moloch05
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My son and I visited Karijini National Park in the Pilbara of Western Australia for several days in November, 2005. This park is famous for its beautiful red rock gorges. Some of these gorges have permanent water and of course, where there is water, there is abundant life.
Here are a few pics of the gorges
... the habitat above the gorges was dry and hot with Snappy Gums and spinifex. Termite mounds were numerous.
It was very hot in November with temperatures up to 44C. We therefore spent the bulk of the day at the bottom of the gorges where there was shade and water. Nick and I would frequently swim to cool down and then return to ledges where we read until late afternoon when the temperatures dropped a little. Most of our time at Karijini was spent waiting for the night when we could walk the gorges or go night-driving and look for geckos or snakes.
We spent three afternoons in Joffre Gorge:
... my son, Nicholas, on his ledge:
I very nearly stepped on this juvenile Mulga Snake (Pseudechis australis) late one afternoon after I emerged from a swim. The snake was on a bare rock near the water and I simply did not expect to see anything then since it still was hot. The little guy was alarmed and had flattened its neck but fortunately, it crawled into cover and did not bite my bare foot.
We walked through Weano Gorge one morning before it was too hot.
A real surprise was finding this emaciated Olive Python (Liasis olivaceus) that was soaking in a creek:
We also enjoyed the Fortescue Falls area. We saw fish (grunters), turtles and monitors among other animals in the water and cattails along the river. Many of the following photos in this post came from this gorge.
Black-headed Monitor (Varanus tristis). This is one of my favourite lizards. When I first saw it, it ran and then warily watched me from cover.
I stood still for a number of minutes and it finally emerged and then ignored me. I like the expression on its face -- it seemed to be relaxed and totally oblivious to me even though I was standing only a couple of meters from it.
Yellow-spotted Monitors (Varanus panoptes) were common. Some of these were huge. We often first detected them when seeing the cattails shake as something large moved below out of sight.
Other lizards in the gorges included Long-nosed Dragons (Amphibolurus longirostris) like this juvenile (thanks longirostris and pilbarapythons for the help with the identification):
... and adult:
Russet snake-eyed skink (Cryptoblepharus ustulatus). were abundant on rocks near the water.
Egernia formosa -- I saw this animal late one day when we climbed into a gorge.
Burton's Snake-lizard (Lialis burtonis)
Our night walks in the gorges turned up many Pilbara Gehyras (Gehyra pilbara) and many Desert Cave Geckos (Heteronotia spelea) (thanks Urodacus, for the help with the id):
Above the gorges, it was hot and we did not see many animals. The most abundant creature was also the most annoying. It was impossible to eat without ingesting a few flies each day ...
We saw a few Central Military Dragons (Ctenophorus isolepis) but the most common lizard was the Ring-tailed Dragon (Ctenophorus caudicinctus).
Night drives produced several big Mulga Snakes:
... We saw several Rosen's Snakes (Suta fasciata):
Geckos included a few Strophurus wellingtonae and many of the following. I think that they are Lucasium wombeyi:
We also saw sleeping Central Military Dragons and Dwarf Bearded Dragons (Pogona minor).
Australian Bustard
Dingo
Regards,
David
Here are a few pics of the gorges
... the habitat above the gorges was dry and hot with Snappy Gums and spinifex. Termite mounds were numerous.
It was very hot in November with temperatures up to 44C. We therefore spent the bulk of the day at the bottom of the gorges where there was shade and water. Nick and I would frequently swim to cool down and then return to ledges where we read until late afternoon when the temperatures dropped a little. Most of our time at Karijini was spent waiting for the night when we could walk the gorges or go night-driving and look for geckos or snakes.
We spent three afternoons in Joffre Gorge:
... my son, Nicholas, on his ledge:
I very nearly stepped on this juvenile Mulga Snake (Pseudechis australis) late one afternoon after I emerged from a swim. The snake was on a bare rock near the water and I simply did not expect to see anything then since it still was hot. The little guy was alarmed and had flattened its neck but fortunately, it crawled into cover and did not bite my bare foot.
We walked through Weano Gorge one morning before it was too hot.
A real surprise was finding this emaciated Olive Python (Liasis olivaceus) that was soaking in a creek:
We also enjoyed the Fortescue Falls area. We saw fish (grunters), turtles and monitors among other animals in the water and cattails along the river. Many of the following photos in this post came from this gorge.
Black-headed Monitor (Varanus tristis). This is one of my favourite lizards. When I first saw it, it ran and then warily watched me from cover.
I stood still for a number of minutes and it finally emerged and then ignored me. I like the expression on its face -- it seemed to be relaxed and totally oblivious to me even though I was standing only a couple of meters from it.
Yellow-spotted Monitors (Varanus panoptes) were common. Some of these were huge. We often first detected them when seeing the cattails shake as something large moved below out of sight.
Other lizards in the gorges included Long-nosed Dragons (Amphibolurus longirostris) like this juvenile (thanks longirostris and pilbarapythons for the help with the identification):
... and adult:
Russet snake-eyed skink (Cryptoblepharus ustulatus). were abundant on rocks near the water.
Egernia formosa -- I saw this animal late one day when we climbed into a gorge.
Burton's Snake-lizard (Lialis burtonis)
Our night walks in the gorges turned up many Pilbara Gehyras (Gehyra pilbara) and many Desert Cave Geckos (Heteronotia spelea) (thanks Urodacus, for the help with the id):
Above the gorges, it was hot and we did not see many animals. The most abundant creature was also the most annoying. It was impossible to eat without ingesting a few flies each day ...
We saw a few Central Military Dragons (Ctenophorus isolepis) but the most common lizard was the Ring-tailed Dragon (Ctenophorus caudicinctus).
Night drives produced several big Mulga Snakes:
... We saw several Rosen's Snakes (Suta fasciata):
Geckos included a few Strophurus wellingtonae and many of the following. I think that they are Lucasium wombeyi:
We also saw sleeping Central Military Dragons and Dwarf Bearded Dragons (Pogona minor).
Australian Bustard
Dingo
Regards,
David
would have been a awsome trip!
