August 2nd, Australia Day 162

I took these photos on the seventh day of my tour and the first day east of Darwin in the Top End.

This series of small waterfalls forms Buley Falls, our first stop that day heading out of Darwin. 

This is the stunning Robin Falls just east of Darwin where we stopped for a little while. 

Near Robin Falls there were these wallabies on the rocks, known creatively enough as "rock wallabies". 

This cute little guy is a rock walaby joey. 

These millimeter long termites are industrious little things that can build massive strcutures. Their mounds are built as solid as any cement structure and can withstand the sporadic cyclones that come through this way. 

This is a large cathedral termite mound. It doesn't look that impressive in this photo but in the next one, I'm right beside it and you can see just how tall it is. 

This is me beside the termite mount I just showed you. You can easily see how tall it is, about 6 meters and they can even bebuilt slightly higher than this. This is also the length reached by some large saltwater crocodiles. 

These termite mounds, most over 4 meters tall, are called "tombstone" mounds. 

On our way to the Mary River Wetlands we stopped at a pub which had several animals on its property. This is an example of the timid freshwater crocodile, with a length of about 3.5 meters. 

This is the more fearsome and dangerous estuarine crocodile. This particlur specimen was about 4.5 meters long. 

This is a white brahman bull with a bird on its back. It has a very regal walk and it is easy to see why the Indians would give it such a prestigous name. 

This is the white brahman bull froma little closer up and drinking. 

This is a red brahman bull. 

This is a calf on the pub's property. 

The Mary River Wetlands is formed by a series of these billabongs (waterholes). 

This is the Mary River Wetlands but during the wet season it is essentailly a massive lake. 

This is the "white-bellied sea eagle", the 2nd largest of Australi's birds of prey. According to local aborigine belief, when a spirit of a deceased person is ready to move on after wandering the land, a white-bellied sea eagle comes down and takes it. 

This bird is a kite, which is common throughout the Northern Territory. 

The things hanging off the trees are fruit bats. Fruit bats don't use radar as other bats do and they have excellent vision. 

This curious bird is called a "jabiru". 

This was one of the salties that we saw along the Mary River Wetlands. 

This is a close-up of the submerged saltie.

This small, quick, colourful and difficult bird to photograph is known as the "avon kingfisher". 

This is another shot of a jabiru. 

This long-necked bird is called a "darter".