About three-quarters of an hour's drive north of Mitchell -- on the Forest Vale Road -- there's a waterway called Worlds End Creek. When in drought, this semi-arid creek bed would seem like the end of the world, especially if you'd run out of water. That's my interpretation, anyway!
A little north of this dry creek bed we stopped the car to look at a dead python squashed on the bitumen. It was a 2 m long carpet python with attractive patterned skin. No doubt it was sunning itself on the bitumen -- a dangerous place to be.
A kilometre further down the road was a sand goanna, also sunning itself on the bitumen. After stopping to photograph the reptile we eased it off the bitumen and onto a safer grassy verge. Amazed by how quiet it was, I let my eyes run over its handsome patterned skin, so like an exotic Persian rug. What a remarkable prehistoric looking creature.
Two wedge-tailed eagles rose up into the air from a freshly killed kangaroo. With mighty wings flapping they left behind the 'roo carcass, but I guessed they would return.
There is no doubt about it, a large number of animals, birds and reptiles are killed by cars on our roads. By reducing speed it's possible to avoid many of these collisions, so that's what we try to do. In addition, and wherever possible, it's wise to avoid travelling at dawn, dusk and during the night.
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