These pix are from a trip to the Top End of Australia in September (The Dry Season). We stayed for a week at the Kakadu Lodge in Jabiru, Northern Territory, followed by a couple of days at Kununurra in Western Australia (for the Bungle Bungles), then a night a Darwin and a final week at Daintree Secrets in the Rainforests of Queensland. Everywhere was very hot. At Jabiru about 38C, at the Bungle Bungles it was 44C and probably nearer 30C in the cloudier Daintree rainforest (even cooler under the trees!).

There were lots of birds but very few "hopping things". We had assumed that the Dry Season would be good for seeing animals, as in Africa. However, the animals in the Top End seem to move away during the Dry. We only saw about a dozen kanagroos and wallabies altogether in the entire 3 weeks, plus one emu and (amazingly) two of the rarely seen cassowaries. Unfortunately, they were both in very low light under the canopy, so my shutter speed was working at around a third of a second ...quite hopeless for a moving bird.

It was disappointing that we also could not find any tree kangaroos, sugar gliders or even any of the normally the ubiquitous possums! I have therefore included a number of photos taken in zoos and wildlife parks that we also visited.

click to link to the Ealing and Hampshire House PhotoSoc. All images are © Robbie Hildred 2006