A Creepy Crawly Came A-callin' (not for the faint of heart...)

I was on the patio a few weeks back and noticed this guy had come to visit. We stuck a pot over him and I spent a considerable amount of research time trying to confirm whether he was venomous.

I eventually identified him as Thereuopoda Clunifera (or 'a centipede' in English).

The weird thing about this part of the world are that there is such diversity of wildlife that even something this remarkable is barely catalogued. In fact there are so many different forms of wildlife that many of them haven't even been catalogued. A recent trip to Cape York (the mostly-unpeopled area North of us) discovered over 50 previously unknown species of spider (see here for more).

(with perspective)

If you want a more up close and personal experience, here is a video...

Unfortunately, we left him under the punnet while we went to do other things, and the sun moved round the house - and he ended up rather the worse for the experience 😦

The Reef

We took Libby's mum out to the reef (on Fitzroy Island). As we were in stinger season, we took the precaution of hiring stinger suits...height of Australian fashion as you can see...

The view from the top of Fitzroy Island...

Lake Barrine

On the way back from Mareeba we came the 'long way round' and stopped off at Lake Barrine. Very nice weather, very nice views - and some very big trees...

From the Department of National Parks website...

Animals in Mareeba

While Libby's mum was here we spent a week house sitting for a MAF family in Mareeba. For a pet-less household like ours, it was quite exciting...

Reepicheep the Golden Lab

Geoffrey the Bearded Dragon

The Unnamed Budgie

The Big Tank of Fish

The Small Tank of Fish

Vanessa the Guinea Pig

(NB. We were not advised of the guinea pig's name, so we named it Vanessa after a guinea pig we babysat while in Kenya. This was amended to Vincent upon closer inspection...)

Ruben's favourites - the chickens (or 'chooks' as they call them here)

And an additional visitor who we found in a flower tub...

Butterflies

On the way up to Mareeba we stopped off at the Butterfly Sanctuary in Kuranda. Lots of butterflies...

Cairns Birdwing - biggest butterfly in Australia

Cairns near Cairns

On a random spot at the side of the road between Cairns and Pity Douglas, people have erected lots of little piles of rocks.

We stopped and added our contribution...

Lunch with the lorikeets

We went up to the tropical bird (and animal) place with Libby's mum. We had lunch with the lorikeets (amongst other birds) and had fun with other animals.