The Blue Mountains are not just great for hiking; they also contain a lot of Australian wildlife.

Short-beaked Echidna

Sometimes you’re just lucky. The very first animal on our very first hike in Australia turned out to be an Echidna, the egg-laying hedgehog lookalike, nephew of the platypus. It was early in the afternoon, not a common time for these animals to be running around, but this one was friendly enough to show its beak.

Lyrebird

What has two wings and sounds like a computer game? The lyrebird is common around the Blue Mountains, and is apparently great at mimicking other sounds. We were convinced that some kid was playing computer games further along the road, but is was just a lyrebird trying to impress a female:

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo

It’s funny how exotic animals can suddenly turn into ‘ordinary’ animals. The cockatoo can be found everywhere in the Blue Mountains. It makes annoying screeches, and sometimes many many cockatoos decide to start screeching at the same time. It makes the forest sound quite jungle-y.

Eastern Water Dragon

This lizard is quite big, so I was surprised when mrs Pirate just walked past without noticing this eastern water dragon. It did not like us coming too close, but was friendly enough for some professional posing.

And so much more

And these are just the animals that were kind enough to pose for some perfect pictures. So expect more wildlife pictures in the near future.