Crumpled Home

RJ: You have to be careful, there are leeches around here.

Dad: I don’t think there are. Remember, they told us that the leeches are all upstream at the waterfall.

RJ: Yes. There are, but not the sort they were talking about.

Dad: Really? What are these ones like?

RJ: They’re small and white, and have antennae with little balls on the end. If they bite you, then you get really sick and die.

Dad: How do you know this?

RJ: One of them bit me last time we were here. I nearly didn’t survive.

Dad: Glad you made it then. I’ll keep my eyes open.

On the weekend, we stopped at a chalk outcropping near Gingin to hunt for fossils. Our main goal was to find some shark teeth, but we weren’t successful. We did find a large assortment of crinoid bits, sea urchin spines, pieces of giant clams, and rhizoliths.

We headed across the fields to the chalk outcropping.

"Wait for me!" The thick mud in the field slowed RJ down a bit.

"Where'd they go?" RJ got to the top and had to search for the other members of our expedition.

LR was already hard at work digging out crinoid stems down in the abandonded quarry.

RJ was desperate to find some shark teeth. "The hammer goes BOOM!"

At one point, RJ found slugs everywhere.

"Can we keep them? They're cute."

Stomp! Squish! Stomp! Squish! Stomp! Squish!

With a bucket full of fossils and some very muddy boots, it was time to head home.