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DanTheMan

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Continuing on from http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/...dies-5373/nt-qld-herping-trip-western-155397/


After camping near the small border town of Camooweal, we left Queensland and entered the Northern Territory on the Barkley Tablelands, again targeting Speckled Browns basking on the road before it got too hot. One very fresh road kill was found, and so was a defect label.
We were pulled over at Avon Downs Police Station, where they did the usual checks, along with a vehicle inspection where they found a hole in the exhaust, and a crack on the windscreen. We were issued with a defect label, and were given 30 hours to drive the 1000km to Alice Springs, where we wouldn’t be able to drive the car until fixed and had a full inspection to check for other minor faults.
After a disheartening start to the day, we decided to continue on to Devils Marbles. Between the Police Station and there we saw bugger all apart from the usual V. gouldii.

Devils Marbles is a spectacular place



Chillin


We discovered that rocks can be funny!

Despite it being a very warm night, we found nothing in this area. We now know that this is because we were looking in the wrong spot!
The next day we headed to Alice Springs. 60km north of the city we found a;

Western Blue-tongue – Tiliqua occipitalis

11 days into the trip, we finally arrived at Alice Springs.

We nervously headed to the city centre, we were not sure how big this place was and whether or not they would have sufficient facilities to accommodate our needs over the next week while getting the car fixed. We were extremely relieved when we finally saw what we were looking for. Those heavenly golden arches, they had McDonalds!
Like everywhere else we went, this was a new place to us and we were itching to do some herping! But this couldn’t be done until the car was fixed! After getting a new windscreen and a new muffler thrown in, we took it in for inspection for them to find a heap of small things that needed doing that would later add up to $1000 on top of what had already been spent on the old Pajero.
Finally after all the vehicle dramas were over, we were able to do some much awaited herping! Despite having hot days, the nights were pretty cold at this time of year due to the high elevation of Alice Springs, as soon as the sun went down the temperature would fall dramatically. But we still managed to find some animals of interest in the Alice area, but missed out on the ones at the top of the list this time.

Rough Knob-tailed Gecko – Nephrurus amya



Northern Spiny-tailed Geckos were extremely common, so common we didn’t bother getting photos. Fat-tailed Geckos were extremely common, but we took a photo of one.

Fat-tailed Gecko – Diplodactylus conspicillatus

Mesa Gcko – Diplodactlyus galeatus

Beaked Gecko – Rhynchoedura ornata

Gehyra purpurescens



Gehyra montium


I never thought I would say this, but there is such a thing as a good looking Bynoes Gecko… The ones found in Alice are quite different. I believe Bynoes are also in the proccess of being split, who knows what this may end up being.
Heteranotia binoei


Stimsons Pythons – Antaresia stimsoni



Unbanded Shovel-nosed Snake - Brachyurophis incinctus

Narrow-banded Shovel-nosed Snake – Brachyurophis fasciolatus fasciatus

Mulga Snakes continued to be the most common snake on the trip, but the ones in this area were stunning.
Pseudechis australis




An unfortunate looking Western Brown – Pseudonaja mengdeni, not the stunning gold body, black head form.

Northern Delma – Delma borea

Centralian Bandy Bandy – Vermicella vermiformis



We saw planty of frogs, but unfortunately didn’t bother photographing some of them despite them being new species to us. We’re idiots sometimes. But heres a few we did photograph!

Centalian Tree Frog – Litoria gilleni

Limnodynastes spenceri

This was one monitor we had really wanted to see in this area, and we found 2! Only photographed this one though.

Perentie – Varanus giganteus



The Perenties home


Ridge-tailed Monitor – Varanus acanthurus



Freckled Monitor – Varanus tristis

Long Nosed Dragons – Amphibolurus longirostris





Some scenery shots from around the Alice Springs area

Simpsons Gap


After a bit of herping in the Alice Springs area, we head for Uluru. I thought this place would be over rated… Not at all!









The Olgas were just as impressive

Some habitat on the way to Uluru

We hung around the Olgas until sunset and then made our way back to Erldunda on the Stuart Highway. This night was unlike the others, its was freakin’ hot! We managed to find plenty of geckos and a few other things, but again we missed out on the target species! (Woma Python and Desert Death Adder).

Centralian Blue Tongues – Tiliqua multifasciata were common at dusk
Lerista desertorum


A bad shot of a very small juvinile Western Hooded Scaly-foot – Pygopus nigriceps

Delma nasuta


We saw plenty of Shovel-nosed Snakes, but only one was new to us.

Southern Shovel-nosed Snake – Brachyurophis semifasciatus

The only other snake we saw was a very yellow Mulga found when looking at a gecko on the road, from a distance I thought it was a Woma! No pictures…

Uluru is a great spot for Knob-tailed Geckos.

Smooth Knob-tailed Gecko – Nephrurus levis levis

Different gecko


We also found a Pale Knob-tailed Gecko – Nephrurus laevissimus



The next day, we left Erldunda and head north towards Darwin. We had no real plans where we would end up on this day, and as there wasn’t much interesting in between there and Katherine. That day we nearly drove the length of the Northern Territory. 1,300km later we stopped just south of Katherine, which can wait until chapter 6!
 
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I'm not sure what is more outstanding your ability to find herps or your magnificent skill with a camera.
Thank you for sharing.
 
I love alice its an awesome place..specially if you want to see gecko's.....1000's of them. did you see any Woma or central adders?
 
Missed out on the both of them unfortunately, they were our main 2 targets! Found a Woma last week though, just a few hundred km's from here.
 
mate!!!! thanks for the great photos. Love to see the true Australia!!! sooo beautiful. Also great photography and some beautiful reptiles in there. Thanks again for sharing mate.
 
Thank you for bringing that to my front door. Amazing! I will keep coming back to post to just stare....
 
Wow all those places and animals look really familiar!
 
Wow all those places and animals look really familiar!

G'day Matt

I am unsure as to why this would be, I only take cool people herping.

Damn these freakin pictures re-aligning themselves! Is it just my computer or are some of them popping out of line? I fixed it so many times but it keeps happening, it was fine yesterday....
 
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G'day Matt

I am unsure as to why this would be, I only take cool people herping.

Damn these freakin pictures re-aligning themselves! Is it just my computer or are some of them popping out of line? I fixed it so many times but it keeps happening, it was fine yesterday....

G'day Daniel,

It is just your crap skills...
 
Wow, these are beautiful photos. Love to get out there myself. Don't know if I could take the heat though! Hot days in Sydney kill me!
 
Great pics, amazing trip, Im sooooo jealous lol
Thanks for sharing them with us, best thread iv seen in a while

Cheers Josh
 
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