Another early start this morning as we have a cruise along the Billabong – which actually means a static body of water. It is only about 1km from the lodge but we were taken down in a massive off road people carrier which seemed a little over the top for just the four of us. As soon as we got on the water we saw some crocodiles, this billabong has both freshwater and saltwater crocs which is unusual as they normally don’t co-exist in the same area but apparently it is a sign of the abundance of food in the area that they can, it is also the most populated (with crocs) waterway in the world, again because of the amount of food available. Having seen both saltwater and freshwater crocs together we can now tell the difference, the freshwater crocodile has a long thin snout whereas the saltwater one has a wider snout with a bulbous end, the other main difference is that freshwater will only eat things they can swallow whole whereas the saltwater one will eat anything it can catch! Further downriver we saw magpie geese again but this time they were sitting in the trees, not sure I have ever seen that before, we also saw some birds that look like cormorants but were actually called snake neck darters, the reason for the name is they have very long necks and once they are in the water they just lift their head and neck above water both to take a breath and also to check their surroundings. They don’t ‘catch’ the fish they actually spear it with their beaks then eat it above the water, they don’t have the oils on their feathers that resist the water so they spend a lot of time on the banks drying out their feathers if they didn’t do this they would sink! We also saw a number of whistling ducks and some purple swamp hens which have a blueish sheen. Finally we saw a couple of storks which were massive and some Jesus birds – so called because they look like they can walk on water but it is more because they have very large feet and can distribute their weight. All too soon it was time to turn round and come back to the lodge for breakfast. We decided that we will have a ‘day off’ today as we have a long drive tomorrow so after breakfast we took our books to the pool and sat watching the wildlife for the day. We had a great day, reading and swimming then went back to the room to have a shower before coming back for something to eat, I did try Kangaroo last night and it was actually quite nice, a bit like steak, the only problem is that it is only on the starter menu so if I have that, a main course and a desert I am absolutely stuffed so I probably won’t bother tonight. Its also quite difficult eating Kangaroo whilst watching the Wallabies bounce around outside the restaurant.
