Thursday 12 June 2025

Into the most uncomfortable 4WD safari vehicle, (a Toyota not a Merc) for a 2 and a half hour trail through the countryside. The vehicle itself was actually ok, but the placement of the seat belt receiver was so badly placed that we all took our seat belts off very quickly. That didn’t actually help a lot because the receiver was still there and still digging into us all. But, hey, we’re in the outback. Some of us were probably thinking that it might have been more comfortable to have been thrown out the back.

We are lead on the safari by jovial Mark (and it becomes quickly apparent that it’s only his second season here and he’s still quite green) and Frankie, a local man who speaks to us in language, with Mark translating. From a well learned script.

This was a working cattle station until the early 2000’s and evidence of such is all around.

One of these vehicles below belongs to the Lodge, the others are scattered around the vast property, which is part of these wonderful wetlands

Our safari is composed of frequent stops, and we disembark to learn from Frankie which trees are used for the large canoes, those which are stripped of bark for the smaller canoes, how ant nests are used for fire, which fruits are edible and which are medicinal, etc etc

There are heaps of wild buffalo, horses and cattle which are remnants of the pastoral lands. There are also wallaby, dingoes, pigs and cats but we didn’t see them.

Our safari finished with a visit to the art studio, where Frankie painted a goanna on his arm

Cherrie was incredibly slack and painted absolutely nothing

Back to the ranch for lunch and then a glorious swamp-boat (flat bottom boat with propeller) cruise on the actual swamp. The variety of flora and fauna is vast. This is a peaceful 90 minutes with a very informative guide, Lachlan, at the wheel accompanied by local man Graham, who again spoke in language. Lachlan is a great interpreter and clearly passionate about this environment and admired by the locals.

Graham is incredibly eagle eyed and spots not just one, but two crocs. These are salt water crocodiles, even though this is a fresh water swamp. Self Improvement Thursday: Salty’s can live in freshwater, Freshy’s can’t live in saltwater.

Look carefully above and you’ll see a croc lying in front of the buffalo, cunningly disguised as mud. But that’s lethal mud that is.

Back at the ranch Cherrie takes a walk around

Greg has had a couple of days off but joined us for dinner. Nothing stops Greg talking though, even a delicious meal.