Kakadu Wildlife Adventure - an exclusive Australian Geographic Travel Experience

After an early pick up from your Darwin accommodation we’ll head eastwards into the tropical outback. The road from Darwin to Jabiru is sealed for its entire length and makes for very easy travelling. On the way we’ll stop at a number of beautiful locations including Fogg Dam (part of the Adelaide River floodplain) where we’ll take our first walk into a monsoon forest and view some fantastic birdlife and wildlife of the Northern Territory. Continuing east we cross a number of the huge rivers that drain the tropical wilderness including the Mary River where we might see our first crocodile. We enter Kakadu National Park and stop at Mamukala Wetland and take a walk to get our first taste of the tropical wonders of Kakadu. We’ll end the day in the small town of Jabiru and move into our accommodation. Accommodation: Anbinik Jabiru (3 nights total). Our price includes wonderful Double or Twin Share accommodation in Anbinik Suites, private en-suite and air-conditioned. Meals: Lunch and Dinner Potential wildlife sightings today: Fogg Dam and Mamukala Wetlands are famed for waterbirds including Brolga Crane, Glossy Ibis, Magpie Goose, Black-necked Stork (Jabiru), Wandering & Plumed Whistling-ducks, egrets, herons, pratincoles and many more including finches, herons, raptors & honeyeaters. We may see crocodiles, pythons, lizards, dragonflies and butterflies. Vegetation varies from savannah woodlands to monsoon rainforest and wetlands.

The Nourlangie region will be our first access to the magnificent Arnhem Land escarpment and its unique wildlife. It also helps us to understand the enormous importance of Kakadu to the Aboriginal People. Ancient sandstone ranges rise directly out of the Kakadu floodplains in a landscape that epitomises the Dreamtime in Australia. We take an early morning walk out to the Nanguluwur Rock Art site in search of the black wallaroo, a wide variety of bird life and some amazing Rock Art. We visit Anbangbang Billabong in the late morning to look for crocodiles, some agile wallabies and likely a massive number of water birds. After a lunch and a siesta to see out the heat of the day, we return to the Nourlangie Rock Art site – this last site contains some of the most powerful Aboriginal paintings in Australia including a depiction of Namarrgon, the Lightning Man. You will begin to feel the incredible power of this landscape. We then return to Jabiru for dinner. Accommodation: Anbinik Jabiru Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Potential wildlife sightings on tour today: Our walk to Nanguluwur early this morning can yield an incredible array of bush birds ranging from tiny finches to the large Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. Rare Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeons may come to drink at a small spring near the rock art site and we may see Partridge Pigeons and Red-winged Parrots. At Nourlangie we often see Emerald Doves and sometimes Sandstone Shrike-thrush. A highlight of this location may be the sighting of Black Wallaroos, a localised mid-size kangaroo unique to this region. Anbangbang Billabong is host to a myriad of waterbirds, many species of water lilies and Estuarine Crocodiles (one day we watched a crocodile hunt and kill a pelican at this location).

Many who visit Ubirr come away as different people. It is possibly the most beautiful place in Kakadu with some of the most compelling wilderness landscapes on earth. It has a presence that takes humans back to their beginnings. Nearby the tidal (saltwater) section of the East Alligator River bounds the vast Aboriginal lands of Arnhem Land – to go any further requires special permission. But on the Kakadu side there is a wide variety of activities to choose from including gentle walks near the river, views of elaborate Aboriginal Rock Art sites or a climb to the top of Ubirr Rock with its stunning views across Kakadu. We’ll also take the Bardedjilidji Sandstone walk which takes us deep into some of Kakadu’s most remarkable geological formations where we learn how the Kakadu Escarpment was formed millions of years ago. Another highlight of the day is taking an Aboriginal guided boat tour out into the wilderness of the East Alligator River. For nearly two hours this remarkable tour follows the river beside brilliantly coloured sandstone escarpments and provides a full commentary by a local Aboriginal guide about the significance of Arnhem Land to Aboriginal People. At the end of the day, we visit the Bowali Cultural Centre to learn even more about the Indigenous, European and Natural World of Kakadu, before heading back to Jabiru to hopefully watch huge numbers of corellas return to roost and thousands of flying foxes head off to forage for the night. Accommodation: Anbinik Jabiru (last night here) Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Potential wildlife sightings today: The Ubirr region is one of the few places where it is possible to see the dainty Short-eared Rock-wallaby. There are also occasional sightings of the Black Wallaroo. Estuarine Crocodiles are common in the East Alligator River and surrounding billabongs. Some special birds are the Blue-winged Kookaburra, Brolga, Pheasant Coucal and Peaceful Dove amongst many others. The town of Jabiru is rich in wildlife especially around Lake Jabiru. We often see very large colonies of both Little Red and Black Flying Foxes flying out for the evening, huge flocks of Little Corellas coming into roost, occasional Partridge Pigeons and many species of finches.

An early morning departure from Jabiru is in order this morning to enable us to get to Mary River National Park, where we will board a magnificent boat cruise on the Corroboree Billabong, one of over a dozen billabongs in the region formed when the Mary River dries up in winter. On this 1.5 hour cruise, we have great chances to see huge flocks of magpie geese, black necked storks and even more estuarine crocodiles. A picnic lunch at Howard Springs, before returning to Darwin, where we will visit East Point Reserve to look for the Beach Stone Curlew and Pacific Reef Egret along the sandstone cliffs and shorelines. From here, it is just a short drive to your hotels to end the tour. Meals: Breakfast and Lunch Potential wildlife sightings today: Corroboree Billabong is fantastic for great numbers of magpie geese, brolgas, black necked storks and waterfowl. There are also chances to see agile wallabies and estuarine crocodiles sunning themselves on the muddy banks. East Point reserve is great for both dark and light morph Pacific Reef Egrets, Beach Stone Curlews, Black Butcherbirds and Collared sparrowhawks. There are sometimes yellow spotted monitors milling around, too.