After lunch (October 3) we flew to an airstrip near our next lodging at Bamarru Plains, east of Darwin and well into the “Top End” as Aussies call this part of the Northern Territory. We are much closer to Indonesia than to the rest of Australia. While the flight only took 30 minutes (in a 6-seater aircraft), we waited for 30 minutes on the runway to takeoff, as the Singapore Air Force was conducting training exercises and had priority over the airspace. We watched F15s, F27s and a big F35 takeoff, sometimes followed by dramatic maneuvers as soon as they were in the air.
Bamarru is the largest buffalo ranch in the Southern Hemisphere, some 75,000 acres. The owners have three other properties across Australia that are much larger (one is over 1 million acres, which seems sort of impossible). Buffalo breed really rapidly and are overwhelming some parts of the indigenous north, so this ranch is paid to go collect them, and are then permitted to sell them (mostly to Indonesia). At the moment Bamarru has about 4500 buffalo. The ranch also has 500 Brumbies (feral horses), some feral Red Deer and about 2500 Brahmin cattle. Bamarru has a driveway that is 18 km long, and the lodge area is about 5 km from the ocean... in the wet season 90% of the ranch is flooded. At this time of year the water has receded a lot, leaving small mudflats with puddles that attract wading birds as well as the cattle and buffalo.
We went for a safari drive in the late afternoon. It is nice to be back in a savanna environment where it is a asker to find creatures than in dense rainforest. It is quite (and we are told unseasonably) hot, but fairly dry. As the sun set we watched the Agile Wallabies hop closer to our cabins to eat and drink for the night.
Pictured: Forest Kingfisher, Straw-necked Ibis, Red-collared Lorikeet, Black Kite (forked tail), Whistling Kite
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