Antibiotics really are great. It will be a shame when they stop working. I suppose we'll just have to go back to dying of dysentry and bacterial infections and things, bacteriophages pending. Not that the antibiotics have instantly cured me, but I'm definitely improving at this point and not getting worse. We headed off in the morning for the town of Jabiru in Kakadu National Park where we will be staying for three nights. The drive was very interesting through open bushland with rocky escarpments and lots of massive termite mounds. Plenty of Blue-winged Kookaburras along the way too which are nice as well as various other birds and some feral water buffalo. I was keeping an eye open for Australian Bustards which would be a really nice bird, but didn't see any on the drive ... read more

I had an early start today to head out to Fogg Dam, one of the premier birding sites in the Darwin area, about 60km from the city. Naturally, there is no way whatsoever to get there without a car. This is Darwin after all. A couple of things I wanted to me room yesterday are that it's really dry here, really dry. The forests are like tinder. Very different to anywhere else on the trip and to anywhere else I will be going this trip. I'm also finding bird identifications really tricky! I've birded WA and Queensland before but even so I'm finding it takes a lot of work to get stuff IDed here. I found it much easier in Malaysia. I could blame the fiels guide as I'm using a new one, the Sclater one, ... read more

I was still feeling a bit groggy from yesterday's illness but definitely much better, although frequent toilet trips had kept me up over night. I had breakfast then hung about at the hostel for a while, then at 11:30 I called a Grab. It was earlier than necessary, three hours before departure and only a 20 minute drive to the airport, but there wasn't really anything better for me to do. There is a bus to the airport, but that costs 5 ringgit and a Grab was only 10 ringgit and right from the accommodation rather than down the street. Grab in KK really is almost too easy and cheap, I haven't bothered a with a local city bus at all while here. It was all very easy going through the airport, especially compared to budget ... read more

I started the morning with a more leisurely start than usual at 7AM. I noticed that on the wall they have a world map with an unusual projection that I don't recognise. It's Malaysia centred with a split in the Atlantic and it looks kind of like a Lambert Cylindrical but it's not because it's a normal shape but because I'm not used to a split in the Atlantic I can't use the shape of Greenland as the judge that I normally would on what projection it is. Nice projection though! The boats to the islands depart when they're full, and mine left at about 8:50. My attire wasn't exactly typical for either place I visited. Khaki trousers, hiking boots, a camo shirt, and binoculars on a harness around my neck not exactly making me fit ... read more

Sunrise over the mountains was spectacular, probably the best sunrise of this trip, and I started the day birding the trail. It was really birdy around l and mostly with common species that I've seen before but I added a couple of things and if this was nearer the start of the trip rather than at the end, I'd have added loads. I was a bit worried at one point because I thought I could hear a large dog barking (domestic dogs are the only animal that actually concerns me when I'm in a forest) but I never saw any dogs and I wonder if it was an odd sounding muntjac barking. A particularly nice mammal from the morning birding were Four-striped Ground Squirrels which I saw two of. They’re a fairly restricted range species so ... read more