Friday, 4 May 2018

Batchelor (Banyan Tree) to Darwin 4th May 2018 (some snakes!)

Heading off from the Banyan tree at Batchelor….

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This was the toilet block,note the painted outside, inside was all flowers and trees…..with live tree frogs and geckos !

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We called in at the Batchelor Butterfly farm…….One man and his dream !


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There were also chickens, pigs goats and Rabbits too !!


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This is a butterfly hatchery, his wife was cleaning them out and asked me to come in to see closer, whilst “Chris” entertained with stories of crocodiles, wolves , army life etc…she quietly got on with her dream too….

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Crocodile Dundee was filmed here somewhere……

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The Territory Wildlife park

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A frilled Lizard

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A Brown snake

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A fake ichthyosaurus skull, made and donated by the people in the photo.

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We took a train around the grounds……some brightly painted frogs

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First stop was to oolloo pond, where we would see fish being fed…we didn’t expect, barramundi , archer fish, and sting rays!…..yes thats a sting ray as yet un-named species, found in local rivers……they chase their prey to the waters edge so as soon as the keepers moved to the shallows, they knew it was their turn !


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Then it was the turn of “fingers”the baby salt water crocodile……..he was about 2 years old.

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People on holiday!

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Next stop…the flight deck…where we were shown how the birds are trained for the morning show (which we missed)


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This was some strange twisted bark tree

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Then the nocturnal house, where all our pictures were terrible, as it was dark ! The keeper holding the fruit bat/flying fox was outside.

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Decorative spade heads!

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Only two photos worth showing, a “frog mouth” and i forget the second one !

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Back at the reception for a talk on reptiles….

The frilled lizard again

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We finally get to our camp at Darwin, in Hidden Valley……..we make a curry from left over tins etc that we dont want to cart to Perth on a plane…..just settled down in our chairs and this possum turns up and climbs up on my chair…..I  vacate the chair, curry in hand , and it sits in the chair…..Dave chases it away, but it gets so close we cant photograph it…..until it tries to climb Daves leg, at which point Dave empties his water bottle over it….and it climbs a tree…and after about 15 mins it leaves……finally a close encounter with a marsupial……too close !!


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DSCN2931No chance Mate !!

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