Reptile Fight Club - RFC-The Second Leg of the 2024 Australia Trip.

Episode Date: November 23, 2024

In this episode, Justin and Rob talk about Justin's second leg of the 2024 trip to Australia Follow Justin Julander @Australian Addiction Reptiles-http://www.australianaddiction.comIGFollow Rob @ https://www.instagram.com/highplainsherp/Follow MPR Network @FB: https://www.facebook.com/MoreliaPythonRadioIG: https://www.instagram.com/mpr_network/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtrEaKcyN8KvC3pqaiYc0RQSwag store: https://teespring.com/stores/mprnetworkPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/moreliapythonradio

all right welcome to reptile fight club this is kind of a continuation on from an episode of morelia python radio we just recorded with Eric and Owen. So that kind of covers the first part of the trip in Kakadu. And then I'm continuing on the story with Rob here for the second half. So Rob and Eric and Teresa and Keith headed back home. And I rented a different vehicle and headed down out to Western Australia. So yeah, so I guess we start in Darwin. I dropped these guys off at the airport and then drive down to Doerat Road. So nice little kind of scenic drive, I guess you could say, because it splits off from the normal highway and then heads down south along the same basic route, but just a little loop and connects back up with the freeway down below.

So Rob and I mean, we talked about the first try down Dorat Road. We got rained out after a little bit of a success we did see a a nice uh pygmy mulga type yeah weigels yeah it was pygmy mulga but the mt form yeah yep the undescribed form or whatever so back on that road it wasn't raining so that was kind of nice but what was interesting is um the most plentiful animal down there were these, I think they were some form of mammal. I think it was a, what was the one I said that my friend said everything was, every mammal was? Do you remember what that was? It's a bandicoot.

Yeah, I think it's a bandicoot yeah i think it's a bandicoot i did take a picture of one that was dor but i saw several that were you know bounding across the road they look like a good meal for an olive python or even a large carpet python but pretty good size maybe smaller than a house cat but uh bigger than a big rat you you know? So sure. Yeah. That's great. Interesting little thing. So they were everywhere down there. So I'm thinking, Oh, maybe, you know, maybe this, you know, I don't know why they were out in full force. Cause I'd never seen one on that road before. So out of the, you know, three times or four times we've been there, this, uh, yeah. So, uh, I don't have much to gauge it against it, but yeah, so they were all over the

place. And, um, I basically was headed, you know, towards Catherine. I, cause the morning was kind of a hike in Catherine gorge. And so I kind of wanted to be down that way. So I was, I had planned on, um, camping by Robin falls, which is along thee Rat Road. There's a free campground there. And I kind of got through there. And the first snake I came upon was, I wasn't sure if it was a keelback or another pygmy mulga. So it looked kind of an in-betweener. It didn't really act like a mulga, but I wasn't going to take any chances either. And I, you know, I think it

probably was a pygmy mulga cause, um, the next snake I came upon was definitely a pygmy mulga and it was like spreading out its hood and doing all that fun stuff. But, um, but I didn't really see the markings on it, but it did kind of give me a little neck flare. So I'm pretty sure that was a, that was a pygmy mulga as well. And then the obligate, uh, stripe eye frogs and stuff, but yeah. So two, two pygmy mulgas, the second one kind of did the Cobra, you know, lifting its neck up and head up and, and kind of weaving its way off the road. And so I didn't really get many good pictures, but I got a few videos that were pretty decent showing kind of that behavior. Um, so it looked like it had rained recently

and there were definitely puddles on the side of the road and things like that. So it was pretty wet and marshy type thing. So I guess, you know, these guys were out probably looking for frogs. Is that where you saw a dead one on your previous trip to the NT? A dead children's python. We did see some of these. We saw some lapids. I'm assuming, I'll have to go back and look at the photos. It definitely was that. One of them was definitely that. And so, yeah, I was just curious if it was that same spot. Yeah. I mean, most likely because we, we you know somewhere on the doerat road

we saw some form of elapid and that you know i'm not too great i mean generally not necessarily like yeah yeah and i i don't i don't know what possibilities there would be for doerat road as far as the lapids go but yeah that's something i need to look into. But then after those two, I got a children's python, a live Do-Rat Road children's python. So that was nice to get. And that became kind of one of the most plentiful python that I saw on the trip was a children's python. They were pretty prevalent in WA as well. So I'll talk more about that in a bit, but so, uh, cruised down, um, to the end of Doe Rat and I was feeling a little bit tired and I knew that I was getting up early for a hike

in Catherine. So I'm like, okay, I, you know, I saw a couple of snakes and things kind of slowed down a little bit after that. And so I'm thinking maybe it's time to move on, move. So I went a little bit further South to another free campsite kind of off the side of the road. And when I got there, it was like kind of like an old gravel pit or something. So there was a spot for my tent and I put up the tent and stuff. And I think I thought, oh, I'm just going to sleep in the car. I don't want to set up the tent. And it was very uncomfortable. So I ended up, you know, I was trying to sleep

in the back seat. So I ended up getting up and putting the tent out and then sleeping in the tent, which was warm and kind of uncomfortable. This was the thing that I didn't really count on, you know, or think about much was the weather and, you know, is it going to be cool enough at night to sleep comfortably? I thought it would drop, the temperature would drop a little more than it did on a lot of nights. And so, yeah, it was, it was a little rough camping out. Um, I gotta admit, but I did save a lot of money. So I guess, especially where I'm on my own, you know? Um, but in the morning I was driving into Catherine and there were these really cool, like limestone outcropsrops like hoodoos or whatever

you want to call them just kind of along the side of the road so I stopped and got out and kind of walked among those I didn't really see much in there it was just cool rock formations and apparently there's some neat geckos in there at night but I I was coming through during the day, so I didn't necessarily get to see those. So then I hiked up Catherine Gorge. There's a trail that kind of goes up through the middle of it, kind of overland, not by the river. And it goes over to the southern rock hole and then down by the river. So I hiked that and was, you know, obviously hoping to see Glebo Palma. That was kind of the main target there.

And I kept my head, my eyes open and everything and unfortunately struck out. I got all the way down. I did see, what did I see? Some cool birds and a few, oh, some sort of wallaby or kangaroo down there. Yeah. It was a mother and kind of a younger, uh, Joey, but out of the pouch and hopping kind of next to her. So that was cool. And then down the river, I mean, the river and the gorge was, was really beautiful, very inviting, but definitely a no swim area. And, um, you know, you just kind of could think, oh, there could be a crocodile anywhere around there. You know, it's a very crocodile river, but beautiful, beautiful area. I really enjoyed, you know, the Southern rock hole

was cool looking, um, great habitat. And then I got out and was walking along the trail and i noticed some veranda tracks on the on the dirt trail and i'm like i just you know missed it you know it's just here they had to have been well i mean i don't know if they had to have been but good chance those were glebo palma tracks okay and i just missed one because it was in the same area where they'd been seen and, uh, you know, right kind of at the INAP pin or whatever you want to say. Um, that's where these tracks were. So I kind of posted up, I sat down with, you know, just kind of leaned against the rock and just sat and watched for maybe half an hour until I couldn't stand it anymore. I get too antsy i guess but and so i just sat and watched to see if i could see any uh any monitors moving about but and it was starting to get hot um you know the hike out was

a little bit more uncomfortable but just really cool rock features and things like that so nice spot for sure um and what's interesting i i think we saw this in in i don't think we mentioned it in the other show but those kind of black roaches that were everywhere you know out in the day well that was really an interesting thing yeah and during the heat of the day on the exposed rock you'd see a black roach crawl around you're like yeah that yeah, that's weird. You know? So apparently they put out some kind of noxious fluid. That's what Enzo was telling me. I guess I'll get to Enzo in a bit, but yeah. So I don't know if the, you know, the monitors eat them or not, but yeah, that was kind of interesting to see.

So I sat there as long as I could and then i kind of made my way out um took a took a couple pictures of the veranid tracks you know i don't know if there's a way to species you know tell the species by the tracks but they're clearly monitor tracks you know they have the nice tail the foot you'll look very veranid so um, the getting at pulling out of there was really a warm experience. It was really a hot, hot area. Um, and then, yeah, heading down kind of towards WA. Now I, uh, when, when I left, when we left Gavin's place, he gave me a few fresh mangoes. And so, you know, I was driving and, and he's like, make sure you eat these before the WA border. So that was my breakfast. And then,

um, I had three of them. And so I ate like two of them. I stopped at a rest stop and, um, it was just blazing hot, you know, uh, probably around, uh, I don't know, it says Delamere. I'm not sure where that is, but somewhere between, you know, Catherine and Kununurra. But sat and ate a mango at the restaurant and just made a big mess of myself. Had to wash my face off and stuff. And then there were, and I'm like, I don't think I can eat a third one. Oh, the first one I ate in Catherine after the hike. And that's so tasty, just so juicy and just delicious mangoes, fresh mangoes off the tree. And so there

were some, uh, uh, campers that, you know, were, you know, across the, the rest stop area and they were fixing up their vehicles or whatever, getting ready to leave. So I said, Hey, you guys want a mango? And they're like, hell yeah, thanks. You know, happy to receive a mango. And that was back on the road. Now I think one of the coolest parts of this drive, uh, over to WA was a transition at one point. Oh, first I'll get to this other spot. So there was a spot, um, near timber Creek that was supposed to be a spot for these interesting looking glower dye. They almost look like a lace monitor, kind of have a darker pattern and stuff. Definitely something weird and different, you know, compared to a normal glower dye. And they look to be somewhat maybe larger. So I wanted to see if I could find those. Now this was in the middle of the day,

heat of the day. It was like, you know, noon or so. And it was blazing hot. Well, two o'clock in the afternoon. So really hot. Um, I, I parked the car and walked up the trail a bit and even like hiked across spin effects and rock over to the base of the escarpment and just kind of, you know, scanned and used my binoculars trying to see if i could see any kind of verandah movement but yeah it was pretty pretty quiet there was a nice breeze but like every time i stopped i could feel my heartbeat in my ears you know like hear my heart beating so it's like that's not a good sign you know it's i don't want to pass out or something nobody knows where i am and that could

be it so i'm like i better get back to the car so i i just kind of you know kicked around for a bit rest in the shade and then headed back to the car but really cool uh escarpment type area um there was some you know aboriginal tradition of some black whip snakes that came through there and formed the gorge and stuff so they had you know some traditions of of black whip snakes that came through there and formed the gorge and stuff. So they had, you know, some conditions of, of black whip snakes. They had a picture of combating black wicks, you know, cartoon rendering of that. And then, but yeah, really nice little spot. Then continuing on from, and also palm trees kind of along the escarpment, really tall,

skinny palm trees, which was pretty cool. Then continuing on with the drive, like hit a point where all of a sudden the landscape was kind of dominated by boabab trees. And they are amazing trees, like just those big, thick, old, heavy trunks. Some of the trunks were wider than they were tall, you know, and then they have these branches kind of sticking out of the top of them. Really a neat, neat looking tree. I don't know if there's, if there's a video on this, I guess it's probably too late to link to my phone or whatever, try to show pictures or whatever, but this will, I guess it'll just be an uh an audio medium i suppose but and i'll

be posting pictures on you know instagram and my website at some point so just going through that but um so really cool boabab trees i mean i had to keep stopping along the way to take pictures and like just marvel at these cool trees, all different shapes and sizes. And what was interesting, people would carve their name on them, and then the tree would grow, and the name would expand and be almost 3D, stick out a little bit. So it was kind of interesting. That's wild.

There was even a shirt at one of the roadhouses that had one of the Bobab trees with names carved into it. So some historical significance perhaps, but really just outer worldly looking, looking trees. That was cool. And then, you know, that just kind of continued on all the way through to, to Lake Argyle and Kununurra and stuff.

So yeah, the, the, there were quite a few cows along the road. So maybe that treacherous drive or whatever. And then as I kind of came into the Lake Argyle area, you cross on a bridge and there's a pretty nice creek bed or river bed flowing through there. There was pretty good water flow in there and just a beautiful landscape. You know, you start seeing kind of hills and almost mountains, like they're pretty tall mountains in the area. I was surprised. I guess I was used to looking at it on Google Maps or Google Earth or something. And you get there and it's like much higher,

a lot taller than it makes it look on online. So that's kind of one of the things of actually being there with comparing your plans and stuff on there. Because I'd looked at the map so many times and trying to figure out where to go and where to sleep and where to explore and stuff. So it was kind of cool. So when I got there, I kind of threw, threw some of the plans out the

window. Cause I, there was a little spot where I saw people camping and they were like, you know, they, it was an off-road spot, but it just looked like it was up a little hill. Well, when I went up, it was like a, almost a vertical slope and I drove up it, you know, it was kind of, you know, real, real kind of four wheel drive type trail. And I get up there and I'm like, this doesn't look very comfortable. You know, I don't know if I want to necessarily sleep here. And so I ended up driving back down and kind of ditching that plan. Cause I'm like doing this in the dark would not be very fun. Um, but one of the first stops in towards uh lake argyle there was this roadside um aboriginal art um inside of a cave a little cave just off off the side of the road and it had a big

crocodile painting uh that's cool so that was pretty neat and so i stopped there and there were these little uh the kind of the two-line dragons that were hanging out all around the entrance i saw four or five of those and they were pretty bold they let me get some shots and you know some had really red tails and yellow heads it was they were nice looking yeah and then some other little skink was cruising around the rock uh a long neck kind of similar to that uh the one that was on the tree at nerlandi the kind of copper cryptobluffers yeah that kind of body plan but uh so i spent some time you know checking out the lizards photographing the lizards and then checking out the crocodile painting it was kind of a big red crocodile almost like life-size you know across the whole rock so it was pretty sweet

and it had kind of a narrow snout, so it was most likely a freshwater crocodile. Yeah. So that was kind of fun to see. And kind of a little different style than the NT style. So that's kind of another fascinating thing about australia is just the diversity and the different uh groups of aboriginal peoples that have you know lived and have unique and and uh their their own style and their own culture basically so how many groups there are there were a few more drawings in in there i couldn't really make them out very well but uh

really a cool little stop i was glad that was that was something i found on the app that was uh the wiki camps app that was recommended it just had like a little star or something that said like aboriginal art crocodile i'm like oh must stop here yeah here. Yeah. So it was definitely a cool stop. And the dragons were so bright and, you know, bold and fun to photograph. They almost look like a big anolis, you know, that pointy nose and the little eyes or whatever. So that's kind of fun. Took a lot of pictures of those with the, those with the cool escarpment in the background. And then Lake Argyle is a really good sized lake.

I kind of drove down to the picnic area and looked at the dam and over the dam. And man, it's the scope is a lot bigger, you know, in real life than it was on the on the Internet. But and then I thought, you know, there weren't a was on the on the internet but and then i thought you know there weren't a lot of places really to stay there there was a caravan park so i hurried and went into the caravan park and got a tent site there and so that will uh factor into the story but they they have this infinity pool that kind of overlooks the lake so i hurried and went for a swim you know and kind of showered off and stuff, cleaned up a little bit. Not that I needed to too much, but I was pretty sweaty from the last couple nights and stuff.

And so, yeah, that was a nice little stop and a nice spot for sure. I actually used the pool a few times during that time there. But so I hurried and did that and then it started to get dark. And as it was, uh, as, as it was getting dark, I see this huge cloud, right? And the, and there's just lightning moving through that. You could just see the lightning dancing through the cloud and stuff. It was really pretty crazy. And so I'm like, Oh, that might be a good sign. It might be a bad sign. It could be a, could be a do be a road situation. So I hurried and went out road cruising. Right. And went, you know, first thing on the road, like I was saying earlier, this green frog and the road was hot and this green frogs out jumping around on the road. It was pretty amazing. Um, and then, uh, I got a, a new species, uh, for, I don't think I've seen this one in the wild before. Um, it was a, uh, Pseudopunctata or a spotted, um, curl snake, I think is the name. Yeah. Really a cool looking snake. I,

I don't know if you've seen any of the Pseudopunctata, um, on the wild. I've seen the pictures. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, yeah, really cool spotting around the neck and kind of some yellow color and some white along the ventral scales are kind of a bright white. So really a neat looking snake. Somewhat venomous, but not dangerous to people. Well, I know because that'll come in later in the story. But, yeah, so took some pictures

of those and and uh they were it was a really cool looking snake kind of their face is really fun to to photograph so um pseudopunctata new species i'd seen the pseudoseuda which is the um i think they just have kind of a black head or something or mark on their head. So a couple of the Pseudopunctata and then Children's Python. So another Children's Python on the road kind of out to Lake Argyle. Fun to see those for sure. It behaved pretty well for the photo shoot and then it was followed by a couple different Burtons, Legless Lizard. Got, you know, it behaved pretty well for the photo shoot.

And then it was followed by a couple different Burtons, legless lizard. There was a dragon that had been asleep on the road and gotten hit by a car. And I'm not, I haven't specied that, you know, I haven't figured out which species it is. It's probably just a diaper for it, but it was hard to tell. You know, I got a picture of the pattern and stuff, So we'll see. Didn't look like the typical one. So a few more frogs and then back to the campground and I get back to the campground and my tent is gone. I'm like, Oh no. You know, cause I didn't stake it down or anything. I thought my sleeping bag and pad would be heavy enough to kind of hold it down on the ground. And I'm looking around and I noticed it was up, you know, up another level above me, um,

next to a tree kind of pinned against the tree. So I went and grabbed it and brought it back to my spot next to the vehicle. And the neighbor kids came out and they're like, Oh, you know, your tent was going to blow away. So we moved it up here to kind of keep it safe. I'm like, thank you. You know, that's nice of you watch out for me like that. And then all hell broke loose and like the winds just started like just blowing leaves and dirt. And like the whole campground just went into a chaos, you know, it was crazy. And so I hurried and like, um, folded up the tent, threw it in the back of the car and then dough rat road rain situation hit, you know, and just sheets of rain. So I jumped in the car.

I was worried like a tree was going to blow over. So I took off to get out of the campground, you know, away from any trees. And I thought, well, maybe with the rain, I can drive the road a little bit. But it was, yeah, same kind of just deluge. You couldn't see anything in front of you and a lot of debris and stuff coming on the road, branches and stuff. So I'm like, okay, this is going to be interesting. You know, it kind of killed the rest of the night because I was headed out to do more, you know, herping, but I wanted to make sure my tent was okay. So it was a good thing I went back when I did because that could have been really bad.

So I slept in the car but woke up at maybe 2 a.m. or something, and it was clear and the rain had stopped. So I put out my tent and slept in the campground and had a fairly nice night. I woke up before sunrise or right at sunrise and caught, you know, a very nice sunrise coming over the lake. And then I had seen on iNaturalist a spot, you know, where I thought, okay, I'm going to look for glower dye there. And so this was kind of, you know, what I went to this spot, this area for was to try to see Glauerdai, the Kimberly Rock monitor. Or, you know, maybe soon to be changed up a bit, but we'll leave that for a future paper that's in the works. Very close to be put in for publishing a little teaser there for Gavin and his work.

But so I went to this spot teaser there for Gavin and his work. But so I went to this spot and there wasn't really a trail. And so I kind of made my way down the rocks through spin effects. And unfortunately, I'd worn shorts. So I was kind of getting poked and prodded by the spin effects. It wasn't as bad as some, but, you know, you still feel it. And it's kind of a little bit painful to walk through, but not too bad, you know. So I kind of weaved my way down along the hillside and down towards the edge of the lake. And so it was just beautiful.

I mean, the sun is rising. The lighting is beautiful. You know, the spin effects looks really nice on the rock and it's just really a gorgeous. Better on the rock than your leg, hey? Yeah, exactly. Yeah exactly yeah it's nice to look at not necessarily nice to walk through and then um you know the the trail that area was really uh the rocks are really red and cool looking you know so it was fun um so i made my way down to the edge of the lake and i got down to, to where the lake's edge was and where the, you know, approximately the pin was at some somewhere. And, and, and looking at the pin after, you know, I, I saw it first and I noticed that it was kind of looked like it could have been

made from a boat. So I was thinking I'll get as close to the edge as I can. And actually this, this gully that I followed down actually went right to the edge as I can. And actually this, this gully that I followed down actually went right to the water. I could have, you know, gotten in and out of the water there, which most of the other areas kind of cliffed out or something right by the water. So it was a good spot. And then I was looking, uh, you know, I got to the edge of the water and I just got out the binoculars and just started scanning the rock. And all of a sudden, right in the binoculars, there's a Kimberly rock monitor on the side of the cliff, just right, you know, to the right of where I was. You know, if you're facing the, you know, the land side. And I'm like, did I just see that?

You know, is that really a Kim rock? And so I'm trying to figure out where it is on the rock so I can get it again. You know, so I find it again. And I'm like, oh, yeah, that's one, you know is that really a kim rock and so i'm trying to figure out where it is on the rock so i can get it again get you know so i find it again and i'm like oh yeah that's one you know i'm like i don't know you know nobody's gonna believe me so i'm trying to and my camera had crapped out in kakadu because i left it in the car so it wasn't working and and so i held the my phone up to the binoculars and was just shaking and so excited. And I got a couple, you know, really terrible shots, but, you know, something that would show that indeed it was a glowered eye and I had actually seen it. And so and then I just sat and watched it with the binoculars. I just sat and watched what it did.

It moved across the rock a bit and kind of changed position. So I tried to get a couple more shots and then i looked down and a freshwater crocodile swimming out just below where this kimberly rock monitor is and i'd seen neither of these in the wild so these are both lifers just happening simultaneously and the croc swims out and so i'm watching that and then i go back to see the glower dye and it's gone like it's it's's not there anymore. So I'm like, man, what a, what a crazy deal. I was like, Oh, should I have kept watching it so I can see where it went or, you know, all this stuff. And then I was like thinking, crap, I had a drone that I could have launched and flown over and gotten some video footage on

the side of the wall, but I just spaced it out or even like flown above the crocodile. Cause I could have flown it down there since nobody was around, but unfortunately I didn't, uh, either. I don't think I had it with me. So, um, but that would have been very helpful to have brought that. I ended up not even really using it because everything was, you know, kind of public space and people around. So I didn't want to get it confiscated or something. But, yeah, just what an amazing experience that was to see that lizard. And no matter how crappy that picture was, I just get excited to, you know.

Yeah. I just saw a glowered eye. What a crazy thing. So that kind of took the pressure off. You know, that was the a glower die. You know, what a crazy thing. So that kind of took the pressure off. You know, that was the main target in that area. So I'm like, okay, now I can relax a little bit, at least in regards to the Kimberly Rock Monitor. But I definitely wanted to get a more close and, you know, up close and personal interaction. So, but yeah, just a beautiful spot,

really pretty area. Um, I made my way back up to the, the campground and, uh, continued on, you know, left the left Lake Argyle and headed towards Kananera. And on the way, man, there was this huge fire. You could see the smoke from, you know, miles away and got up close and it was just raging through the forest, you know, burning it out good. And that was, I mean, there were a lot of fires around the area. You'd see, you know, and also in Kakadu, you know, we'd go through and just see areas that had been burned out not long ago. Um, I went on a little drive just kind of, um, to check, check the place out and found a huge, you know, flock of magpie geese in inside like a, uh, mango forest or not forest, but, uh, what's the orchard plantation or orchard. Yeah. Yeah. So that was kind of cool. I went over to, there was this dam and I guess below the dam, there's saltwater crocodiles

and above are the freshwater crocodiles. So the dam kind of keeps the salties out of the place above. And so people were swimming at this park and I'm like, oh don't know you know but they have like fences and things all to keep the saltwater crocodiles out from getting out into the above water so that was kind of cool and he said you know the or the the apparently the water up up top was safe and then i went uh kind of towards the end of the day or the middle of the day, I guess, end of the day to Mirama National Park, which is just in the town of Kununurra. And did a hike through there and checked out just a beautiful spot. Really cool rock formations and saw a few macropods, some of the kangaroos there and just enjoyed the setting sun you know it was just that kind of golden hour light

on the escarpment was really special just nice looking um watched the sunset there and didn't see much other than another one of those two line dragons but there was a really cool rock art of some fish kind of, you know, tail to head kind of pointing down, which was like a line of them, which was kind of cool. And then a handprint above them, which I thought that would make a cool tattoo. I don't know why that occurred to me. And then I got back down to the parking lot and there were two frog mouths sitting on the handrail to the bathroom. Right. And so I kind of checked those out for a bit. And actually the next morning they were hanging out in a little cave in the parking lot. So I got some pictures of them in more natural Cool to see them. And then I went up on this hill side to kind of look around and see what I could find. And that's where I saw, you know, another green frog.

And then a pair of those, oh, wait, was this the night? Yeah, it must have been. Oh, a pair of the giant cave geck it was this the night. Yeah, it must've been, Oh, a pair of the giant cave geckos. Yeah. One was really light, like almost white. It was pretty neat. So, uh, got, you know, up close and personal with those. So that was fun to kind of get a better view of them and so, and then I met up with Enzo. So I had been kind of contacting him and we had a mix up on where to meet.

And so that's, he gave me kind of an off the grid camp spot. And so I drove out there thinking that's where we were meeting. And like, it's like out in the middle of nowhere, you know, on this rough dirt road. And I get to the end, I'm like, he's not here. And he's like, where are you? And I'm like, oh, crap. I'm like, I went to the place you said. He's like, oh, that's the campsite. Here's where we're meeting. And so I and he took me down, you know, it was the boat ramp and there were a bunch of, you know, freshwater crocodiles kind of hanging out near the boat ramp. So that's cool. Yeah. So we checked those out for a bit and chatted and he's just a super nice guy, really a great guy. So we made plans to herp the next day cause he had a day free. So it was Enzo and I think it's Semakovich or something on,

I can get the spelling of it, but just he's a French guy. And I had ran across some of his photos on Instagram. And I'm like, oh, you know, you've herped the area around Kununurra. And he's like, actually, I live there. I'm like, oh, I'm going to be there. And he's like, well, maybe we can herp if I have a day off or something. And it just turned out that his day off was the day after I got to Kununurra. So that was pretty cool. But Samaskovich. Samaskovich. Yeah yeah so his name's enzo yeah but really great pictures he's got a video or he posted a video the other day of a glowered eye taking down a frog like eating a

i saw that yeah wasn't that crazy that was wild. He's like, I'm tired, so I'm going to bed. So, you know, good luck herping. And so I headed up to this spot that Alan Rapashi had recommended called the Grotto. And so I drove up there. And along the way, that's where I spotted that spiny-tailed gecko, the strophurus ciliaris on the road. And it had a regenerated tail. So I don't know if you've seen those. They're regen tails. They're really bizarre looking almost like, you know, hairy, all spikes all over or whatever. And then, um,

it was really kind of a neat black and white one had a really nice white marking on its head and stuff. So I was like, finally, you know, cause that was the most prominent gecko we saw on the trip in 2011. So it was nice to nice to see one of those um and then yeah yeah i could still see it on the road and then um going into the grotto like i was just met by frogs croaking i mean you could hear it you know down the way i went to kind of uh uh, I didn't go down the main trail at first. I missed it somehow and just kept walking and went to kind of the

other end of the grotto where there, where it kind of cliffs out over a big pool. And so I hiked down this little, you know, down the rocks or whatever, and, and kind of went into this spot, but, um, you know, frog, different kinds of frogs, there were spot. But different kinds of frogs. There were three or four different kinds of frogs. I still need to kind of figure out which ones they were and that kind of thing. But then I came across this crack or maybe gap between the rocks. And there was this children's python in there just kind of hanging out. Looked like it was in ambush position waiting for you know frog or whatever and so um that was

pretty cool so i was taking pictures of it and it kind of spooked and came out of the crack and was crawling around on the rocks but a really nice i almost thought it was like an all a small olive python because it was just so um almost you know faded out. Solid color. Yeah. Yeah. Had a little bit of patterning, but more on the dorsal, you know, and up on the top of it. But really cool looking snake. So that was fun to see. Yeah, absolutely. In hunting mode and a really pretty little snake. You could see kind of some yellow highlights between the scales and stuff.

So, or between the darker scales so that'll be interesting yeah right and there were there were actually a a couple of my so i found another one not too long later in a different spot similar kind of activity just kind of hanging out near the cracks waiting for a frog to to come, I suppose. And there were just frogs everywhere. Like, it was really fun to, you know, just see a bunch of frogs out on the rocks and croaking away and stuff. One of the bigger green frogs, I wasn't sure if it was the Kimberly, you know, green frog, the Splendida, Lat Latoria Splendida or the Latoria Cerula,

but it had kind of that big, uh, temporal bulge or whatever, you know, either really old and big, uh, white tree frog gets or the, or the Splendid tree frog gets. So, um, and it had really yellow feet and kind of underside, which I think is a characteristic of the, the Kimberly species, but it didn't have the white spot. So I, you know, I was like, ah, could be this could be that. It's hard to say, you know, I was thinking it was the Kimberly, but really photogenic sat there and that's a nice photo shoot with it. Um, so yeah, after I got sick of looking at all the frogs and children's pythons everywhere, which took me a while. That was really a cool kind of natural history thing.

I walked over to the main trail and made my way down. I believe I saw a total of three children's pythons in the different areas of the grotto. So it was nice um saw another giant cave gecko kind of on the on the rocks as well got some good pictures of that one it was pretty uh cooperative and photogenic um and of course just a ton more frogs everywhere like everywhere you looked you had to be careful not to step on them. Um, so had a really cool, it was a really cool spot. And I was, and I've heard, uh, Alan was saying that you can find carpet pythons there too. So I was checking the trees, uh, didn't get lucky for a carpet, but, um, but it was, it was a nice spot. Um, I came out of there and there was kind of a like a semi-parking you know like if you're tired

driving one of those rest areas and so i just kind of slept in the car for a few hours till the sun was you know on its way up and uh caught a nice sunrise and actually there was a uh dor unfortunately a dor blackhead python on the road um it was good enough I guess to kind of pose and maybe it looks like it's yeah yeah yeah it looks like it's uh alive or whatever maybe I don't know if I'm fooling anybody but I just wanted to get the pattern and so I got the sunrise and you know next to some kind of greenery on the side of the road, but took a few pictures of that and just to hope to have another locality or whatever in the, in the book, maybe. So see if you can guess which one, if I ended up So then the next day was, uh, it was time to meet up with Enzo. Uh, so we met up at Mirama again and,

and kind of checked out the area. He, he, uh, was very nice and, uh, informative, told me kind of, here's how I find Gloward Eye and like kind of laid it out and, and said, if you come to this spot and wait till the sun hits this area, you're most likely going to see one. This is where I see them every time I try, you know, or, you know, with the exception of maybe one or two times. So he knew their activity like down to a tee, just a wealth of information. And maybe this is kind of a, you know, a fight topic, you know, do, is it, is it better to suss it out yourself and, you know, find, find the spot and, and locate the animal like I did down at Lake Argyle? Or is it better to be able to get up close and personal with the advice from an expert? So I guess there's definitely pros and cons to both. Yeah, sure. yeah sure so we uh um hung out there for a bit but we wanted to get down and looking for um king

oram uh king's rock monitors and uh the vranus ochreatus the little stori subspecies of uh those spiny tail monitors and so we went down to an area that, you know, was pretty well known for him, stopped off at the, the, uh, um, gas station. And this is another nice little trick I learned from Enzo. He taught me a lot of stuff on this, on this trip, but, uh, we stopped and he had a cooler, like a thermos cooler type thing for water. And so he put, you know, he bought a bag of ice, put, you know, half the ice in his cooler, the half the ice in his Esky is, uh, you know, other, uh, open to open top cooler, I guess. So he had a cooler for water and a cooler for, um, drinks or, you know, ice. And so, um, I'm like, man, that's brilliant. You know, you're going to have cold water when you get back

to the car and, and then you've got, you know, drinks on ice if you need it or whatever on ice. I mean, we bought some Tim Tams and put those on ice. Yeah. It was nice to melting in the car anyway. Exactly. Yeah. I probably should have put my camera on ice when we were in. Yeah. But we drove kind of down south to look for monitors. And man, was it warm. It was a hot, just blistering hot day. We walked along a creek bed. What was interesting is we were flipping rocks and stuff.

And there were like cane toads. You're flipping cane toads. And they're in this hot, like tin in the sun. Like, how am I flipping a cane toad, but I'm not flipping a monitor lizard, you know, but it's, it's insane. But, you know, so that was, that was kind of a weird thing. Um, we went all the way up this Creek bed. We were, you know, just, you know, sweating our butts off and, and came back and then Enzo found a burrow, right? And there was a tail in the burrow.

And so we ended up being able to get it out and check it out and stuff. And I mean, it had the same patterning as a King Orum, but the tail was spiky. So we're like, ah, it's going to be Ocriatus. How was the body? Yeah, the body. So the so the body i mean the pattern but even feel so that's the thing so king oram have you held a king oram no that's yeah yeah yeah so king oram i've seen them but i've never held one they're amazing they their body feels like a Uromastyx, so it's soft. Their tail is spiky, is normal.

It's like an Acanthurus, a Storii, whatever. But their body itself feels like a Uromastyx. They feel incredibly soft. Interesting. Okay. Because, I mean, it was a typical Verana, but it had kind of that Boofy little like bulldog head So I'm like, the head looks Storae or Ochreatus, and the tail looks Ochreatus

But the body, you know The pattern looks a lot like That's the thing If it was King Orm, and you're holding The mid-body You couldn't mistake it, it feels unique Okay, but having never Felt it, I wouldn't know what to compare with, you know, I guess.

Well, did it feel like an acne or not? Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, they feel, they're wild. They feel different. They feel different. That was my first reaction. John Egan had some, and then I had my own um later but that was the thing the very first time i physically interacted with one i said oh like it's it's a visceral you there you would notice yeah cool i'd love to work with those they're such cool little monitors and you know

i need to go back and find some because enzo, the week after I left, Enzo posted a photo and sent a photo of him holding a King Oram. It was from like further into the NT. So, you know, a little bit outside of town. So not in the same area we were looking, but he had found one in that same area. And so, yeah, but it was nice to get a new Veranid, you know, I hadn't seen Ocriatus. So that was another one to add to the list. Yeah, I thought it was nice to get a new Veranid. I hadn't seen Ocriatus, so that was another one to add to the list. Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was number 20.

I was all excited because I'm like, oh, this is number 20, but I miscounted. So it's only like number 16 or something. So yeah, I'm not up to 20 yet. But a really cool lizard. He kept averting his hemipenes, so it was definitely a male. But yeah, kind of that really stocky head, bright red eye, kind of a cool look to him. But I was like, yeah, this tail isn't near long enough for a King Oram. But we kind of were going back and forth at first when we found it.

Because we were looking for a King Oram. So of course it's going to be a King Oram. but then we're like, nah, this is, this is a Priatus. But yeah, very similar pattern on the back from, you know, at least from pictures I've seen of, of King Orum in that area. So that's, that's kind of what was leading me to it, but then yeah, paying more attention. So all my videos are like, here's a King Orum. I'm like, can't, can't have the volume on those ones. but yeah, I had a nice little photo shoot with him, a real, uh, warm and treat. And then, uh, we went to this spot that, uh, um, Enzo had been to where he'd found a King Orum. And so we were kind of driving over this dirt road and, and, uh, found, like saw a little, uh, little gamut jump off a rock. And so I'm like, Oh, there's a lizard.

And so he jumped out and went and actually caught it. It was a little baby, agama jump off a rock and so i'm like oh there's a lizard and so he jumped out and went and actually caught it it was a little baby um central netted dragon a little thing just tiny you know like we went to pose it on the rock and it just kind of sat there like you know it's dead or whatever like the horned lizard yeah yeah just kind of look goofy but those those little stubby noses you know the hurdle heads they're so cool and just beautiful pattern you know and then uh so we're like oh maybe this is a good spot to kick around so we went around in the different rocks and and you know immediately on one of the the rock out crops there was another agama i'm not sure if it was another central netted dragon it didn't like

look like a central netted dragon. At least the ones that I've seen, it was more of a slender, more of a tapered nose. And so I need to figure out what kind of a gamma that was. So that's on the list of things too. But I didn't get a good picture of it. And then I think I have a picture of the rock where it was, or maybe a video of it on the rock kind of running around. So I should be able to use that to figure out what it was. But he had found a female dragon of some sort there that was insane looking, just like the markings and pattern.

I'm like, what is that? That is incredible. I need to have him send me that picture because it was just so fascinating. That's crazy. Really weird looking so I mean this could have been a you know that same species I don't know but we were kind of looking in that area for that that dragon as well as uh monitor lizards but didn't see too much other than um there were some finches that came through some or no sorry fairy wrens that were like these cute little black birds with red

backs and then their tails stick straight up. So it was kind of flitting around in the trees. It was pretty cool. So, um, sat and watched those for a bit. And then we, um, took off and went down. Enzo took, took me to the spot, um, on a river that was kind of on the way back towards uh um kind of nura and uh we went down by the edge of the river and he and it was like the river is dried out and and there were just pools kind of you know pool here pool there and you'd go to the pools and there'd be you know three or four uh freshwater crocodiles in each of the pools you know kind of running out of room you know and he's like usually you can tell the pools that if they don't have freshwater crocodiles in each of the pools, you know, kind of running out of room, you know, and he's like, usually you can tell the pools that if they don't have freshwater crocodiles, then there's probably

salties there. So you don't want to get too close to the water, but he's like, if there's freshwater crocodiles there, it's pretty safe because they, they hightail it out of there. If there's a salty in there, you know, the salties will eat them pretty readily so on this first spot um like in the tree pulled down the tree there was a tree snake just kind of coiled up kind of similar to what we saw in cacti so and then we actually he was able to get it out of the tree so we got some pictures of it in hand and just a beautiful yellow you know uh snakes. So it was really nice looking. Um, and it, and it was pretty well behaved. It didn't try to bite or mask. It just kind of sat nicely for photos and, um, yeah, so it was a dream, uh, tree snake interaction there. I think we saw another one

or two of those kind of along the way. Um, and we kind of were, know pool hopping and there was actually uh we were coming to this other pool and there was this eye shine way up on the bank he's like whoa look how far that one is from water you know so he's kind of getting closer to the pool and he just takes off running he's going to try to get it you know cut it off at the at the pass or whatever and uh got there right as it jumped in the water and just barely missed it you know and it was it was kind of a smaller like little you know maybe one or two year old you know really kind of a smaller guy so i'm like he's like oh shoot you know i was hoping to get one in hand so we could take a look at it yeah whatever and uh so i'm like oh you know that's cool it's it's all right you know no reason. And so we went to a couple more pools and I'm thinking, OK, we've seen a lot of eye shines and stuff. I'm like, probably time to go. So size. Like, I mean, the photos make it look a lot

smaller. Like, I guess, you know, in real life it seems more intimidating or like bigger and it was powerful. Like this thing was, you know, could move and throw you around almost. And he's like, oh, I almost didn't go for it because it was so big. But then I was like kind of over top of it. And I'm like, ah, I might as well give it a shot. You know, at least somebody is here to pull it off my arm if I need them to. So really cool. But yeah, that was fun to get a, take, you know, some up close pictures and get a hold it and pose for some wanker spots. So yeah, it was amazing. So that was another just, you know,

cool experience that Enzo made possible. Really fun to herp with that guy. So and then he, you know, experience that enzo made possible um really fun to herp with that guy so um and then he you know let it go and after it released back it just swam in the clear water so we could take a video of it as it swam underwater with the fish moving you know alongside it and stuff it was pretty cool so that was fun to to get to witness. And man, what a crazy ecosystem. And there were just frogs everywhere still. Like everywhere I went, it seemed there were just frogs all over the place. It's kind of crazy.

So we got back to the vehicle and did a little road cruising from there. We came across one of the brachyrophis, one of the banded kind of sand snakes, the burrowing banded species. So that was pretty cool. Of course, a nightmare to try to get pictures of, not to mention they're, you know, lapids and they have a little bit of a venom to them potentially. So we didn't know how close to get or how far away to stay, you know, but got a know reasonable pictures of its head and and kind of the body and pattern and stuff so that was cool um we came across another or an orange nate snake um i think it's furina furina is the genus and then um so you know another species i hadn't seen and then we found a really nice uh pseudopunctata another uh spotted curl

snake and this one was funny because enzo when he's road cruising he's he's hiking around in crocs right and so um he's trying to um keep this curl snake you know kind of contain it and get it to settle down for photos and he's he's using his croc and he's to kind of butt up against it and all of a sudden the snake lunged and bit and like he's like oh it got my toe it bit him through his crocs through one of the holes in the crocs and i'm like oh man or how you know how bad is the venom he's like you know i don't think it's too bad you know and he takes off his his croc and he's like oh it's bleeding oh great you know like i don't know maybe it's good that it's too bad you know and he takes off his his croc and he's like oh it's bleeding oh great you know like i don't know maybe it's good that it's bleeding you know right he's like man they have

quite a bite to him for for being such a small snake it's kind of crazy i'm like oh man i hope it's you know you're not gonna swell up or something but really a pretty snake uh Uh, so, um, I, uh, yeah, so that we didn't see any more snakes after that. And I dropped Enzo off back in kind of Nura, but it was quite humorous to kind of end on that note. Um, so I dropped him off and he told me about this, uh, pool where you could see the Kimberly, uh, splendid tree frogs, um, the, the spotty ones you know and so he's like oh you know there's like a hundred you know a night you can see there they're just

everywhere and so of course i go there and you know i see a couple different frogs and then i see one of the the kimberly tree frogs oh you did i i saw two of them so so that was good. You know, not a hundred, but two. And the first one I saw was just the perfect example. Like just, you know, had the big temporal lobes or whatever you call those. Yeah. And then the just spots all over it. Really a neat looking frog. And I'm like, oh, this is the perfect specimen perfect specimen so i grab it put it up on the

rock i'm getting ready to take a picture and right as i go to take the picture it hops and then it keeps hopping and it goes into this cave and i can't get to it so i have one crappy picture of it on the rock and then it disappeared and i'm like oh man and so um and then i look up along the edge of the cave there's like wasps nests all along the cave. And there are these beautiful, big, orange, ugly, scary looking hornets or whatever. And I'm like, oh, man, this is not great. And so I'm like, OK, I think I'm going to leave this area. And then I look over and in the mouth of the cave, there's another Splendida on this, you

know, just posed perfectly in the mouth of the rock you know in a little overhang and nowhere to jump away from me you know and so i'm like okay i'm gonna i'm gonna go and take a picture of this frog and so i get a couple shots and i'm like okay and then all of a sudden the wasps start dive bombing me and i'm like oh crap and so i'm backing up you know trying to swat them away with my hand. One latches onto my thing, my thumb with its, with its, you know, mouth parts and then stings me in the, in the palm. And I'm like, ah, knock it off, you know, brush it off and just try to hightail it out of there as quick as I can, you know, over the slippery rocks of the waterfall area. And, uh, and it just starts throbbing and, you know, over the slippery rocks of the waterfall area. And, uh, and it just starts

throbbing and, you know, painful. I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is horrible. You know? So I'm like, at least I got, at least I got pictures of the frog. And so, you know, I got out of there and just went back to the car and, you know, slept at the rest stop or whatever. But and then um not not even the next day but the day after that like in the night i my my watch was really tight and so i loosened it you know and then i loosened it again i'm at the last little notch of my watch band i'm like why is my watch so tight i get up in the morning and it was like i had an extra arm you It was like just swollen and my hand was all puffy and swollen. Yeah. I'm like, man, this wasp sting has no joke, you know, kind of crazy.

Yeah. So the next day was kind of spent, you know, in the area. Oh, I went back to the Gloward Eye spot. Right. you know in the area oh i went back to the glowered eye spot right and i'm eagerly awaiting the time when the light will hit the rock at the right moment you know and i and i was there probably an hour before we can drink again exactly yeah i was uh waiting you know for probably an hour and a half you know just the birds. There were birds flying all through there and some different

lizards. I saw a fire-tailed skink. Beautiful thing. It was just bright red tail. It would sit there and wiggle its tail and then move a little bit. I tried to get a picture to no avail. Went under the boardwalk and

was hiding out there, but I was bummed out I didn't get a picture of it avail you know went under the boardwalk and was kind of hiding out there but i was kind of bummed out i didn't get a picture of it because it was really cool looking um just kind of hung out there and sure enough like the light hits the wall and all of a sudden i hear a little rustling coming out of a tree and i look over and there's a kimberly rock monitor making its way down this tree and it crawls along the you know the base of the the tree and in through some rocks and and kind of over along the rocks um at the base of this garb and just kind of actively hunting and looking for food apparently this area is really good because a lot of the birds were there catching bugs and stuff too. Yeah. Really nice little spot. And,

um, and like, I, I'm like, there it is, you know, just like you said it would be. And, uh, and I, so I, you know, I'm trying to get closer and closer with my phone and I'm pretty much in its face and it's not really phased at all. You know, maybe put on a little burst of speed if I got too close, but I'm just like, this is the interaction I was hoping for all you know maybe put on a little burst of speed if i got too close but i'm just like this is the interaction i was hoping for you know uh it was crazy and i mean the tail was like yellow bands really just a gorgeous lizard oh my goodness i i you know that was that was probably the thrill of a lifetime here this this interaction you know i was really hoping for so a real mirama treat but uh yeah i just uh followed it around taking pictures and video and you know

as much as i could it would let me get and then it kind of crawled up high up on the rock face and then a little while later kind of came down a bit and all this, you know, it was just fantastic. Yeah. So probably, um, let's see from lasted maybe less than a half an hour, you know, waiting on that. So, yeah, um, it was, uh, back up, you know, kind of out of view and out of range a little bit. And, um, I went, well, I had my experience and can kind of move on now and, uh, head out. So, but that was, that was extra cool. Yeah. Um, I think at this point I went back to that spring where the wasp sting occurred to, um, yeah, try my luck again. No, actually to swim and kind of cool off after, you know, the, the sitting in the heat waiting for the Kimberly rock monitor to show, um, and, and had a little swim and had a nice chat with a Swiss couple that was touring. They'd been touring the country for months.

So they'd come away from Perth and were on their way over to the East Coast to do a full basically lap around the country, which would be pretty epic. Went, kind of found a little zebra stone for my wife, which was really cool stuff. It's like this really regularly striped stone. They call it zebra stone for my wife, which was really cool stuff. It's like this really regularly striped stone. They call it zebra stone. And I found these earrings where the stripes almost look like little snakes. So yeah, I got some earrings for my wife and then I'm like, well, I kind of saw the stuff here. And on our drive, we tried to go to one of the gorges that was one of my destinations and it the road was closed with the gate so we weren't even able to get into el cuestro at all um i was also going to go down into pernulu pernululu which is the the bungle

bungles and uh it was apparently like the road in there is miserable and between the rocks it gets like 150 degrees or some crazy thing and so it's like not advised and i'm like i don't want to just go in there and you know have a miserable experience so i'll save that one until you know next year or whatever going in the in the winter or something when the tourist season is active. So I, uh, kind of bade, uh, Kununurra goodbye and headed back, uh, west. Um, and I, I was gonna, you know, go back to, or I was gonna go up to the Keep River, um, National Park, another spot where, you know, some interesting glower tie up there and so i wanted to go see if i could find those and um was kind of communicating with gavin getting some advice on

maybe you know how to find them or where to look or whatever and so i went and got there just kind of on um maybe a couple hours before sunset and did a big hike around the area and and the rock formations actually kind of resembled the bungle bungles to some extent you know they kind of had that similar straination and and neat look and there were some fun uh aboriginal art in there but just a really a cool spot and i was the only one there there was nobody else had the campground to myself had the escarpment to myself you know it was really kind of a cool thing that's cool and just got to yeah just soak it in um there i saw some did we see pheasant kookles those weird i think we saw some on one of our drives i don't know that anybody

else really knew what it was you know so i was i was all excited but i saw a couple here and they were like two males chasing each other and yeah and i actually got to see one up in a tree and it just kind of was sitting up there kind of what do i do do i fly or do i stay here okay yeah i remember that that was what we pulled over for oh yeah on doh rat yeah so um i got to yeah have kind of a better view although no zoom camera so no good photos of them unfortunately but yeah the the light was on the that kind of bungle bungley type rock right at sunset so just beautiful golden hour shots of the rocks and really a cool spot uh boabab trees you, rainbow bee eaters flying around and catching bugs. So it's pretty magical, really nice little spot. Um, not much reptile

activity. Like I didn't even really see many skinks or dragons or anything like that. Um, so went back in the morning and like just right at sunrise and set up shop where I thought maybe a glower die might be. And sat there for maybe an hour or so and just kind of leaned against the rock and scoped it with my binoculars. Came up with, you know, maybe a couple skinks. So I'm like, OK, if I'm seeing skinks on the rock, I'll probably see a flower die on the rocks as well. And went over to another section where there were, you know, a little bit of water close by and scoped that out and nothing. Went back to the first spot. I saw two lizards chasing each other, kind of, and they looked a little verandahed from a distance, but I got the binoculars up and it was skinks chasing each other. So I'm like, darn it. And so, yeah,

I'm like, well, and that night was miserable. That was the night of this full in hand and the 93 degrees in the tent, you know, just sweating, sweating to the oldies and not enjoying much at all. I'm like, no wonders nobody's in this campground. I have it to myself. So yeah, it was kind of, kind of crazy, but just a cool little spot and, you know, beautiful, uh, rocks and stuff. So I made my way back up to Catherine and I was, uh, thinking, you know, in my heat frenzy, like I woke up in the morning and I booked a hotel in Catherine. Cause I'm like, I'm not doing this again. I'm having air conditioning tonight. You know, I'm too weak for this. And so, but then I realized Catherine is a long way away. I probably could have gone

to like Timber Creek or somewhere on the way, you know, somewhere cool that would have, you know, uh, you know, King Oram or something to, to look at, look for again or whatever. But I just went all the way to Catherine. I was like, okay, I'm done with this heat. It's, it's too miserable. So, um, made my way up to Catherine, got in the hotel, you know, took a shower, took a nap in the, until, you know, things cooled down and then went out at sunset. Um, driving along, came upon a DOR, uh, olive Python and a bummer, you know? And then about an hour later, there was a big olive right on the edge of the road. I'm like unmistakable what that thing is, you know, just this giant Python on the side of the

road. I'm like, oh, Python. And I'm like, please be alive. You know, that kind of thing went back and it was alive and it had a big food bolus. Like it had eaten a bandicoot or something, you know. So that was pretty cool. That's cool. She was pretty relaxed. I put the snake up in a tree to kind of keep it contained and take pictures and stuff like that. And it sat pretty good and took a lot of pictures.

And just a really nice example of an olive python. Just perfect, you know. Spent quite a lot of pictures and just a really nice example of an olive Python, just perfect, you know, um, spent, spent quite a bit of time with that, uh, real Catherine treat. And then I came across another, uh, um, olive Python. This one was a little bit worse for the wear. It looked like it had been like either hit or damaged its neck. And so there was a section that was almost fused or like rigid you know so when it moved it would kind of hold its yeah you know this part would stay firm and not not bend at all and so it's kind of you know looked looked a little awkward you don't

really see it too well in the photos but like the videos you can see it you know like trying to crawl and looking like it's got a weird pink neck or something but it the videos, you can see it, you know, like trying to crawl and looking like it's got a weird pink neck or something, but it was a little more feisty. It would try to bite at you if you came near it and stuff, but it was kind of like an open mouth, just kind of swinging its head around wildly at you, not like a targeted strike. So I think that might've been partially due to the neck damage, but really, really cool to see those big snakes, you know. And the main reason I'd gone down here was to look for black-headed pythons. I guess there's a dwarf population of blackheads, according to Gavin was telling me.

So I came across next a DOR children's. And, you know, so there um, there were, unfortunately it was dead, but, um, and then, you know, Gavin was saying, you know, probably around midnight is when activity kind of slows down for blackheads. They, you don't really see them after midnight. And it was like 1145. I'm like, uh, you know, maybe my luck's running out or whatever. And I was like, I'll head back and maybe go head back to Catherine. Now I was probably an hour, 45 minutes outside of town. So I'm heading back to town and, and I'm talking to my wife on the phone, you know, over a messenger. It was pretty sweet.

We had connectivity pretty much everywhere we went for the most part. So much better than five years ago. Yeah. So I was talking to her and all of a sudden I'm like, steak! You know, I pull off the road, same kind of thing. Please let it be alive, you know, and I ran back and it was this beautiful black-headed python that was making its way across the road. And so, yeah, it was fantastic. And it was really a nice looking animal like kind of uh narrow dark bands and

kind of wider gold bands and just a really beautiful pattern uh patterned animal but very thin it was really kind of ropey looking and thin thin snake for sure so um but yeah i spent quite a bit of time with that and checking it out and stuff. Um, and I think that was about it for the night. I made my way back to the hotel and enjoyed the AC and had a good sleep. So I, um, the next morning I went back up, uh, Catherine Gorge and, uh, thought, you know, maybe I'll get lucky and see a glebo this time around. So I kind of went along the shore, but it was really overcast and kind of colder, which was, you know, fairly comfortable for hiking.

But I was thinking, am I going to see a monorail? It felt like the second day at Magok, right? You know, where you're going like, yeah. Yeah. So made my way up. I walked up the rocks and got to check out the gorge. This was a different area than I'd hiked the previous time and Catherine. So, you know, got to take some nice pictures. And then I kind of went up to this dead end where there was like

this big machinery or something on top of the hill. I'm like, what is this? You know, like a pump for the water or something. So, um, made my way back down and just kind of enjoyed the, the, uh, area. Um, but yeah, I didn't see much by way of reptiles. Um, and I, you know, I was kind of like, uh, a little tired. The trip was wearing on me at this point. And so I went to Edith Falls, which is just up the road from Catherine and a really nice little lake at the bottom and a waterfall and stuff and beautiful rocks and stuff. So I swam around in there. I was hoping to get lucky and see a pig nose turtle or a merytons or something. But it was, again, overcast and kind of cold and not much reptile activity except a few skinks and things like that. And I went up to the upper falls, which was just phenomenal, just beautiful, you know,

and I'm walking around and, you know, the rocks are pretty slick. It looks like a lot of people have been hanging out there and stuff. And also, you know, I was being really careful and then I was taking pictures and videos and stuff and I kind of let my, I, I was being really careful and then I was taking pictures and videos and stuff and I kind of let my guard down and I slipped and fell and like landed on my arm and just jacked up my shoulder. I'm like, this is not good. You know? And I like, couldn't move my right arm up past, you know, my waist or whatever, a lot of pain and anguish. And so I'm like, oh man, this is not great. You know? So then I was kind of like, uh, I'm over this. I just need to go, go back home or something. It was, I was not eager to do a long hike with a messed up shoulder, but you know, I hiked out of

the area. It took, took a bunch of pictures and videos and swam around in the upper pool a bit. So it was really pretty. And then I went into Litchfield, but again, I was not really feeling it. I didn't want to get wet. It was kind of getting dark. And then I thought, okay, I'm going to try to get down to Lost Valley where, you know, hopefully find some Gleebo's or something. Um, I went on this pretty crappy dirt road. It was really bumpy, but I was trying the 80, 90K per hour and making good, you know, it wasn't too bad. It was pretty good over that if you went to speed. Otherwise, it was miserable, you know.

But every once in a while, you had to slow down because there was a gully or something in the road from the water. And then the road kind of turns like tees off and narrows. And it's like, you know, this way for the, and I look and there's like just pool, pool, pool, you know, from all the recent rain. And yeah, in Catherine, I just got poured on. Like it rained all night. Luckily I was in the hotel room, you know, that was, that was pretty fortunate. But it just rained all night and into the morning.

So that was probably part of why it was so wet in Litchfield. And just, I was thinking I'm alone, I'm not going to chance this. So I just turned around and went back the mile or two on the, on the better dirt road. So yeah, it looks pretty hairy getting in there. So I went to a few spots in Litchfield, a couple of waterfalls and stuff, and then, um, just kind of made my way up to Darwin. I thought I would, I should have gone to Doe Rat Road and, and, uh, cruise Doe Rat again. But again, my arm was jacked. I was like, I just need to get further north closer to darwin or something

because i i flew out the next night you know so okay um i went to fog dam and uh saw nothing much other than a herd of buffalo crossing the road you know okay and and in my damn road yeah yeah yeah in my kind of weakened delirious state i like, why are there rhinoceros coming across the road? They look like rhinos or hippos or something. I'm like, what is going on here? Oh, yeah, water buffalo. But the bugs were plague proportions. It was like rain, just constant bugs hitting the windshield and the car and the whole windshield

was just mucked up from all the bug guts and stuff and i'm like what is going like i got out of the car to take a picture or something and it was like just bugs everywhere and get back in the car and half the bugs followed me and then there's beetles flying around these giant you know flying past your head and you're like what is going on here it's crazy that's wild yeah not uh much else uh i think i went and did a found like a oh i went back to the botanical gardens uh area and looked for carpets and scoped that out and didn't see anything there other than a sleeping dragon up yeah on a kind of hanging out on a vine up high so that was kind of cool but um yeah nothing else much got up in the morning got a mango smoothie in darwin i think

where did i was oh this was the miserable the miserable, most miserable night. I think of the trip cause it was hot and muggy and I was trying not to roll down the windows or anything. Cause it was mosquito city out there or those little biting sand flies or whatever they are. Um, so I, I first went out to one area and tried to sleep and like, I must have been sleeping by some sensor or whatever because all of a sudden this cop car comes with its lights on i'm like oh here i you know i'm busted or whatever so i'm like i kind of sat up and i was like waiting for him to come over and talk to me he went up to a little panel like punched in his code and then got in his car and took off i'm like whew you know like get out of here you know know, I'm out of here. So I,

I drove, you know, over to, uh, um, the park where we saw the, uh, the Mitchell Eye and the site. Oh, I also went into, um, the, uh, Howard Springs and the gate was open. So I went in there and was scoping around, didn't see any file snakes. So that was kind of a bummer. But so anyway, that was pretty miserable night. I kept waking up and having to turn on the AC in the car and, you know, there were cars coming in and zooming around. I'm like, what are you doing? You know, some would come out and fish for a bit, like in the middle of the night. And man, the insects were insane. I got out of the car for a bit like in the middle of the night and man the insects were insane i got out of the car for a few minutes to just kind of think oh maybe i'll go look for some you know

mangrove snakes or something and and just instantly covered and inundated with these biting insects and like they're sucking my blood i'm like never mind but abandoned play you know running back to the car and trying to sleep a little more and, um, got up in the morning and kind of, um, went down, uh, to Darwin, went to crocosaurus Cove, kind of check that place out. Um, it was, he had some pretty cool stuff. I got to watch a, a, you know, the stuff was pretty active cause I was like there first thing in the morning. So things were moving around still and got to watch the Owen Pelly climbing around and stuff like that. So it was pretty cool. So they, you know, they had somebody in the cage of death.

So I got to watch that. I got to watch that a little bit and had nobody to go in and plexus with. So I decided not to mess with that. But it was pretty cool to be back there and then i went back out and found uh uh mitchell i and like half a you know 10 scolaris like they were all over and there were these big black flies like flying low on the ground and i actually got footage of one of the scolaris grabbing one and like kind of chomping on it and then like noticing me and letting it go and like either dropped or whatever but yeah and then it took off up a tree but it was kind of cool

i got some i think i got some good footage on my uh 360 camera because i would just kind of hold it out and move it towards them and they'd kind of sit and look at it and then they'd take off or something so that was fun to to see a lot more of those um that night uh I met up with Gavin and Dale at the restaurant there in town and yeah got a crock burger and uh and then Dale and and gavin we we went out herping looking for carpet pythons and made our way through a forest quite a quite a ways and and saw some frogs and you know yeah a couple sleeping dragons i think they were the gil Gilbert's dragons this time. So, um, definitely not, uh, the one, the Tata dragons. And then, uh, Gavin let me, uh, clean up and take a shower at his place. to Melbourne and over to Sydney and just froze my butt off on the first leg. Didn't do much sleep. Slept pretty well on the flight from Melbourne to Sydney, but it was a lot shorter flight.

And then Cain Durant picked me up at the airport. I guess Peter Birch was leaving out of town and he set that up. He's like, hey, Cain, you want to go herping with Justin? So yeah. And Kane brought his son and his brother-in-law and just great people. It was really fun to herp with them. We went up into some kind of escarpment up in Sydney area. Um, not too terribly far from the airport. And we're like, you know, looking under cap rocks, finding some, uh, some of the little lessors, geckos, velvet geckos, and a couple different skinks, the copper-tailed skink.

Saw some really big centipedes and then found an eastern brown snake. So that was cool. Unfortunately, it ducked down a burrow and so Kane got it, but it, he just couldn't, you know, wiggle it free. It just was, had such a firm grip, you know, in there that we couldn't get it out. And so we're like, okay, we saw the tail. I got to pet a tail of an Eastern brown. So that's funny. Can't, can't say you get to do that too often and then uh kane found a blind snake uh flipped that one and then found a yellow neck or yellow

faced whip snake so very cool three species of uh snake and three species of lizard so not a not a bad outing a lot of bushwhacking it was pretty entertaining because kane's son had worn shorts and so yeah kane said you, you might want to wear pants. He gotten a, uh, like kind of a, it was a hotel ish type thing. Like it was accommodations, I guess they call it. And it was on above a casino. So it was like, you had to enter through the casino to check in and then kind of around the back in the alleyway was the door up to the accommodations and it was like shared bathroom kind of situation so i had my own room to sleep in it was only like 70 bucks a night and and uh you know but you had to share a bathroom and shower room but i was i

was kind of the only one there so you know my flight got bumped a couple hours, so I got to sleep in and then just made my way to the airport and back home again. So quite the adventure. That is quite the adventure. Yeah, absolutely. A ton of great stuff. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. I think lessons learned, you know, I think you can find some really good stuff, you know, in kind of the more harsh seasons, but it's going to be a lot more miserable on you. You know, like being there in that heat was pretty, pretty hard, pretty rough. And, you know, all the locals are like, why aren't you here in July or August or September? You know, kind of the cooler months when, you know, the monitor lizards are a little more active because they need to stay out longer to bass to get to working temperature.

Whereas here, it takes them maybe five minutes and they're good to go, you know. Yeah. And they're down a burrow or, you know, hiding out or hunting or whatever. So, and they're very wary, you know, when it's that hot out. So, a little more hard. So, I would like to revisit that area and go maybe after the wet, kind of in the wintertime, in the dry season. And, you know, try it out then and kind of see. Yeah, absolutely.

I think the same applies for the West Kimberley. You know, you can't really access it other than in the dry season. So you're kind of relegated to June or July anyway. So, yeah, maybe a quick trip over to, I don't know how quick anything is. Right. Yeah. But highly recommend that area. It's just beautiful.

Just a fantastic spot. I really like Kununurra. It was great. That's awesome. I think another lesson learned is it's a lot more enjoyable to herp with a group. But at the same time, you know, you can do whatever you want. Drive it. Yeah.

You can change your plans at the drop of a dime and you don't have to discuss it with anybody. You're just like, I'm going to do this now or I'm going here. I found this. So now it's this time. That kind of thing. It was fun to meet enzo a great great guy and really fun and great to meet dale too dale and you know get to connect with gavin again and visit with him and yeah just a great great great experience all around i guess we didn't really

fight or flip a coin so can this even count as a fight club right well yeah no interesting nonetheless man wow great stuff i don't know any thoughts or any follow-ups yeah no i mean i think well that's fantastic i knew it would work out for you and i'm glad that it did you know so no that's fantastic um jealous some of those finds for sure and i think it's really good you got the dual glower die experience right so i always get i always think about are we by being focused on trying to take really good pictures or video or whatever are we actually losing the experience of doing it right it's sort of when you go to a concert and you see this definitely isn't me but you see people sort of recording the whole thing on their phone.

And it's like, yeah, but are you missing it now in the moment to do that? Right. So I think it's really cool that you got to have both experiences because, one, it wasn't practical. You could take through the binoculars. You could take a photo to prove what it was or whatever. But otherwise, you're watching it through the binoculars, you could take a photo to prove what it was or whatever, but otherwise you're watching it through the binoculars. And kind of that experience and then combined with the freshie and all this stuff versus then secondarily, you get this one that you're that much closer and you can get these beautiful pictures and stuff. So it's kind of you got both experiences, the one where you could barely record it, you know, as evidence that it happened, but that was it. And otherwise you have to just embrace the experience of it. And the other where you could actually do kind of more what we typically do. And so I think that's really cool.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you're right. I mean, experiencing it behind when you're focused on taking pictures, experiencing it behind the lens is a lot different, you know, it's, and, you know, sometimes I think of the movie, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and he comes upon that wildlife photographer who finally finds a, you know, a snow leopard. And he's like, aren't you going to take a picture? And he's like, no, this one's just for me. I'm going to just watch it and enjoy it, you know? So I think there, I think there should be some consideration for that aspect, you know, just to sit and watch what it does and enjoy it, you know. I think kind of along the same lines is grabbing stuff that you find, you know. Sure. If I would have tried to grab that glower dye, I might have had a more up close and personal and, you know, got to see it closer.

But at what cost? You know, it would have just taken off and I wouldn't have gotten to watch it forage and crawl along the cool vines and, you know, the or rather the fig roots that are embedded in the rock. I mean, just a cool thing. I guess if I ever decide to keep these or something, you know, I, I know how to deck out their cage and I think it would be pretty cool. Yeah. I would want to have a fairly good size cage too, to kind of recreate that environment of them being able to cruise along the rock wall and forage and stuff. That would be cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So that's, I guess that's the thing. You got to balance that, right? You got to have a balance between living behind the lens and living, you know, the experience or experiencing the experience in the moment. Absolutely. So.

But I have to say, having that video allows me to go back and relive that, you know, and experience it again. Yeah. Well, that's the other part of it too, right? Yeah. And I think I've watched that video several times. allows me to go back and relive that, you know, and experience it again. Yeah. And I think I've watched that video several times. You know? Yeah. If the intended audience is you to relive that and that it is sort of bringing it back that way, then I think that's, you know, wholeheartedly sign off. You know, it's where social media and all these things have all made us content producers to some extent or another, you know, and it's like, I think oftentimes, you know, we've talked about this a lot where sort of the disillusionment that comes from not having that received for the either because the work itself doesn't do justice for it or whatever, but the awesomeness of that experience doesn't seem to be captured, you know,

or the, the, the awesomeness, the challenge, the rarity, whatever it is, right. It's all too, you know, or they clicked a like on your beautiful flower die photo and it's like, yeah, you have no idea, you know, like what this represents in terms of sort of the learned knowledge that's been, you know, shared with you and your experience of doing it and all that stuff that's like, doesn't do that justice. I mean, but what else are you going to do?

Right. Yeah, that's true. It's, it's hard. Well, and I wouldn't have known of about Enzo without him posting his experiences on Instagram. It's all complicated. Yeah, it really is. You can't say all this or all that. I mean, I guess that's the debate, right? How much of each do you want in your life and what's more fulfilling? I would love to be to the point where I've seen so many

glowered eye. It just became like, I know exactly what they're going to do and I know where they're going to do it. And I think I would encourage everybody to kind of get to know a reptile in your environment that, you know, that you can say like, oh, I know where I'm going to find these. Give someone that information. With good certainty and then be able to share that and say, oh, you want to see rubber boas? Here, do this, you know, come with me. I'll show you a rubber boy, you know, that kind of thing. Now, I mean, I do I do like the idea of kind of planning it out and researching it out and figuring it out for yourself. But that that can be a risk. You know, you might not see it. You might not get that experience at all. And so relying on somebody who has much greater wisdom and knowledge and experience than you do can result in good things. Now, you almost feel like you're being spoon fed, but at the same time, you still have to have some luck and some, you know, because we knew where a Glebo Palma was walking across the

rock face two days in a row and we were hoping for a third day in a row, but. And we didn't get it. Yeah. So it's the way it goes but absolutely i don't know i just love herping that was just such a great trip being with you guys on the front end and you know kind of being to myself on the back end and and uh feeling the the weight of it and the misery and the joy and everything you know it's just it was fantastic fantastic. I just love, I love Australia. And that's kind of what Enzo, I mean, he's from France and he's like, I just love Australian reptiles. So I moved there, I moved here, you know, and I'm just trying to work odd jobs so I can stay here and, and find reptiles. Like that's his whole goal is to live where his

favorite reptiles are. He said, I used to keep Gloward Eye, and I got sick of keeping them in a box. I wanted to see them in the wild, so I came and moved to where they live. You know, it's like, how admirable. You know, what a cool guy. And now he knows them. You know, he knows where they are. It's incredible. In a way that, you know, having kept them for years and years, I have no idea.

Yeah, yeah. You know. It's amazing so hats off to enzo and hats off to you for planning an amazing uh you know first first end of the trip and i'm happy that my plans worked out yeah absolutely to have you helping to plan this one too. And, and the cool part to me, um, was at least as, you know, secondary, second time trips for both of us is that there was less of the, much less of the unknown. Obviously there were a couple of spots that I was aware of, but hadn't gone to. So then we had some open questions or whatever that we kind of mentioned before. But none of that was like, oh, wait, what is this? I've never heard about it, never thought about it, you know, any of that. So that it was like, we talked about before, okay, here's our challenge, here are our constraints, what do we choose now? And it was all, you know, perpetually we're involved in a informed conversation of what do we want to do it wasn't never certainly never sitting there

going where can we go it was always okay here are the constraints which option do we want yeah and and i think that was cool too that we both kind of knew the area and we both done the research and so it was kind of a good thing to be able to bounce it off each other yeah what do you think do you agree with this plan? And we can, what's your vote? You know, that kind of thing. It was, it was nice. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is, it's, it's one, it is a little bit stressful when it's all on your shoulders, you know, and you've like planned it and you want to deliver and, you know, I mean, obviously with the, the acknowledgement that you can't right i mean you can put us in the right spot but we that's no guarantee that we're going to find what we're looking for you know and you might find stuff that you're surprised that like that um oedura marmorata i mean i i didn't expect to find that there i was a little bit surprised i'm like wait what they're they're here i thought they were over by katherine you know but no they're they're up here too so that was cool absolutely well well done and uh

yeah well done to you i'm just really uh happy to be included on your trips and to get to know you guys and just to become part of the crew it it's been a really great thing. Yeah, absolutely. Same way. Absolutely fabulous. And yeah, no, that's till the next one, hey? Yeah. Central Australia. Well, we'll have plenty of fights before then.

Yeah, exactly. All right. Well, it's getting late. We better call it a time. But thanks for listening. And hopefully you didn't miss a fight. I hope some of our discussions at the end kind of filled that gap for you and that you enjoyed this show. If you didn't listen to the NPR show, go check that out. And thanks to Eric and Owen and the NPR umbrella for hosting us.