WEDNESDAY 31 MAY     LITCHFIELD

We had been given another day off today.

I made us sandwiches for lunch, at the cafe, and grabbed some cans  of cool drinks too.

We took French John with us, after clearing stuff off the one back seat of the Truck, and drove the dirt back road, to the Territory Wildlife Park at Berry Springs.

We had loved the Park at Alice Springs, on our visits there, and  had not been to this one before.

It was, of course, totally different to the Central Australian one, featuring the wetlands and environment of the Top End, rather than arid lands. But the principle was similar – a whole lot of different exhibits. We walked  around the various exhibits, then caught the little internal transport “train” between them.

Like its arid counterpart, one could spend a whole day here. We spent hours here.

Sawfish – from below

I was really taken by the side-on view into a freshie croc pool, where a croc was actually standing on the rocky bottom, with just its snout poking out of the water. Saved it the effort of floating, I guessed.

There was, of course, a featured saltwater crocodile on show, and we were lucky enough to actually see baby crocs hatching from their eggs.

We walked a path around a wetland lagoon area, and another by a billabong.

At the water’s edge, not far from the path, saw a freshie croc, very well camouflaged amongst the dead leaves floating on the surface of the water.

Ate our sandwich lunch at the picnic area by the entrance gate, then got back on the train to go to another section, to see the birds of prey feeding display. My favourite there was the barking owl. We had so often heard them at night, over the past few years up north, but so rarely saw them.

Got back to camp  about 5pm.

Happy hour was spent telling M all about our day out – and her filling us in on the day’s happenings  here.