Australia Oceania

Australia 2022, Part 7

Springbrook National Park - Tambourine Mountain. When preparation and luck go hand in hand.

After checking our new nature camp for spiders and pythons, the only creatures we find are tiny little wallabies.


They are the smallest we have seen so far, barely 40 cm high and the young are of course even smaller. A young one looks out from its mother's pouch and when she bends down to graze, it can just stick its head out and get a mouthful.

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We find a good long hiking route, with a waterfall of 106 meters. It is possible to walk from top to bottom along winding paths along the cliff side. At the top, eucalyptus grows and at the bottom, there is dense subtropical rainforest.

Sus walks in front and sets the pace so that Johnny's long legs don't run away with us. After all, we want to see animals and nature.

It is a narrow path, so we are busy both watching where we step - and looking to the sides to look for animals.
When Sus looks forward on the path, a large Goanna (Varan) comes out of the thicket. It walks on the path right in front of us for 20 seconds, then slinks off into the scrub and is gone. Unfortunately, we were not quite ready with the camera – it only resulted in some blurry pictures in the wrong format – so the opportunity was missed. Then you can learn it!

Always be ready with the optics that are best suited for the cloudy and fast experiences – the landscapes will probably stand still and wait patiently for you to change the focal length.

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Thus, more experienced, the optics were changed. We don't go long before a large brown snake of about one meter hisses out on the left side. Sus takes off a meter and is about to shit green pigs. But it is quickly gone again.

We're out and about in the Australian forests. It's not like a trip around Hammermøllen. An Australian family with mother, father and child comes on foot. We warn them that there is a snake in the thicket, just so their child doesn't go over there. We have no idea what it is and where it is now.

Their reaction comes right behind us…

Instead of going around, they ask what color it was. Is it green? How big is it? You know there's a Common Death Adder here, right?
They say this all the while standing with their heads very close and rummaging with both hands in the thicket to find the snake.


Yes, thank you, we have read that a nasty poisonous snake is a regular on our route. But it wasn't like that. The Australians can't find it and we all continue along the zig zag path.

Um… what just happened there? We laugh and agree that there is some cultural difference in the reaction to snakes between cool Australians and Danes with reptilian paranoia.

Right down at the bottom, we can admire the waterfall and not least the national park. Some smaller monitor lizards and lizards willingly pose for photos.

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At a vineyard in Tambourine Mountain, they specialize in the preservation of glow worms - we know them in Denmark as Sankt Hans Orm.
To take the pressure off the natural cave where they have their habitat, they have made a protected cave for the worms, where they can sit and shine like little green spotlights.

We go in and look at them - unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures. If a flash goes off by accident, or a mobile screen lights up – they stop lighting up.
Around the walls and in the ceiling, they sit like small green diodes. If we didn't know better, they could have fooled us. The guide shines a red light, which they do not respond to. With it, we can see the small caterpillars at their webs, where they sit and lure the insects with their light.

The winery is really cozy and to our great surprise, there are many varieties in different colors and sizes. As the guide said “they are very peaceful, but make no mistake. They don't want to be your friend, just have your food”.

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A group of American girls at a well-conceived wine tasting also got their case. A lizard jumped up on their terrace – they howled and screamed and pulled up their legs. It was a worse spectacle - but didn't the previous generous wine tasting also have some influence?

We are grabbing a night's stay in the Gold Coast and will stay facing Saltwater Creek.

Here we are so lucky that there are also flying dogs and when the sun sets at 17:35, we are in the middle of dinner when they start to fly. The last spaghetti is quickly swallowed and then it's just a matter of being quick with the camera.
We would like a picture where they fly in the night sky. The period of time when they fly and there is still enough light to photograph – is incredibly limited. But it worked.

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