By Jeffrey Landi

Australia is loaded with crazy wildlife. I read recently that 80% of all living things in Oz exist nowhere else in the world. It's actually one of the very alluring qualities of this vast country - the hope that you'll encounter creatures never seen before in a totally raw setting. Well, my wife and I spent 5 weeks in Australia last October as part of our 8 month trip around the world. We flew into Darwin in Australia's "top end", fully excited to visit the famous Kakadu National Park, a large area of stunning beauty and Aboriginal history. We were fresh out of Nepal and Thailand where my wife, Shana, had some unfortunate encounters with some Asian local wildlife in the form of bloodsucking leaches (one even hung from her throat - a fabulous pictorial!). Needless to say, Shana wasn't looking forward to too many more intimate meetings with locals of this type.

Australia's diverse wildlife was evident even from the main street in Darwin, where large fruitbats routinely shot out of the trees and people were feeding the possums (which are, incidentally, far cuter and more docile than the crazy devil possums we have here in the States). Two days after arriving in Darwin we were booked on a 3 day/2 night camping trip to Kakadu. 8 people of totally different backgrounds boarded the back of a 4X4 for the 3 hour trip to the park. It was going to be an exciting three days for sure!

Our guide, Andy, was a well-spoken and affable Aussie who's been guiding trips to Kakadu for years. He was about what I expected for this type of adventure; very laid back, funny, and constantly shoeless.

The group was beginning to get to know each other as we zoomed 80 miles an hour down the two lane highway. The landscape on the way to the park was fairly desolate, or so it appeared. I couldn't see anything of interest anyway. But all of a sudden Andy cranked the truck over to the side of the road, sending us flying in the back. Wondering what the hell happened, the next thing we saw was Andy sprinting across the street into the bush (shoeless, of course) and over to a tree, where he started rustling something out of the branches. "Come on over," he called. Intrigued, the eight of us walked over to see what was up.

In Andy's hands was a large green thing with a very long tail. It was a frilled lizard, one of those prehistoric looking reptiles that pops out a big hood around its head when threatened. This lizard was awesome, so ancient looking. Damn, Andy was good. This creature seemed to blend perfectly with the trees, and he spotted it passing by at 80 MPH. Andy spent a few minutes telling us about the lizard, allowing us a prime photo op. When he decided the animal had experienced enough stress for the day, he put it down on the ground to let it go, and we backed up to give it some room. Obviously confused, the lizard started to move erratically, then began crawling...towards Shana. She started to slowly move away, but the lizard kept moving towards her. Then she started to walk faster, and at that point an amazing thing happened... The lizard jumped onto its two hind legs and started running after her! Now we've all seen footage of this on TV, the lizard that can run across water on two legs to avoid a watery predator. But this was happening for real, and the target was my wife! Andy called out to Shana to stop running away (not sure if this was a joke in hindsight, but we're pretty certain). She did stop, and our frilled friend jumped on the back of her legs, crawling up to her back with mouth slightly agape. Shana stood in horror, a statue of fear, just squeaking for Andy to take it off. As cameras flashed wildly (including my own), Andy assured Shana with a laugh that the lizard is harmless, barely has teeth. As if on a stage, the lizard heightened the drama by climbing up to Shana's head and flaring it's frill out for the cameras. We were absolutely dying with laughter.

Finally, enough was enough and I helped Andy remove the dinosaur from Shana's troubled noggin. After a memorable two minute sequence, the lizard scooted off into the brush and we continued on our merry way, fully confident in the fact that we were going to have a GREAT three days in Kakadu. Naturally, Shana thought a bit differently at that moment. But she proved once again that she's a great sport (as well as a favorite target for bizarre creatures), and we did have an incredible trip. Kakadu is truly a very special place.