Another spectacular sunrise from the comfort of our bed. I wish I could wake up to this every morning – but unfortunately this is to be the last one. After breakfast, on to the air boats for the last time. This time we have Al as our guide – he is also the Manager of the property. He has been here six months – and his girlfriend is the Manager of the Southern Palms on Kangaroo Island, another one on my tick list!
I don’t think I would ever tire of this trip – it is always refreshing, always slightly different from the last one, and constantly abundant in birdlife. The whole flood plain is overgrown with grass at the end of the wet season, when Bamarru is closed. When they open in February, they have to cut down tracks that the air boats can go through, although they can travel over reeds and grasses to a certain degree. As the waters recede, the grasses are exposed more to the sun, and are dying off. The open waters are full of lilies and lily pads; blues, whites and pinks. They are beautiful when they are in flower, but so many of them are now dying off as the waters go down. There are whole meadows of huge lily pads and massive heads that are brown and dead. Reminds me of the journey to see the Wizard of Oz through the poppy fields! Al then broke off one of the dead heads, and got out some “nuts” that are edible. They taste like chestnuts. If we break down out here, we won’t go hungry! We then wandered into Kingfisher Café – or KFC for short. This truly does look like a scene from another world. It is so peaceful, so serene and the reflections on the water are like mirrors. The only thing that spoils it is the mossies. I now have several bites, on most parts of my body. They obviously haven’t read the instructions on the insect repellent cans that says they won’t come near you when you have that on! We have our morning tea and cakes, and see one of the White Bellied Sea Eagles – the largest bird of prey in Australia. Magnificent bird – and my pictures come out rather good. I just needed the practice! We also saw another couple of birds of prey – a Brown Falcon and a Whistling Kite. The kite was high up on a tree – and did the biggest projectile poo I have ever seen. Should have been ready with the camera for that one.
On the way back we saw another Jabiru, and I actually got some shots of her (I know it was a her because she had yellow eyes. The male has black eyes) taking off with her wingspan in all its glory. I love this holiday! We also went through a couple of flocks of birds that all took off simultaneously – there must have been a couple of thousand of them altogether. An amazing sight. They were going away from us thankfully – I wouldn’t want to take my chances under that lot. We got back to the lodge, and walked back over the plain. The buffalo were further down, so it was deemed safe again to walk.
After another good lunch it was time to pack up and set off for the journey back to Darwin. We had to share the aircraft this time with three other people – and it turned out to be smaller than the one we came out on! Paul nabbed the front seat again, and four of us were in the back of what seemed smaller than a mini backseat. We wouldn’t fall out if the doors flew off – we were wedged in good and proper. The journey took just over 30 minutes again, and we landed at Darwin Airport with all the big aeroplanes!
The aviation company took us to the Medina Grande Waterfront – our home for one night with a washing machine and tumble dryer. Wrong. We tried to check in, and the hotel was overbooked so we were out. They had moved us to the Mantra Esplanade – a three bedroomed apartment, also with washing machine and tumble drier. It was really nice, and not a great problem. I got them to pay for the taxi in the morning to get to the airport as compensation. As soon as we got in, the cases were emptied and the washing started. Doesn’t seem so much like a holiday now! When we had the first wash on and in the tumble drier, we walked out to Mitchell Street and had fish and chips in the paper. Not quite like the English version – shark and chips! It was a bit different from what we had been used to, but filled a hole. The hotel backs onto Mitchell Street, so is in a really good location. Mitchell Street was buzzing – unlike us that had to go back to the room to do the rest of the washing!
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