Meeting with Shelob in the Vineyard

Margaret River -- Shelgary Vineyard

Early on in the evening I decided to go out for a walk. It was the beginning of a beautiful dusky evening. The kookaburras were laughing, the kamikaze bugs were making their suicidal attacks, the sky was pinkish, and kangaroo poop was everywhere. The vineyard was gorgeous; the rows of vines stretched out row after row and then out across the horizon.

I walked down the rows of the vines checking them out. It was beautiful -- the colors, the smells, and the sense of time hanging in the branches.

I rushed back to get my sister to join me in the walk. It was too beautiful not to share. By this time it was getting darker, but we were still able to see and hear the Australian countryside which has a prehistoric sound to it. Poka, the chihuahua, was springing all over the place. As my sister and I walked down one row of vines we walked into a spiderweb. Now usually I am good with spiderwebs and just peel off the web and move on. But my sister was a little freaked. "OK, where is the spider? How big is it? Damn bloody great spiders! They're everywhere and they get into your clothes and they are as big as your hand." She went on and on as she was trying to get the web off her. I tried to relax by saying it was no big deal but she kept on. So now I was starting to get a little freaked. What did I know about spiders in the country? Bloody hell.

We must have taken about 10 feet when we saw Shelob's web (for those of you who don't know Lord of the Rings, Shelob is the giant, evil spider). It was huge. But then I sighed with huge relief as I saw the littlest of spiders in the middle of the web. I started to laugh which then turned to a gasp as the mother of all spiders climbed up ponderously from the bottom. "Holy crap!!!!" I yelled.

"See I told ya", shouted my sister gleefully. "What did I say."

"Fine you were right, you were so right." I said laughing hysterically. "Shit, does it jump?" as I moved in to take a picture. I was giving myself goosebumps and Poka was trying to jump up at it. I wanted to run as images of Shelob the evil spider kept shooting through my mind, but I needed proof.

Apparently what we'd run into was called a Golden Orb. Their bite is like a bee sting (nice!!). We also learned that there are millions of them around vineyards. Millions??? OK, one introduction was enough.