Animals / Reptiles

"I was particularly attracted to all those things that might hurt me, which in an Australian context is practically everything. ...my guidebook blandly observed that 'only' fourteen species of Australian snakes are seriously lethal, among them the western brown, desert death adder, tiger snake, taipan and yellow-bellied sea snake. The taipan is one to watch out for. It is the most poisonous snake on earth, with a lunge so shift and a venom so potent that your last mortal utterance is likely to be: 'i say, is that a sn--'"

from 'Down Under' by Bill Bryson

What could I add? :)

For my relief we saw only 2 snakes though the second one was in the see and was yellow (cf.: yellow-bellied sea snake).

Though some sign indicated that the presence of reptiles is just normal:

Well, when you sitting down to the toilet you really need to hope that everybody has closed the lid before you... Fortunately only a cute gecko was all that we have found in a bathroom. 

Just to talk about more likable reptiles:

We have met a frog in a quite unusual place.

And we have seen lizards in surprising colors.

And look at this guy. It is the thorny devil of Australia.

This lizard (i.e. the devil below) was indicated by a sudden break of our camper van. Fortunately the vehicle behind us kept quite a decent safety gap -- about 100 km. :D

This strange creature might be a scincidae:

Ah, and talking about reptiles, I have almost forgot the crocodiles.

One day we looked for a hot spring and asked the direction from some lady. She told us the path and also added that she loved the place and also that we could swim there. For some seconds I found it strange that she emphasized the swimming option that is a kind of obvious in case of spring / river / lake. Only after that I realized: not in Austria. In Australia you better to anticipate crocodiles in any 'free' water. Written warnings are also remind you. 

Animals / Birds

Pelican chase away dolphin.

Cockatoos (and other parrots) are as common as sparrows in Europe.

Even the pigeons differ from the European ones.

And lots of other, never seen, colorful birds. (Er..., I mean: never seen by me.)

Oh, And did I mention the emus that could be dangerous if you go too close...

Animals / Sea Creatures

The most surprising for me was the whales. We can see them several times in the far but enough close to clearly see their blowing water and their back.

(Please believe me that this is a whale...)

It was also nice that we can see 'free' dolphins. I mean that they was not  closed into a cage or any artificial aquarium but they come from the open see. I understand that feeding them each morning 'supported' their presence but still it was their free choice to be there with us at the afternoon.

And we could see some more see creatures:

Animals / Terrestrial Mammals (and Emu :))

No, we did not see wombats as they live only in east-south part of Australia. So I cannot confirm nor deny that they poop cube. ;)

Instead we saw kangaroos and emus:

...er, i mean these:

And koalas:

Though koalas do not live naturally here they were just transported to the Kalbarri National Park along with some eucalyptus trees. As koalas are not extremely eager to move they stayed.

We saw wild dogs or dingoes at the side of the road:

They said not to attack people but we did not leave the car to pet them....

And we saw lots of cows:

Speaking of mammals: Look at that strangely smelling fruits on that tree. ...er, take a closer look ...even closer: the cutest animal for the cavers: bats.

(Just to make it clear: All of the photos are made by me, so we actually saw all these animals. And even more. Stay tuned. :))

(Note2: Hey, I do know that emu is not a mammal. Somehow it just comes together with the kangaroos...)

Termite Mounds

One of the most significant element of the landscape in northern and western Australia is termite mounds. I was surprised when I saw them close as there was no termite on the surface of the mounds (as opposed to the swarm of the European ants on their nest). Even where the mound was damaged and we can see the tunnels inside we cannot see any termites. So where do they live? And also lots of mounds was on flood land that is covered by water during the monsoon. Does the flood destroy the mounds made of clay? Do termites rebuild them each year?

After our return I tried to find out more about these insects. According to Wikipedia (and for my surprise) they are closer relatives of the cockroaches then ants.
As stated in https://creation.com/termite-mounds in dry season termites live underground where the temperature is almost constant. In flooded areas though they live in the mounds even in dry season. This implicitly means that somehow the water of flood does _not_ destroy the mounds though it is not explained why. Does anybody happen to know why does the termite mound survive the food?

inside the mound

Nothing

'Look at that!'
'What? I can see nothing.'
'That's it! The Nothing.'

This conversation was happened several times in the car when we were driving through the ...'Nothing'. The 'Nothing' does not mean desert without any vegetation but semi-desert with small bushes or grass or even scattered trees. The type of the plants are continuously changed but one thing remained constant: that we can see far above the bushes or among the trees and we can see how vast the 'Nothing' is. And travelling hours and hours through this constant and constantly changing infinite 'Nothing' provided a strange feeling of freedom with us.

Kangaroo Steak

Along the road we had seen dead kangaroos hit by cars. We felt sorrow about them. Though we did not felt sorrow about the one we ate as steak. Both at rest places at the road and in camping there are barbecue facilities. So we used one in our camping. The steak tasted nice.