Camping with wildlife

Camping in Australia will unavoidably bring many opportunities for close encounters with wildlife. Of course creepy crawlies (spiders, scorpions, and snakes among others) are always present, but chances are you will not encounter any of these (not that you would want to seek them anyway).

One of the first birds that will wake you up in terror the first time you hear it is the white cockatoo. This big bird produces a shriek that will send chills down your spine! You’ll also see all sorts of beautiful parrots (orange-bellied parrot, swift parrot, turquoise parrot, etc) flying in groups. There are no monkeys in Australia, although you’ll swear you hear one when you first hear the kookaburra. (Please open a new page and copy and paste this Web address: http://zigzagaustralia.com/lang/en-us/2008/10/24/kookaburra-monkeybird-kedvencnk-nevet-kookaburra/. You will find an MP3 file that contains the kind of racket produced by this very noisy bird ) What a nice morning call!

Kangaroos and wallabies will also make an appearance. They usually come out early in the morning or at dusk. They will graze close to your campground or, if tourists have fed them too much, they’ll try to snatch anything you put on the picnic table. Kangaroos and wallabies tend to stay in the shade most of the day. Ohh you’ll see plenty of kangaroos and wallabies during the day –dead on the streets (kangaroos are a huge driving hazard in Australia, that’s why most of the locals in the Outback drive around in cars equipped with roo bars. Some of the major rental car companies will even forbid driving at dawn and dusk in the Outback.).

Don’t forget to look up the trees and if you are lucky, you might spot a koala or two. They won’t move much though, but they are picture-perfect creatures :)