The Cicadas are Dead!

Last year, 1000 kilometers north of Bright, AS we were driving up the main freeway near the coast, every 20 kilometers a strange wall of sound would grow until you couldn't even hear the noise of the engine anymore - this roar would continue for up to 5 minutes and then it would cease - it was the roar of millions of cicadas - this giant flying bug that makes the loudest cricket sound like a pin dropping. They are big bug that would make a nice snack for any of the myriad of birds that live here, but the collective roar of thousands of them scares even the birds away.

Well apparently millions of them come out of the ground every, I don't really know, maybe 3-7 years, and they proceed to make people go insane with their incessant buzzing racket. One of these bugs makes over 100 decibels of ear shattering disruptions (check it out on wikipedia if you think I'm joking).

I like to walk everyday if I can, and the first walk I had here this year, I was wincing in pain from the noise, I had to cover my ears with my hands it was so deafening, so after that I had to put earplugs in every time I walked. The racket has gotten a little less each day, and today I finally noticed it - THE CICADAS ARE ALL DEAD! HURRAY!!