Tag along tour

What a day!

Yesterday was an incredible ‘tag along tour’ with Brian Lee, a local guide. We learned about bush tucker and medicine, including the Kakadu plum tree, which has a bark that can be used as an antihistamine. Considering how many mozzie bites Hugo has copped, that could yet be very valuable information…

The history of Kooljaman and the failed enterprise was sad to hear, and I don’t have high hopes of it coming back. The dream is to start big, though I just don’t see how they will have a revenue stream to support that from day one.

Anyway, everything was incredibly overgrown compared to our last visit. Really sad to see it in such a state of (almost) disrepair. We did get to look into one of the ‘glamping’ tents, which was spectacular.

Onward to collecting some sea shells on the beach, finding a very soft bit of sand to demonstrate the excellent ‘bogging’ capabilities of the fully loaded disco, and finally to the creek, which was mostly free of crocodiles, so safe to swim. The boys were in their absolute element here, and didn’t stop all day.

One highlight was the speed boat ride with ‘Bundy’ - screams of laughter / terror could be heard over the sound of the outboard motor from across the mangrove. We found out afterwards that one of the cornering manoeuvres threw Max overboard - good thing we put his life vest on. He doesn’t seem too traumatised from the experience, and possibly some past ‘donut’ rides/crashes behind another boat prepared him well for this moment.
Aside from the impromptu swimming lesson, the boys saw a turtle up close, lots of fish and sting rays, and a bull shark. They were pretty chatty when they got back to shore…

Cooked up a few mud crabs (not sure Hugo liked these…), some mangrove jack (red snapper) and trevally fish for a snack, then headed toward home.

A much later night than expected meant dinner was in the car, and consisted of a ham sandwich, some crackers (chicken crimpy) and ‘snake’ lollies. The boys couldn’t believe their luck.

Speaking of snakes, we saw what we think is a black headed python on the road on the way home - scary looking thing about 2m long. Didn’t run it over, but it also showed no fear at all for the car.Read more