The Great Pouched Critter Safari of 2025
Logistics
Master Species List (below)
Links to Other Segments and to Related Galleries
Expedition to Tasmania (Segment 1)
Expedition to South Australia (Segment 2)
Expedition to Queensland (Segment 3)
Expedition to Northern Territory (Segment 4)
Expedition to Western Australia (Segment 5)
Bird Species List and Bird Gallery Links for the Entire Expedition to Australia
Transportation and Lodging
Out of the 54 days on this expedition, I slept in my rental cars most of the time. Not all mini-SUV’s are created equal however - see the images below for brief commentary. Sleeping in the car not only allowed for a massive savings of money, it allowed total freedom for me to keep going when I wanted and stop when I wanted. The good news is Australia is generally very safe and of all the places I parked my car and got some zzzz’s I never felt I was in any sort of danger at all. While I did not sleep in any cringy neighborhoods, I did sleep in cities from time to time. I always opted for well-lit areas where other cars were parked overnight. Out in the bush, I parked anywhere I pleased for the most part. This allowed for some outstanding outdoor experiences, far from humanity. I don’t easily scare in nature so being alone in the bush was a very comfortable experience for me. But I do understand it may not be for everyone. Now, the fact that I was traveling alone made this mode of lodging possible. No way I would have tried this with my family.
There were a few nights planned with proper lodging. All of these pre-planned lodging options included mainly eco-lodges: Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge , Chambers, Mumbrumby Possum Valley were the only four I’d booked ahead of time. All of these offered outstanding wildlife experiences on site and made the decision to stay there logical. And surprisingly, while nothing is cheap in Australia, these awesome state-of-the-art ecolodges were often cheaper than more conventional options. Saving money was secondary to the freedom car-sleeping allowed me. When I found my targets and had my fill of a location, I could simply start the car and move on. Coversely I could stay a bit longer and not have to worry about trying for more reservations… And the cost of hotels in Australia….quite high. Well, perhaps about the same as the USA but having lived in Thailand as long as I have, paying $200 a night for something that would be about $17 here in Thailand is painful. And the closer you got to the airport there is an exponential increase in price. For example in Adelaide, the airport that literally kicked women and children out in to the freezing cold at night offered a nearby hotel charging a mere $500 a night. No joke.
I used East Coast Car Rentals for all of my segments for this trip. Their cars were generally fine, well maintained and their customer service was very good. I had many conversations in real time with their Facebook Messenger customer service app. There are two issues to consider with East Coast however. First is their off-site locations. Their rates are quite a bit cheaper than other companies as they are saving loads of money not having kiosks and rental car parking at the airports directly. Consequently you need to call them on arrival for a shuttle bus. So long as you are in their office hours there is really no issue at all - a call is followed by a 10-15minute wait and you’re on the way to the rental office. Now, this leads to perhaps the main issue I have with East Coast - their hours of operation. If you arrive after 7PM in any of the airports I visited, you would have to wait until the next morning at the soonest to get a car. They offer absolutely no late pickups. This was a major hassle for me causing me to sleep at airports on four occasions! (I wasn’t going to fork over $250-500 a night for a hotel that’s for damn sure!). And in locations like Darwin, they don’t open until 10AM! What the hell is that all about? Initially I had all of my flights booked at convenient times but as the trip approached every single leg of my journey experienced schedule changes resulting in loss of field time wasted at the airports….( I think a figured it was 2-3 full days lost with this BS). So think this through - I am thinking I did not save that much money when I consider the lost field time and extra expenses incurred at airports,e etc. simply waiting for East Coast to open.
Warning: I think all companies in Australia say they limit your use of their rental vehicles. Some say absolutely sealed roads only (which is absolutely impossible to abide by). Some simply say, don’t go crazy on the 4X4 tracks. I suspect if you were to have trouble on any of those sorts of roads, you’d be liable for any damages and your insurance may not work? I’m kinda guessing. I did use these mini-SUV’s intelligently but for sure I did some roads that were the only roads to my target areas and animals. No way did I go too far in to the wild outback though. The companies often give you a map that limits how far away from the rental city you can actually go as well. I was told no conventional rental car company would allow you to take your car on a circum-Australia mega road trip for example. Something to consider.
Rental #6 - Western Australia - Hyndai Tucson - by far the best option for me. Large interior, well designed ergonomically...
Rental #5 - Northern Territory - Hyndai Tucson - awesome car
Rental Car #3 - South Australia - Honda CRV - a bit small for me
Rental Car #1 - South Queensland - MG ZS - definitely too small for me
Rental Car #4 - Northern Queensland - - Toyota C-HR - wihtout a doubt a horrible car! Sadly I was stuck with this one for the longest leg of the expedition. So small, no leg room, no head room, sucked gasoline....
Nissan Rogue gear shift - all in the wrist!
Rental Car #2 - Tasmania - Nissan Rogue - generally good car. See the gear shift in the preceeding picture - took awhile to get used to but I actually ended up liking it a lot
Hard to tell by these pics but I had plenty of room for sleeping in my cars with the exception of the Toyota. I had a flawless system!
5-star baby!
Lodging
Kingfisher Park Birdwatchers Lodge
Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodge
Mungumby Lodge
Possum Valley
Triabunna Caravan Park
Typical Airport Sleeping....This one was Darwin International Terminal.
Comfy!
Brisbane International Terminal
Planning
So much goes in to planning for trips like this. From trip reports to biodiversity websites to experienced friends and contacts, there are so many sources of excellent information. I am sure I am not alone in branding myself as a MammalWatching.com junkie. I’ve been following the website since Jon Hall made it a thing so many years ago. Without a doubt, that website has cost me more money than I care to count. And every penny has been worth it! So MammalWatching is my first stop for information. Reading the many trip reports with a pen and paper at hand is my first step. For this trip, I probably had a dozen reports by as many people giving the details and experiences in the areas I was planning on visiting. Another awesome source of real-time information as well as pre-planning information was Australian Mammal Watching Facebook Group, which is a very active group full of experts on everything furry in Australia! They never tired of my constant requests for information. The info prior to the trip was gold in my planning. And the information I requested live while on the trip always generated immediate responses. Here is the long series of my requests for information filled with responses to give you an idea.
One cannot forget iNaturalist, perhaps the most useful website for wildlife watching in general on the planet. The data on that website when used in conjunction with the Google-Maps app is a great way to add success potential when searching for your target species. One limitation for Australian fauna however is many of the species are considered very rare and endangered, iNaturalist blurs their precise locations, I suppose for good reason. But for much of what I was looking for, using iNaturalist as a supplement for the data I gleaned from trip reports was very useful indeed. Now, ebird is another great app, although it is specifically bird-oriented. Often, when I exhausted my mammal targets and had a day to kill in a metropolitan area, I would go to ebird to see if there were any good hotspots in such cities as Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart…. Very useful and helped me get for example my final Spoonbill species - now I’ve seen them all!!
Local experts and friends: I had such awesome advice from my friends down under, such as Alan Gillanders, a world-class expert in Australian Flora and Fauna. Alan did in fact guide me for three half-days and made sure I nailed quite a few of the Atherton Highland species. The following were folks who helped me along the way from the pre-planning stage to the real-time in the field stages: Jon (Spiritually Australian) Hall, Ry Beaver, Iain Campbell, Keith Barnes, Ben Weil, David Diller, Craig Smith & Bret Hartl. I’m sure I’ve missed some but seriously, nothing beats local knowledge, especially from experts who’ve been there recently.
Food
I ate well although I ate food that would not have passed the “wife and daughter” test. I ate a lot of sandwiches with fresh coldcuts and lettuce and tomatoes, and decent bread, etc. Fresh ingredients. A lot of western fruits like apples, grapes and oranges, etc. I did eat some canned food which I heated using the vent heater in the car running at full blast for about 10 minutes while driving or parked. Never got hot but warm enough to be palatable. I ate fast food once - Hungry Jacks, which I believe to be Burger King in Australia. I ate a proper sit-down meal in South Australia with friends, but that was it! I did spend money for a proper cup of mocha every day and I would not change that for the world! Again, this was a strong positive for traveling on such an expedition alone. I am one of those wildlife-oriented travelers who often actually resents spending time eating three meals a day. I prefer graizing and eating when I am hungry and doing it quickly. An hour and half waiting for a restaurant lunch is something that drives me crazy actually. A nice dinner followed by spotlighting isn’t bad…
Costs
I think the issue that keeps many people from planning major trips to Australia is the costs of such an expedition. I sure do consider that a limiting factor for sure. Nowadays wildlife intensive trips tend to run about $300 to $500 USD a day at the very least. Not complaining as I know many guides in particular who are working a righteous job trying to make a living and I do like to support that every chance I can. Now a 54-day mega expedition to Australia can rack up a hell of a bill with a conventional trip. My trip on the otherhand ended up being a grand total of $7500 (all inclusive from Bangkok and back) ranging approximately $135 a day on average for the 54-day expedition. A bargain! I always weigh that I am giving up on a self-drive/guide trip like this. If I had a guide, I suspect I would have ended up with at least 10% more species, perhaps more. but considering that sort of professionally guided trip would range around $26,000 to $30,000 at least, I had no choice really. And I loved being on my own during this trip.
Communication
People have asked me how I got on being away from my family for so long. Good question! Actually, my “Alo eSIM” allowed me to have live conversations with my partner, son and daughter most of the day. If I had service, we’d have the phones on and we’d just carry on as if we were in the same room. Several hours a day! I know for westerners this is strange but here in Asia, it’s not unusual at all to keep the phone one while just carrying on about your day. Alo eSIM was ok overall. The service was a bit spotty in some locations. For example in Pine Creek and the Kimberly area, it was useless as it was connected to the “other” carrier. I’m not sure how you could ever know this during your planning stages really. It’s just kinda hit and miss.
My daily mocha! About $4-$6 and generally very good. It was a rare day when I was unable to find a nice cafe....
My essential gear - Guide Thermals
The gear table - time to make sure I didn't forget anything. I did though....
I always had one thermal completely charged and ready to go. I had three torches with 8 batteries, and chargers ready to plug in. Hyundai Tucson's have two lighter-portals that I have an adapter for that allows regular Thai-style three-pronged plugs.... Never ran out of batteries and when the car was running, something was charging!
A typical five to seven days worth of groceries mainly consumed cold or luke warm. Woolworths was my friend!
The price of the food in the cart in the previous image. This is about 2000 baht or $60 USD
Links to Other Segments and to Related Galleries
Expedition to Tasmania (Segment 1)
Expedition to South Australia (Segment 2)
Expedition to Queensland (Segment 3)
Expedition to Northern Territory (Segment 4)
Expedition to Western Australia (Segment 5)
Bird Species List and Bird Gallery Links for the Entire Expedition to Australia
Routes
Southwestern Australia - Segment #5
Northern Territory - Segment #4
Northern Queensland - Segment #3b
Southern Queensland - Segment #3a
South Australia - Segment #2
Tasmania - Segment #1