Goannas and Storms

The other friend we made on Fraser Island was the goanna, a lizard that can grow up to two meters in length. I spotted this guy as he crossed the dirt  road in front of us as we hiked through Fraser Island. The climbed a nearby tree and posed for photos.

Aside from scoping out the wildlife, we spent most of our time on Fraser Island marveling at the wildness of Australian weather. Though we're south of the tropics, the evening storms rival anything we've seen thus far. Dark clouds funnel rain and fire lightning bolts by the hours. On our last night on the island, one of the bolts struck the island and started a fire. We also heard crazy statistics about the results of the first few weeks storms on mainland Australia this summer: a few thousand people needing to go to the hospital for asthma related symptoms, and over a million bolts of lightning striking the ground.