Last week I almost died. Again.

This time it was a red light runner. It was a rainy night. I was on my way home from work. The roads were shiny and wet. I was on the shared bicycle pedestrian path that exits out of SouthBank Parklands and crosses the street to the Mater Hospital.

I made it across the first flashing green bicycle (and green walking man) to the half way safe island. I was about to cross the second half of the road where I still had a very green and flashing bicycle. A car just raced right through the red light! Right through! That was some scary stuff.

It missed me, of course. But those cars out there – it seems they just miss us cyclists every day. It’s hard enough cycling on roads with bike lanes instead of dedicated bike paths let alone almost being hit by a red light runner.

I’ve decided not to trust green pedestrian lights. Ever. I will only go when a car looks like it’s slowing down. So if you see some girl on a bike slowing down while you’re approaching a red light, that’s me. I’ve been doing it for a week now. I feel safer already.

Trust no one.

Except the Eastern Great Egret. He was amazing! Darling Mister Egret. Spotting him yesterday morning just off the bike path at Tarragindi absolutely made my day.

That is why I love riding my bike. No one in a car gets to enjoy the magic of nature like I do. I just felt so happy and wonderful. It was a wonderful way to start the working day.

The way he moved. So slow. So skinny. Like he was about to break.

He was about 10 or so metres away from a small flock of ibis.

Wikipedia (font of all knowledge) says:

“The Eastern Great Egret often breeds in colonies with other herons, egrets, cormorants, spoonbills and ibises.”

“The diet includes vertebrates such as fish, frogs, small reptiles, small birds and rodents, and invertebrates such as insects, crustaceans, and molluscs. The Eastern Great Egret hunts by wading or standing still in shallow water and “spearing” prey with its bill.”

How cool is that?

Hopefully the government never puts a road through or builds on those waterways. How lucky am I do be cycling 8km away from Brisbane CBD and see something as beautiful and wild as an Egret?

At least I think it’s an Egret.

Kinda like how some people think red is green.