Australia Wrap-Up

We found a few more photos worth showing, so one final post on our Australia trip.

First up is the Yellow-footed Rock-Wallaby.  These were in the Flinders Range.  They are nocturnal and beautifully marked. We saw these at dusk as they came out to feed and drink.

Yellow-footed Rock-Wallaby

Now some flowers.  While most of the trip was in areas of drought conditions, some areas had received recent rains and had some beautiful flowers, including orchids.

Sun Orchid

Spider Orchid

A Powerful Owl we saw on the last day. What a beauty.

Powerful Owl

You may have heard of the giant freight hauling trucks that run the outback of Australia. They call them Road Trains. These things are truly enormous - some hauling three or even four giant trailers behind a behemoth tractor. They say that one of the largest running at highway speed can take up to three kilometers (nearly two miles) to stop. You really don't want to get in their way. When running on the dirt track of the outback they can throw up a whole lot of dust...

Through the windshield of our bus

A triple-decker sheep hauler

Finally, vanilla slice. This is an Australian dessert. We'd never heard of it before, but there is a national competition held each year -- The Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph, and winning it is quite an honor. I'd describe it as a flaky crust top and bottom filled with a thick vanilla pudding, and topped with icing. When it is good people line up for it. When it is bad we heard it is derisively referred to as a snot block.  Bon appetit!  

Vanilla Slice

Finally, a really big thank you to our tour hosts extraordinaire, Philip and Patricia Maher. We wrote about their company in the first post of the trip, but will repeat here. This was our second trip with Australia Ornithological Services, Phil and Trisha, and likely won't be our last. If in need of a birding tour nearly anywhere in Australia, look them up.  

Patrica working on lunch

Philip Maher