There’s a spider in my didgeridoo

Did you know that a didgeridoo is the most commonly checked item for return flights from Australia? At least that is what I was told.  As a traveler that likes to at least bring home one iconic item from every country, a didgeridoo was definitively something that I  wanted to acquire on my travels.  I didn’t want one of the cheap tourist ones you can buy at Paddy’s Market in Sydney, I really wanted the real thing, with the wood carved out by termites, then hand polished and decorated by the local Aborigines.  They are expensive, and you really have to do some research to find the authentic ones, but it was something I wanted to remember my trip by. Also, it would be a fun thing to actually learn to play! 

Didgeridoo from Australia, detail

Another iconic Australian item is, of course, poisonous critters, a surprising number of things down under can kill you, or at least try to. Not really an iconic experience I was searching for, to encounter some creepy killer spider, but maybe one should expect to when traveling, both out in the bush, and in the big cities.  There are about 10 species of severely venomous spiders in Australia, mostly in Queensland and New South Wales.  Seriously, I looked it up.  Just the pictures are enough to give you nightmares for days. The reality is that spiders are not really that dangerous to humans, far more people die from things like bee stings than spider bites.  Sometimes it is hard to talk yourself into that reality. Bees are sort of cute, fuzzy and all that. They make honey. Spiders on the other hand, while I’m not an arachnophobe, I will admit they are pretty creepy looking.  Yes, I know they are great for pest control and all that, but still, just saying they are not my favorite thing to meet up with in person.  

Didgeridoo from Australia

I went through a lot of shops, galleries, and markets looking for the exact right didgeridoo that really called out to me, and when I finally found one I really liked, I tried playing it a few times and then had it carefully wrapped and packed for shipping back to the US, then it was in the back of my rental car for the rest of my trip.  I ended up getting  two of them, one in Manley, that  was supposed to have been one that was part of a collection and had been actually used to play in concerts, so it had a really nice sound, and it was fairly old.  I also picked one up at Katoomba, from the Waradah Australian Centre.  That one I chose after having a young man play about 20 different didgeridoos until I found the one that had the nicest sound.    CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO DIDGERIDOO MUSIC

I generally travel with just a carryon suitcase, but the didgeridoos had to be sent in baggage. They were both carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and boxed up, then taped together with packing tape. They are pretty tough, being made of hardwoods, so I wasn’t that worried about shipping damage, just hoping no scratches to the art work on the one that was decorated.  Going though customs, I expected them to be examined, and they were, on both ends of trip, as the boxes had been obviously ripped open and examined, then rather clumsily taped back up again with a customs notification left inside from both the Australian customs and the US customs, however they arrived at my destination in San Francisco safely and intact.  I had a several day layover to visit my aunt and uncle in Berkeley, and my uncle being somewhat of a musician, wanted to see and test out the instruments.  We opened them up and practiced blowing through them, which consists of putting your lips on the opening and doing some deep breathing through the didgeridoo. 

Didgeridoo wall display

After everyone had given it a go (more and less successfully) I was explaining the process of creating the instrument, which is to find a young live tree that has been hollowed out by termites.  If the tree is live, the termites hollow it out from the inside out, where a dead tree or branch may be full of holes or eaten from the outside, which does not make for a good wind instrument.  Usually they are made from Eucalyptus, most commonly Stringy Bark or Woolly Butt, but other types are used as well, depending on the locality. Termite hollowed wood has a random pattern, not like it had been done by using power tools (which is how to make a production didgeridoo is usually done now).  We held the didgeridoo up to to the light and shone a flashlight down it to examine the insides, and to my horror and dismay, there was a big Australian spider living in one of them!  The spider had come along for the ride, traveling in the back of car for several weeks, patiently going through two sets of customs agents, and several airplane rides, and only came to light when we took a close look through the didgeridoo with a flashlight.  I was only happy that we had not breathed it in while playing instrument!  

I’m not sure exactly what it really was, perhaps a white tailed spider, or some kind of funnel web spider. I sucked it out with a vacuum hose and sprayed it with an insecticide, as I didn’t want to introduce some weird spider to the Berkeley ecosystem. After that, I carefully hosed out both of the didgeridoos, and I will admit, I always check inside before I put my mouth on one now.  There is nothing like that creepy feeling you get when you think you may have swallowed a spider.  So, next time you make that trip to Australia, not only should you shake out your shoes before putting them on, but make sure you carefully check all the crevices of your souvenirs before packing them up to ship home!  That is the story of  how I found a spider in my didgeridoo!