Ah, my first Australian "goanna". This beautiful lizard was spotted along the side of a dirt road by our Australian friends Martin Cohen and Julia Cooper. Sand monitors range throughout nearly all of Australia, but normally they don't let you get quite this close.

Australian monitor lizards are often called "goannas". The word "goanna" is believed to be an old corruption of "iguana", probably given by early European travellers who were familiar with the common iguanas of the Americas but were not familiar with other large lizards.

Martin and Julia now run Wild About Australia, so others can benefit from their wildlife expertise as I did.

Here is a complete list of the reptiles and frogs I saw on this trip to Australia.

Sand monitors abound on the red sand desert around Shark Bay on Australia's west coast. We probably saw twenty or so in less than four days. The one pictured here is on the berm of the dirt track leading to Eagle Bluff. It warily let me take this photo from my car window, but when I tried to get out of the car it raced off.

Here is a complete list of the reptiles and frogs I saw on this trip to Western Australia.

Another roadside goanna. This one is a moment away from disappearing into its burrow along the side of one of the four-wheel-drive tracks on the Peron peninsula.

These two were among the many goannas hanging out on or near the grounds of the old Peron Homestead.