Wildlife in Australia

The wildlife in Australia is stunning. Having lived in South Africa we are used to be able to drive a couple of miles to a nature reserve to see Rhino, Hippos, Zebras and Giraffes, but we rarely saw any wildlife outside of the nature reserves. We did have some interesting Rain spiders and Park Town Prawns and Geckos were common. Dual was similar but with Oryx and Camels in the desert and the odd Gecko in the house. Back now in the UK, it's been Spiders, Ants, Woodlice, Bees, Butterflies and Moths and fields of sheep and cows.

Many people have told us they wouldn't visit Australia because of the Spiders and Snakes and we've always been under the impression that to see them you needed to live in the outback, however we came across this beauty in the tree above the footpath walking in Manly just 35 minutes outside Sydney at a busy seaside resort.

A Diamond Python.

We also saw this one in Airlie up near the Great Barrier Reef, also on a coastal path in a busy seaside resort.

A Collared Whip Snake (mildly venomous)

Peter was starting to think that Kangaroos were a figment of our imagination and finally on his second trip to Australia he saw one and then several hundred more.

We saw a lot of Wallabies also which were really friendly.

The birds are stunning, such pretty colours and so friendly.

Rainbow Lorikeet.

The Pelicans are huge.

The cockatoos in volume are similar in numbers to the amount of pigeons we have in the UK.

Kookaburra visit.

There are random Turkeys walking on the beaches.

Herons just wandering around.

Galahs.

And Bin Chickens in the streets. Or the Australian Ibis.

The sea is crystal clear and we were fortunate enough to visit The Great Barrier Reef to go scuba diving and snorkelling.

We also saw an abundance of Whales and Dolphins from boat trips and out on coastal walks.

My favourites are the Koalas and Penguins that we visited in Philip Island near Melbourne.

Unfortunately it is rare to see Koalas outside of sanctuaries which aren't netted so the Koala can move around. Like the Penguins, the conservation fee you pay to visit them and The Great Barrier Reef also, helps to protect their habitat.

Week 34 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

Our mortgage came to an end this month. We'd lowered the payments a few years ago to keep a credit history in the UK while we lived abroad, then sort of forgot about it until we got a letter just before we went away to say there were only 2 payments lefts. 

We've had a packed last week in Australia, but plenty of down time and a lot of sleep.

231 Saturday We drove down early to Byron Bay for the day, the surf was hectic and made swimming impossible but I still went in the sea. We had lunch on a roof top bar then drove up to the lighthouse and were lucky enough to see a whale breaching, however we couldn't stop due to lack of parking. Evening spent in the accommodation and I enjoyed time in the spa and heated pool.

232 Sunday A leisurely morning stroll with coffee through the park then caught up with all my blog reading, sharing and commenting. it does annoy me that I leave more comments than I ever receive especially for the linky I co host each week. We packed once child 3 woke and after packing the car drove up into the Hinterlands to explore before flying back to Sydney at 8pm.

2 days later a whale was caught in the shark nets.

233 Monday A long day, we caught the bus to Coogee Beach and walked the coast to Bondi Beach before catching a bus and train back. The walk was 90 minutes but we stopped for coffee, lunch and to look in every rock pool and it took us 4 hours.

Bondi LifeGuard hut being refurbished.

234 Tuesday Train into Sydney for the day to walk around the city. A glorious morning until 2pm then temperatures dropped and the rain came down, we even had some sleet.

It's not just the wildlife that can harm you.

235 Wednesday We explored Darling Harbour, reaching it by bus and spent a couple of hours in the SeaLife Centre.

View from the train.

236 Thursday Back to Darling to visit the Wildlife park and see the koalas.

237 Friday A day at a local mall and dinner out in the evening in Darling Harbour.

On the blog this week:

Did I tell you about the time I worked at a funeral directors?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Australia 2019

I spent 3 weeks in Australia in July and August 2019 visiting my son who has lived there for 2 years. He was based in Sydney where I flew into from my home in Dubai, but was moving to Finley to work on a farm as part of his visa conditions, north of Melbourne.

We spent A long weekend in Sydney exploring the beaches and the mountains, before driving the coast road on Our trip from Sydney to Phillip Island stopping at Jervis Bay for a night then onto Phillip Island for 2 nights.

Next up we drove from Phillips Island to Port Fairy, stopping over night in Lorne and Warrnambool then from Port Fairy to Melbourne via the Grampians staying at Lake Fyans before ending up with A week in Melbourne.

Driving is on the left, so the wrong side of the road for me, but it didn't take long to work it out. I noticed that lanes merged a lot at junctions and the speed limit was slow, dropping to 50km in towns and villages and 40km during school hours. Whilst this is good as we were avoiding the toll routes, the planned journeys took longer than anticipated and we had to change our schedule more than once.

Combined we drove 3421km/2125 miles, walked 61km/37 miles and climbed the equivalent of 

346 stair cases.

The Accommodation in Australia couldn't be faulted. The country side and Flora and Fauna in Australia was stunning.

Road Kill, kangaroo, it was over a week before I saw a live one

These Ibis are nicknamed Bin Chickens

There was a turkey scavenging on the beach

Here are a selection of random photos that caught my eye, that amused or puzzled me.

A boulder company making them look attractive

Whenever I parked I needed to google what I was to actually do

traffic lights had a fancy countdown on them although most of the road works were actually manned

Looking for a food/fuel/rest/overnight stop on route then I suggest you enter McDonalds into the GPS as they were found in all the bigger towns

Love some of the advertising, theres a store called Boating, camping and fishing. Their jingle is BC F'ing Good.

This slogan works well, I say little waste on my travels and there were plenty of recycling and waste opportunities

Love a drive through Bottle-O

Apparently cats are banned. My son informed me that many people actually take their cats as well as their dogs when they go on road trips. 

We didn't see any snakes, but once you were outside the city there were lots of warnings

Winter so fire rating low

Didn't manage to catch any photos/video of kangaroo on the roads, but saw plenty and they don't half move

Didn't see any koala outside of parks

There had been a shark spotted at Manly only a few weeks earlier

Information about do's and dont's and what wildlife to expect

Animals and birds become aggressive towards humans if you feed them and it actually endangers their lives

The coast line was stunning, you're reminder just how powerful the ocean is

A lot of British names and twinning, but the geography of it confused me

Found this little souviener all the way from Tintern Abbey in Wales, just down the road from where we stay when we visit the UK

Of course no trip to Australia is complete without a visit to Bondi Beach to catch the surf

And a visit to Ramsey Street to see Neighbours