Judy & Brian Tour Oz

Hhhhh? What's that noise? Oh. It's 530am and we need to get ready and do the bolt asap. We have to drive the 50km or so back to Cooinda to catch the sunrise tour that leaves at 630. The rule is never drive in the dark. Well, for those of you who have never seen 530am o'clock, it is dark, very dark. Judy drove cautiously and carefully and it's just as well as the 'roo we did see was standing right on the road nibbling away at something and was not inclined to move. Then there was the snake, which we missed but it may have already gone to chat with the Great Serpent. The boat ride out onto the Billabong and out into the river and wetlands was really good, better than previous ones. I reckon that if they had Kakadu Bird Spotto cards we might well have ticked them all off! Here's a bit of a list: Jabiru (Black necked stork to you), wandering and plumed whistling ducks, magpie geese by the truckload, egrets; little, intermediate, great and cattle, White-bellied S...

Up early, 6am, for the sunrise billabong cruise. Even though we did this cruise, during the day, last year, it was still a very pleasant way to spend a few hours and learn a bit more about the flora and fauna from our well informed tour guide. Highlight had to be the new female croc in the pond who took quite an interest in our boat, swimming out to us and hanging about, probably looking for a feed! The guide reckoned it was new up from the salt water as its colourings were quite bright and not yet covered in algae. We also came across Boss Croc in whose pond we were sailing. The guides and rangers keep telling everyone how crocodiles learn human (and other animal) behaviour prior to making a strike. Such things as putting a boat in the river every day at the same time, checking lobster pots everyday at the same time, walking their favourite 4 legged food along the river bank every day at the same time etc. Now it strikes us as odd that given that behaviour, they continue to load 5 b...