Traveling Rockhopper

I have to say, I was a bit surprised how big area of Australia is covered by rain forests.
So if you like “jungle”, you have to visit Australia. 🙂

In the Litchfield National Park you’ll find an amazing scenery made by termites!
In today’s picture you see an example of magnetic termite mounds. No, it’s not a graveyard. 😉 Doesn’t it look unique? Some of the mounds are small, others are quite big, even about two meters tall.

If you’re in Darwin, in the Northern Territory, don’t miss Litchfield National Park.
Especially if you like waterfalls! 🙂

Kangaroo Island is one of the best places in Australia to see native wildlife, e.g., koalas, kangaroos, sea lions, and many birds.

Kangaroo Island is a nice island, “nearby” Adelaide.
It’s 155 km long, so it’s not so small.
I think, a few days should be enough to explore the island and visit its most interesting sites.

In Australia, I learnt that not each “kangaroo” is a kangaroo. 😀
There are different kinds of kangaroo, but generally speaking kangaroos are “big kangaroos”. “Smaller kangaroos (intermediate size)” are called wallaroos and “small kangaroos” are wallabies.

In Australia, you’ll find many many waterfalls! One of the most stunning ones is Wallaman Falls from the Wet Tropics UNESCO World Heritage Area. Wallaman Falls is the highest single-drop waterfall in Australia (268 meters).

If you’re in Sydney, don’t miss Blue Mountains; you can drive there in about two hours. 🙂
Blue Mountains is a nice area for hiking or relaxing. You can find here many plants in a forest, rock formations, cliffs, caves, waterfalls, etc.

“The Twelve Apostles” are limestone pillars. You’ll find them along the Great Ocean Road. However, there are not 12, some of them already collapsed. Well, it’s still a very nice coastal area and scenic drive; worth visiting!

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the main attractions in Australia. It’s the world’s largest coral reef and simply stunning! It’s an unforgettable experience to snorkel or dive there. However, there is also a sad part about it, people often kill the reef simply by touching it! So please, be careful while observing any reef.

Dingo is a name of a native Australian dog.
When I was in Australia, I didn’t really expect to meet dingo, but we’re lucky to spot them. Dogs look friendly, but they’re still wild animals, so it’s better not to play with them etc.!

p.s. Do you know what dingo dogs like to eat?
I’ll show you on the 17th of January. 😉

This beautiful (and harmless) lizard can be seen in the Red Centre in Australia. It’s called Ngiyari Thorny Devil (Thorny Dragon).
How do you like it?

There are many kinds of scorpions in Australia. And often they are relatively harmless.
One of the aggressive ones, is Desert scorpion (seen in today’s picture).

The best part of rainy summer in the Red Center was the possibility to see beautiful desert covered by flowers! Amazing view!
(Temperatures were also much more pleasant than a typical ~40C.)

I visited Australia in December and January, so summer time. However, I had a unique experience by seeing the Red Centre in rain and even with floods! For tourists, there were good and bad sides of this, e.g. waterfalls on Uluru looked nice, but some roads looked like the one in the picture (or worse!) so it wasn’t possible to use them.

Kata Tjuṯa (Olgas) is an interesting group of large rock formations (“heads”) located just 25km from Uluru, in the Red Center, the Northern Territory in Australia.

I have to admit, before going to Australia, I didn’t hear so much about Kata Tjuta, I knew only Uluru. After visiting both sites, I’m not so sure which one is more impressive…
Definitely, both are worth visiting!

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a massive rock monolith and sacred Aboriginal site located in the Red Center, the Northern Territory in Australia. It’s listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Uluru is one of the most touristic and famous places in Australia. For me, it was the most important place I wanted to visit in Australia. 🙂 Ayers Rock is a very unique site and I can highly recommend to go there! Spend there a whole day to observe all shades of red Uluru at sunrise, morning, midday, evening, and sunset. 🙂

As its name says, the Red Centre is a huge outback region located more or less in the centre of Australia (in the Northern Territory). It covers red desert, mountains, gorges, and some of Aboriginal most sacred sites. It’s mostly known from Uluru (Ayers Rock).

Australia is famous for deadly animals. There is a reason why people say that everything in Australia wants (tries) to kill you. Obviously, it’s not completely true. I spent almost a month in Australia, camping a lot, and nothing bad happened (but you never know…). 🙂 Anyway, it’s better to be careful and respect all insects, snakes, jellyfish, stingrays, or any wild animals.

Ah, what’s interesting, bees and snakes cause the highest number of deaths in Australia.

Is it always hot in Australia?
I think, it’s kind of imagination about Australia that there is always hot.
Well, Australia is a huge country. Its climate is influenced by ocean currents. In some territories, there is warm almost all year round. However, it can also snow in Australia!