I have lots of work to do in the office but I need to get out every now and then, and being the chauffer gives me the opportunity for me to see a bit more of the Murray. Yesterday was his last day of photos so I spent the whole day out, and something funny happened I thought I'd better share.

We were heading out to Mypolonga which is about 2 and a half hours away, and on the way we stopped at Mannum for some lunch. Last week when Bron drove Ross to Mannum and had lunch by the River, she was attacked by a pelican and her lunch was stolen. I was cocky and thought "that sort of thing could only happen to Bron!". So I bought a chicken yiros and Ross looked at me in a funny way when he asked "you sure you want to eat that outside?" and I replied, "yeah, we'll be fine!".

We go down to the Riverbank and sit on the benches and I tuck into my delicious yiros, enjoying each mouthful. Unfortunately, by the fourth bite, Ross noticed 3 pelicans walking towards us, so he suggested we just walk back to the car. We headed off and I turned around to see the pelicans not only following us, but actually gaining on us! When I looked again one had actually started to take flight, lifting itself off the ground. It was at this time I got scared and dropped my yiros and ran, to prevent being attacked. The damn thing snapped it up in no time and Ross laughed himself crazy as I sheepishly went back and picked up the paper the pelican had left behind.

We headed back to the car laughing at my expense, and just as we got there an old biddy (that's a polite description) stopped us thinking we had intentionally fed the pelican a plastic bag or something. No, you nosy cow, it was my lunch, and there was no plastic, and I picked up the paper. Rather than thinking the pelican was innocent, she could have just offered me some food for the love of god!

Hehehe, anyways, was a fun afternoon... Next time we'll take the Department of Environment guy from downstairs to shoot the friggin thing and give the biddy something to really complain about :P