NW WA Tour - Kakadu

Monday 18 July – Darwin – Kakadu

Bags Before Breakfast (BBB) this morning and after breakfast TTT (teeth, tablets, toilet) before we were on our way.

These little double barred finches had a nest just at the front door of the hotel.

Our first stop was at the Territory Wildlife Park. Here I chose to catch the train to the wetland walk so had the area all to myself before any one else arrived. Within 5 minutes I'd seen a fresh water crocodile, about 12 pelicans, a wallaby, turtles and a swamp hen.

King Brown at the visitor centre

I then went through the aquarium, again the first visitor of the morning. The displays were most informative and diverse and even included a wide range of waterplants from the top end.

As I continued my walk I came to the dingo area where a keeper was talking to Alan (our driver) and another visitor whilst feeding angler fish and turtles in the moat around the enclosure. He was able to answer questions I had on some of the plants as well.

Alan and I then hopped onto the train as it came around the circuit and joined all the other visitors at the Flight Deck bird display. We were treated to very active fly-overs by a jabiru, black kite (who used a stone to break an emu egg), a barn owl, a brahmini kite and an osprey. We also had a Curlew walk in for his feed.

A quick walk back for some food and a bit of a sit before we boarded the bus to continue on to Kakadu. Just before the Mary River we saw 3 jabiru in a paddock and I later saw two red-tailed black cockatoos take off as we passed. On the banks of the South Alligator River we saw 2 salt water crocodiles (salties), one of which was quite large.

After a quick drive around the township of Jabiru we found the road to the Bowali Visitor Centre. When Garry took me there a few years ago it was closed so it was great to get there this time.

On again to Cooinda to check into the Lodge, settle in and head to dinner. Tonight I had barramundi but it was a bit to late for me to eat it all.

Tuesday 19 July

After breakfast this morning we drove out to Nourlangie Rock where we had two hours to walk the track and drink in the aboriginal artwork and natural rock formations. The whole experience allowed us to “hear the distance” and sometimes even to see the distance.

While we were enjoying a drink and a piece of fruit for morning tea at the end of the walk we were “serenaded” by a group of blue-winged kookaburras. They sound a bit like a tree full of roosting ibis, nothing like our more southern laughing kookaburras.

The other entertainment was the green tree ants. Their nests and habits were most interesting but I did decline to eat one. Apparently they tasted quite like lime.

Back for lunch and a few hours off at the lodge before our Yellow Waters evening cruise.

The Yellow Waters were full of wildlife including egrets of four sorts, a spoonbill, cormorants, jabiru, magpie geese, jacana, nankeen night heron, bee eaters, azure kingfisher, crocodiles, burdekin ducks with chicks, whistling ducks, wallabies, brolga, horses and cattle.

The salvinia which was choking the water is being treated with an introduced weevil as biological control. This seems to be working.

The amazing plants were the lotus, cane grass, bamboo and pandanus.

After an awesome sunset and full moon rise on the water we headed back to the lodge to settle in and have dinner (very late again).