Part 1- Western Australia-Darwin to Arnhem Land at Bamurru Plains

We are on the road again. It’s a bit surreal after two years of isolation to be traveling out of the country twice in the last two months. First Iceland and now a trip to the Northern Territory and Western Australia that we started planning three years ago and postponed two years in a row because of Covid. But now are going! We are traveling with Jay and Esta Feinsod and Ian Shrank and Lexa Logue, longstanding biking buddies with whom we’ve taken many bike trips. This our first trip with Lexa and Ian where our feet won’t touch pedals. I write this in the Dallas Flagship Lounge having completed the first and shortest leg of our journey which started at JFK. From Dallas we fly Qantas to Sydney, have an hour plus layover and fly on to Darwin. All told, it’s 25 hours of flying time and about six hours of layovers. Onward!

We finally arrived in Darwin at noonish on the second day. All was smooth sailing (actually flying). Darwin, a city of 150,000, was destroyed twice— WWII by the Japanese since Darwin was an important military harbor and by a cyclone in 1974. Today it reminds me of lesser Miami style architecture, rather jumbled, and honky tonk as well. It’s nicest feature is the ocean it overlooks which is Caribbean aqua. We met up with Lexa and Ian who had flown in a day ahead. After two days of airline food, it was delightful for the six of us to dine outdoors with a stunning sunset and, for me, a very good steak dinner.

Next day, Wednesday, Betsey and I took a walk after breakfast to the waterfront which has been nicely developed with apartments, cafes, and water amenities. At noon we headed to the airport and our charter flight to Bamurru Plains. The six of us had to go in two planes which gives you an idea of the type of aircraft we had. Lexa and Ian at least had two propellers on theirs. We are way out in the Outback with the address of Top End of the Northern Territory. We flew over large swaths of mud flats, bending rivers, and patches of forest with the ocean off in the distance. Thirty minutes later we landed on a dirt air strip in the middle of nowhere. That is Bamurru Plains, a “glamping” retreat with ten tented rooms on 77,000 acres of leased land that’s also used to raise water buffalos. We were met by Land Rovers which took us down the 18 mile dirt driveway, lined with spindly trees, large pink-flowered Turkey bushes and termite towers, to the lodge. Rustic in design, the lodge has what later turned out to be a very refreshing pool overlooking the flood plain with Wallabies jumping all around and a wide variety of birds perching on the trees. Our tents are screens on three sides and they do have bathrooms. Water buffalo stroll by and birds screech. Dinner was excellent but really long drawn out considering we have a 5:30am wake up!

One of the primary motivations of this trip was Betsey’s desire to experience the Outback and the aboriginal peoples. That’s what the next day was all about. It was quite a day—up at 5:30 in order to have breakfast and leave by 6:30 for what turned out to be a three-hour drive ultimately through Kakadu National Park to Arnhem Land. Named by a Dutch explorer who discovered the northern coast before Captain Cooke discovered the south, Arnhem Land is the ancestral home of the world’s oldest continuous culture. The aboriginal people here are one of about 300 different groups of aboriginal people in Australia, but they are the oldest distinct clan. Tim, our guide and driver, had three hours to fill our heads with the history and lore of the aboriginal people while pointing out birds and cranes as we drove along the dirt and later paved road through flatlands that constituted a vast flood plain. Indeed, at intervals all along the road there were measurement markers so that drivers during the rainy season can tell if the road is flooded above their safe driving limit. The waters can rise over six feet and a rain can dump six inches at a time. During the height of the rainy season, the only way the aboriginal people can leave Arnhem Land is by helicopter and that has to be an emergency. We also crossed a river with water cascading over the pavement which was a good place to spot several crocodiles lounging on the sand or in the shallow water.

The main focus of our visit which was aided by Sebastian, an aboriginal friend of Tim’s, was to see the rock art. Arnhem Land has the largest collection of rock paintings in the world. They extend back thousands of years and can be as recent as the last century. Up until we neared Arnhem Land, the topography was pretty flat. It is a flood plain after all. But abruptly there were large stands of sandstone rock formations. Not quite mountains, but certainly not hills. The rocks are horizontally striated from millennia of sand layers building up, and these rocks are older than wildlife itself since you find no fossils in them.

The rock paintings we saw were all along an ancient trading route that the aboriginal peoples used, and it underlined the fact that this art wasn’t art for arts sake, but rather they were done to tell the stories of the aboriginal peoples and also to tell travelers along the trading route what they might find in the area. So we see paintings of kangaroos, deer, different varieties of fish, cranes, and even intricately decorated hands. One painting, done in white, depicts an Indonesian large sailing canoe which dates the art back many centuries when Indonesian indigenous peoples visited the northern coast. The paintings are done using ochre, kangaroo blood and fat, and sometimes the sap of certain trees. They were remarkably well preserved and are among the best and oldest in the world.

This whole excursion would have been much more enjoyable if it weren’t in the 90’s and there weren’t as many mosquitos and flies that followed us around. We got a little grumpy I would say and also hungry since we had had breakfast at 6:00, and it was nearly 1pm. Tim had hoped that we would be able to have lunch with some of the aboriginal elders, but they were a no show because of transportation issues. We also couldn’t go into the town because of Covid restrictions. So we made due with a barbecue near some water with shade provided by some rocks and a tree that we couldn’t touch because we’d be scratching all day. Tim grilled water buffalo and it was tasty. A big salad accompanied this which was helpful for Ian who doesn’t eat meat. Finally sated and worn out, we headed home, ending a twelve-hour excursion. Dinner was very good and blessedly shorter in duration than last night’s.

Next day we are closer to home. After a 6:30 breakfast we headed to the flood plain, still on the property, and an airboat excursion. Good fun. The rains this year were plentiful so the waters are ample and the wildlife in great abundance. The airboats glide so smoothly over the water and the grasses even as the engine noise requires ear sound protectors. When Matt, our guide, turns the boat off the silence is complete unless you’re near the birds. It’s not easy to avoid the birds because there are literally millions of them. The mass migration of the Magpie Geese has happened, and they are mighty birds, as tasty as our turkeys we are told. Also in abundance are egrets and water buffalo who enjoy the water which is only about 3 feet deep. We spotted two Jabaru storks which are beauties, and one of them was feasting on a python snake he had captured. Highlights included a pair of white-bellied sea eagles perched elegantly atop their trees, a translucent blue Kingfisher, and the lotus blossoms. We spotted the Kingfisher after we meandered deep among the trees growing out of the water and reminiscent of the scenes from “When the crawdads sing.” Heading back to camp we spotted some wild horses and, of course, more water buffalo. A mighty good morning.

After what we all considered to be one of the best chicken Cesar salad lunches we’ve had, some of us napped, others read and Ian and Lexa treaded water for 45 minutes in the pool as a compensation for not being able to walk around the grounds (snakes and water buffalo), and I took a dip to wake up. It was pretty peaceful. We watched dozens of snow white Cockatoos flying by and perching on the trees above us for a screechy serenade. This place is run very much like the African safari camps. An early morning excursion before it gets too hot; a quiet mid-day in the height of the heat, and then a late afternoon excursion on another part of the property.

Matt took us out in the afternoon for a land excursion focused on trees, birds, and life “in the bush”. He has no formal training but is incredibly knowledgeable about all this stuff. For example, he introduced us to the delicacy of licking the butt of a green ant. He got Ian and me to try it. Ian said it tasted really sweet and lemony. I didn’t get much of a taste of anything. The others demurred. It was a beautiful afternoon, we saw some new birds, lots of termite towers, learned about the rainy season and its impact on trees, and as the sun set we had drinks and hours d’oeuvres off the back of the Land Rover overlooking the vista of the flood plain in the very pink light. Nice.

I should mention food. The chef here is from Fiji where he owns a resort and is a chef renowned in Australia. He comes here to cook for a break since we have at most

20 diners, and he’s used to cooking for many more. The dinners have been really delicious—inventive and wonderfully cooked and served with a complement of fine Australian wines. Life is good.

Our last morning in Bamurru Plains was a climactic moment. We went out on the San Pan Creek, an estuary of the Mary River which had plenty of crocodiles and more than ample bird life. The crocs are pretty handsome close up, and we did manage to get close up. The crocs would either ignore us and continue sunbathing or scamper off into the mangroves or dive deep in the water. A fact about Australian crocodiles is that they are getting bigger. While originally they fed on fish, they eventually took a liking to mammals and began consuming bigger and bigger mammals. They can take on a water buffalo, pigs, deer, and people. As their diet has evolved so has their size and degree of aggressiveness. You don’t want to pet a crocodile.

We saw many birds on the river and it was a beautiful morning. No one else was on the river, the sun was up, but there was a bit of a breeze, and the scenery and wildlife made for a perfect finale to our visit to the Northern Territory which by the way was internet and cell phone free. We were truly off the grid and communing with nature After showers and packing, we were headed to our planes and a rendezvous with the ocean.