We had a wake up call this morning at 7.00am – a chap knocking on the door saying “breakfast”. There are no phones, no TV’s, nothing except the bed and a chair in the room. When I opened my eyes, it was if I was looking at a widescreen TV in front of me – the wetlands and animals were just there, outside the cabin. There was a whole herd of buffalo that decided to move from the back of our cabin to the front – right outside the door. I think we’ll wait for them before attempting breakfast, The wallabies are also hopping right past the cabin – a family of three stop just outside, with the little one suckling from the mother. They are very kind and pose as I venture outside and get a bit closer to take a photograph.
Breakfast is a fairly informal affair, with mostly cold meats and pastries, but a hot bacon and egg tart. Loads of fruit and yoghurt, and freshly made bread for toast. Quite sufficient.
We get on the airboats at around 8.00am for our first trip out. They are only a matter of a couple of hundred yards away from the front decking, but as there are several hundred buffalo between us and them we have to get in the safari vehicles and drive all the way round to get to the water. In the wet season the water comes right up to the lodge, but further into the dry season it almost dries up completely. We are given ear defenders to wear whilst the fan is on full, as it is really noisy.
As we meander downstream, the amount of birds and the different varieties is amazing. No need to do any spotting – they are everywhere. Eagles up in the trees, kingfishers, heron, jesus birds (they walk on water) – we have all been given little booklets in the room if we wanted to tick off all the species we see. Can’t be bothered with that – might have done if they had pictures in there as well, so I could look and see what they looked like.
We drove about for a couple of hours, then we parked up in a forest of trees that looked as though we had arrived at Middle Earth. I expected Bilbo Baggins to appear at any minute. It was billed as “Kingfisher Café”. We then had tea and cakes – well what else in the middle of the Mary River Wetlands? It was so peaceful – only the noise of the birds could be heard. Until Justin got out his didgereedo that is. A very fine specimen – and he made a good noise. Some in our boat could, and some couldn’t. Anyone guess who was the one who couldn’t? I did try several times, but just couldn’t get the hang of it.
We got back to the lodge at around 11.30am – just enough time for a bit of relaxation before lunch was served on the deck, Prawn risotto, and more freshly baked bread. It really was lovely, then came out the home made vanilla gelato. Perfect.
It was a really lazy afternoon, by the pool and in the cabin just animal and bird watching. The afternoon safari left at 4.30pm, and we had Lauren to guide us. We drove out the back of the lodge and looked at some weird tree specimens. There was a weird beetle that drilled a hole in a dying tree, and then cut out a little door around it. The whole tree was full of little doors. We also saw a green ant nest made of leaves and hundreds of the little buggers marching up and down, and getting very angry that they had been disturbed. Lauren offered us some to eat – and promptly ate one herself. Very tangy – citrusy. So I am led to believe – I didn’t partake.
We then parked by a billabong, where there was literally hundreds of wallabies bouncing about. Beer and campari came out – so that may have been an exaggeration of my recollection of how many wallabies there really were. We then got back to camp just before the sun went down – and it was once again beautiful. Why do they have such stunning sunsets here? Every night.
The lodge had had more guests arrive during the day, so we were now at capacity of eighteen. We only had ten for dinner last night, so the table grew a bit longer. The meal was excellent again – steak for main course that must have been almost two inches thick. Diet will start again tomorrow – maybe!
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