Wildlife Tourism Field Trips in the Top End October 2013

Photos courtesy of Araucaria Ecotours

The girl seemed to point to this old boat, but ours, the Sea Darwin, was behind it.

This looked better!

Sea Darwin networking sunset cruise

I got a fright when the lady pointed out the boat

‘We’re sailing in THAT???’

But what I was looking at was an Indonesian vessel once used for ‘people smuggling’ and now used for army exercises.

The Sea Darwin was the lovely little boat just behind it.

We were soon on our way with captain Jim Smith, who kindly donated proceeds for this networking evening with Sea Darwin to Wildlife Tourism Australia as his sponsorship for the workshop. He also offered discounts to delegates for other cruises before and after the workshop.

Jim Smith of Sea Darwin

As we bumped and splashed through the waves I remarked to one of the delegates it was more exhilarating than any of the rides I took my grandson on at the Gold Coast theme parks

on our way on the Sea Darwin!

Along the way we stopped to pick up vice chair Denise Goodfellow and her adopted daughter-in-Law Stephanie, originally from Arnhem Land, once a very active member of her community but now disabled by a genetic illness

Stephanie Nganjmirra Thompson and Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow

Ready for a barefoot walk on the sand

exploring the beach

Wildlife included a darter, a reef egret (or reef heron), blue-winged kookaburra, brahminy kite  and lots of hermit crabs scurrying around in their borrowed mollusc shells

darter on rock

reef egret

hermit crab

blue-winged kookaburra

Soon we were learning to extract and spin fibres for weaving from native hibiscus …

toes are used for securing while spinning

… socialising with drinks and nibbles …

… and learning to throw spears

and were entertained by the didgeridoo (although it has a different name here) on the way back to Darwin

Fogg Dam

Next morning some of us headed out early to Fogg Dam for birdwatching, led by Denise Goodfellow and Experience the Wild‘s Mike Jarvis

magpie goose on road

The Experience the Wild vehicle

Denise introducing us to features of the forest

brolga – Australia’s crane

comb-crested jacanas

pigmy geese

whistling ducks

whistling kite

agile wallaby

dragon

Pudakul

Then it was off to the Pudakul Indigenous culture centre

greeting ceremony

Learning to extract fibres for weaving from the pandanus tree

Some of these woven items, all coloured with natural dyes, can take weeks to produce, explaining the high price of venue Indigenous souvenirs in the region

Two of our new WIldlife Tourism Australia committee members (Fiona and Maree) have a go at it

More lessons in spear-throwing

Listening to Graham talk about local Indigenous culture

Graham introduced us to two kinds of didgeridoo (I have forgotten the correct local name for the didg)

Wildlife Tourism Australia secretary Peter Wood having a go with the slapsticks

some natural dyes

A delicious meal cooked underground

Many thanks Pudakul for this great experience!

Arnhem Land and Kakadu

We had to rise at 3.00am to reach the Alligator River crossing well before high tide – no way did we want to be stuck there halfway across with waters rising and saltwater crocodiles swimming around us!

We did of course want to see the crocs though, so we stopped on the Kakadu side of the river to look for them from a safe vantage point high on the bank. We weren’t disappointed. Several of them were either resting on the shore or in the water.