Are you ready to go Down Under?

The Safari hasn't been able to get out on another damp and dismal day. We offered to cook dinner for Wifey and spent a little over quarter of an hour peeling and chopping two onions (small) and a red pepper (capsicum), eventually we got a something resembling a spaghetti sauce on the boil.

After that was all sorted we started drooling over the pics our Extreme Photographer sent yesterday. Not only that he's allowed us to let you have a shuffy too. These are all resized, the originals are massive and mind-blowingly impressive. A real warm Aussie experience from sunny Down Under to brighten any dull autumnal northern hemisphere day.

Please don't ask us what they are as most haven't been identified yet...on the other hand if you do recognise something and can put a name to it let us know.

We'll start with some inverts and work our way up from there.

Late instar of some hemipteran bug?

You ever seen a grasshopper like this one?

Or a like this? We thought it was a stick insect.

This little spider looks harmless enough but you never can tell in Australia...everything and its uncle seems to be the most poisonous of  its type.

And while you might brush off the little fella if it landed on your shoulder whilst walking through the bush you might think twice about confronting his larger brother - this one was at least six inches (15cm) across the legs and is some kind of Huntsman. What beautiful blue fangs it has...all the better to....well you know the rest of the saying...

The tropics are home to a huge variety of amphibians and tree frogs are particularly numerous and diverse.

Reptiles too are very well represented in Australia.
A dragon?

A Goanna, a Lace Monitor.

A Skink

Some places in the outback are 'littered' with Zebra Finches, better to see those vast wide open spaces than in tiny aviaries.

Our Extreme Photographer found this gorgeous 'family'(?) of Splendid Fairy Wrens fast asleep in a dense bush well after dark at Maroo Wildlife Refuge whilst staying there a couple of days. It's double cute to see the one on the left with its wing over the male.

He was even able to sneak round the other side of the bush without disturbing them - apparently he had camera in one hand supporting his lens in the other hand and held the torch for illumination in his mouth hence the shadow across the top - the things we photographers do for the shot eh...

Hardly a thorn between two roses...

Fruit bats are always good fun and one of those all time favourite wildlife spectacle experiences when you see them leaving the roost in their thousands for the first time. This one has the sort of expression we imagine Frank would have if we hung him upside down!

Talkin of Frank he  has some scrawny lookin cousins wandering around in the outback and we dare say they aren't as docile and as friendly as Frank.

Normally you really wouldn't want to get quite this close to one of these apex predators.

Where to next? More tales from the Antipodes or will we be able to get out and about in our own outback for an hour or so tomorrow?

In the meantime let us know what your holiday snaps are like.