Adventurous travellers are discovering the country’s Top End, offering luxury eco-lodges, wildlife encounters and brushes with Aboriginal culture
“If you get eaten by a croc,” our guide Dennis Miller says with a grin, “I’ll try to bring back what’s left of you.”
As our boat slices through the flooded wetland, we scan the billabong for ripples and reptilian eyes, while Dennis brings the landscape to life with tales of its seasonal rhythms.
“Big wets [periods of high rainfall] rejuvenate the land,” he says. “More fish, more birds, more for everyone to eat.” We spot magpie geese, the sacred kingfisher and a white-bellied sea eagle scanning the water from above. Finally, a keen-eyed passenger spots a lone saltwater crocodile perched motionless on an exposed tree root, its knobbled back barely distinguishable from the bark.
Finally laying eyes on the fearsome predator is the ideal finale to our river cruise, but in truth, our adventure has just begun. The Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, a tropical frontier at the very northern edge of the continent, is brimming with untamed beauty.
