WA's Wildlife

As we've been traveling around WA, we've been loving all the wildlife we've seen and have been searching it out. Five o'clock pm is now officially Roo o'clock; we scan the scrub and trees looking out for the little blighters as we drive along. They're pretty easy to spot, they're the big stupid things that jump out in front of you as you drive along. Goats, they're pretty smart, when they see a car coming they run straight back into the bush. The Kangeroo on the other hand will see you coming, think about it for a second, then start bouncing along side the road away from you, before suddenly darting straight in front of you in a bid to make the other side of the road. It's no big surprise then that you see soooo many dead ones on the roads of Oz. From a distance you see crows on the side of the road and you know they're feasting on a Roo, they're Australia's vultures. We've also seen a couple of times, massive birds, I think eagles, joining in the roadkill action too.

We've had a little checklist of wildlife that we've been wanting to see in Australia and we're gradually ticking them off. I've been desperate to see a snake, if possible a sickeningly poisonous one, not to get near it obviously, just to get a photo with my zoom lens, but so far we've just seen dead ones, four to be exact. Apart from the lack of snakes, we've been incredibly lucky to see all we've seen and last week our luck peaked when we encountered the creature we'd most wanted to see, the Thorny Devil. Since we first saw pictures of the little beast we'd been dying to see one. They're little spiky lizards that live in the bush, eating ants, drinking water through their skin, doing a weird jerky type walk and generally looking very, very cool. They're so well camouflaged that they'd be near impossible to spot on a walk about and so we needed a bit of luck on our side if we were ever going to see one. On a re-visit to Kalbarri on our way back to Perth, we decided to do a walk by a gorge that we hadn't been able to do the last time we were here. On the way there, driving along a red sandy road through the middle of the outback I'd just turned a corner and there it was, plonk straight in the middle of the road, the Thorny Devil. We were straight out of the van with our camera's and got clicking away, the little critter doing its funny little walk for us in the sand (film). I'd seen pictures of people holding them and one of an aboriginal kid with one on his head and knew they were harmless, so I was able to pick the little beast up. A bit prickly on top, but smooth underneath, I felt like a kid again holding my new pet :) Even Sam wasn't averse to holding a devil (film). I think you can see from the photo how excited I am :) It's these moments of our trip that we'll remember forever. More than the mountains, people and temples, its the wildlife we see that makes life worth living.
We still can't stop thinking about that little lizard, brilliant stuff! On the way back after the walk on the same road, I spotted a Kangeroo lying down under a tree. We were able to get really close to the Roo, which is unusual, they're shy animals, we got a bit too near and she stood up and looked at us. As she stood up we saw that she had a little joey in her pouch, so we left her to it and went on our way, what a day of animal encounters! The only 'animal' we didn't appreciate that day was the fly. In a couple of places we've been in WA, you get out the van and are immediately surrounded by flys, its absolutely mingin. We had to cut short our walk, they were so bad, we were constantly swatting them away, not nice.
Also very high on our most wanted creatures list has been the Redback spider :) These small spiders are very closely related to the infamous Black Widow spider and are therefore poisonous. However, there is Antivenom available and apparently no-one has died of a bite since the antivenom was introduced, you're also highly unlikely to get bitten unless you shove your hand in its web and start giving it a little tickle :) On one of our freebie campsites we stayed, in the toilet, in a corner we discovered the beauty. After a small argument about how to take photos using Sam's camera (she won), we got this pic where you can clearly see its red stripe. Very nice indeed and another tick on the wildlife checklist.
Just before we left Perth, we spent a very lovely afternoon at the Caversham Wildlife park, which basically houses the varied fauna of Australia in very nice conditions and also has a lot of areas where you can walk through and stroke the animals. Great for kids and us! We were seduced there by the promise of Wombat holding. Who could resist giving a cuddle to a massive furry womble type animal? Not us, so in we went, unfortunately the Wombat holding was more have half a Wombat draped across your lap with the zoo keeper and also the Wombat had quite a disturbing orifice on its front ?pouch ?bum ?other anyway this was a part of the Wombat we hadn't been expecting to get close to. Feeling a bit spun out by our close encounters of the orifice kind, we headed to the Kangeroo area where along with the rest of the kids we stroked some Roos, I wish Ruby could have been there, she would have loved it :)
Well we loved Western Australia, it surpassed our expectations in every way, the landscapes were varied and breath-taking the wildlife unforgettable and the people very friendly. We're now sitting pretty in Cairns, we pick up our Campervan tomorrow and begin our trip down the east coast. The only question now, is how much diving can we afford to do on the way down? :)


Mammoth Slideshow (not of Mammoths though)








Currently Reading: The Algebraist by Iain M Banks










Listening to: Deeper Shades of Hooj - Volume 3