Corroboree Billabong-Northern Territory

On By Coral WaightIn Australia, Northern Territory, Travel

For my second day in Darwin, I organised a full day tour in the Mary River National Park, including a 2.5 hour cruise through the wetlands of Corroboree Billabong.

Our first stop was Fogg Dam Nature Reserve, originally set up as a large scale rice-growing project in the 1950s, but now a massive floodplain, and a haven for a variety of birds and animals.

Fogg Dam Nature Reserve

A wallaby quietly digging for his lunch

I wonder if the ducks realise there are crocodiles in the water

We stopped for a loo break in the Monsoon Forest. I would have loved to have done the forest walk, it looked so pretty, but sadly there wasn’t enough time.

Our guide (who’s name I so wish I could remember) was great fun and very knowledgeable about all things Top End, especially with his description of termite mounds. Termites live in colonies and build large mounds which keep the temperature and humidity just right for themselves and the fungi they live with. Very clever little characters.

We stopped at an actual outback pub, the Corroboree Park Tavern, to pick up our picnic lunches for the cruise. The hotel has camping facilities, along with a variety of animals, including enclosures for their own water buffalo and a massive crocodile, which was hiding at the time.

At last we arrived at the jetty for our cruise.

Corroboree Billabong

Egret

Jabirus

I was hoping to see a Brolga but missed out.

Water Buffalo were introduced to the Northern Territory in the 1800s and are now considered a pest.

Water Buffalo

No shortage of ducks

It was so peaceful, meandering through a sea of gigantic waterlilies.

This little guy’s toes splay out so he can walk lightly from one pad to another.

Picnic lunch on out Wetlands Tour

We hadn’t seen any crocodiles by lunchtime and I was a bit worried I was going to miss out, but then a ‘freshy’ (freshwater crocodile) glided past.

Freshwater crocodile

And then a massive head appeared and disappeared again.

And then my day was made. We came upon a  ‘salty’ (saltwater croc) having a snooze on the bank, his tail in the water to keep cool.

Saltwater crocodile

Isn’t he/she just magnificent?Eventually he got sick of us hanging around clicking our cameras at him, and with a flick of his tail he faced the other way and was gone.

Another ‘Salty’ having a snooze on the riverbank

We slowly made our way back to the jetty for the 90 minute drive back to Darwin. I loved my day in the Northern Territory wetlands.

16 thoughts on “Corroboree Billabong-Northern Territory”

  1. Corroboree billabong is a magnificent place isn’t it! So much birdlife and those crocs. We were lucky to have a friend in Darwin who took us fishing for the day out there and we were lucky to scoot through some of the smaller branches of the billabong to see all the beautiful water lillies. A really unique place to visit.

    Like

    Reply

  5. Loved the birds, as we don’t have those down south. Ever since watching the movie, ‘In Bruges’ I’ve been wanting to go there and see it for myself. Thanks to your post on Bruges and Ghent which I’ve recently reread, I now want to go even more. Not sure what’s going on over there, though. I’m reading stuff about digital vax passports, etc, so it all seems a bit off-putting.

    Like

    Reply

  7. Thanks for sharing this adventure. I have visited the Northern Territory only once with my late husband. It’s like no place else. Good to see Darlene commenting. She was one of my very first followers in 2011.

    And thank you again for subscribing to my bog.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks, Judith. The Northern Territory certainly is different to anywhere else I’ve been in Australia. Hope to do a bit more adventuring up there in the future – a stay at Uluru, hopefully. Cheers.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment