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Willis's Walkabouts

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23.01.2022 The 22 April update on our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid , has a story about how South Africa got on top of the pandemic right from the start. It’s amazing how much better they’ve done than a much richer country like the USA. There are also some updated statistics from Australia and around the world. It’s been two weeks since the last covid case was diagnosed in the NT. I wonder how much longer before we can go back to semi-normal. The story about South Africa got me thinking about all the trips we’ve done there. I made this short video a few years ago to show what one trip would be like. With a bit of luck, we’ll be able to go back again next year.

22.01.2022 Our new mobile-friendly website, www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au, went live on Monday 10 August. Our latest newsletter, www.bushwalkingholidays.org/newsletter.shtml went live today. Have a look. the newsletter tells you how you can take part in our $2000 giveaway.

21.01.2022 Australian Story recently ran a program called 'Fighting Fire With Fire', www.abc.net.au/austory/fighting-fire-with-fire/12134242 It showed how indigenous burning practices could prevent the kind of disastrous bushfires southern Australia had a few months ago. The photos here were taken on the Arnhem Highway near Jabiru in Kakadu in August 2013. While this was late dry season, traditional burning practices meant the fire was still cool enough so I could safely walk in to take the photos. Click the link, watch the video and you’ll learn how and why this is so important. The 18 April update on our Covid blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has information about what you can and can’t do during the lockdown. There are huge differences between states.

21.01.2022 - A hot time of the year when birds concentrate near waterholes, when alyurr (Leichhardt’s grasshoppers), the children of Namarrkon (the lightning man) begin to appear. This is a time to relax and camp near your own private pool and waterfall while your dinner simmers slowly on the campfire. . See the special offers at the bottom of our home page for details. https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au Quote this post when you book and we’ll take an extra $100 off the discount price.

20.01.2022 When you live in a place like Darwin, nature is always at your doorstep. This 20 sec video of bush thick knees was taken in a park only 1 km from the CBD. The nest is just a scrape on the ground. The birds were only mildly concerned about human neighbours. Our latest newsletter, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.org/newsletter109.shtml, has just been published. It’s not only got info about our trips, but about things like the better society Covid could bring, if only we’d let it. Don’t forget the special $600 discount offer on our annual bushwalking and birdwatching trip, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/kakadubird

20.01.2022 Turn the sound on. Last time I went bush for a weekend, a friend recommended visiting a spot on the lower Adelaide River. I went and discovered this Adelaide River Cruise There are other cruises, but this is my personal favourite. www.facebook.com/Adelaide-River-Cruises-261669300627996/ We ARE open. See our Availability page, bit.ly/WW-Avail for more information. While two of our 2021 departures are already sold out, we still have plenty of space available on most of our trip...s later this year. Our cruise was run by Adam Bowman, the son of Harry Bowman, two of whose Hunter Safaris guides, Amelia Hunter and Peter (Tommo) Tomlin later came to work for Willis’s Walkabouts. For more about Harry, I recommend this link from the ABC. https://www.abc.net.au//croc-cruise-legend-harry-/11216412 Harry is a bit younger than me (Russell Willis) but I hope to still be guiding trips myself for a few more years. The 21 May update on our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has links to updated statistics and information about why the economy we had a few months ago may NEVER be the same.

19.01.2022 On 1 May, the NT loosened restrictions on parks and other places. The parks were full, but Russell knew a beautiful bush spot our group could have to ourselves. The two main campsites on the creek were full but an extra 3.8 km on a rough track brought us to a place where a short but steep drop into the gorge gave us the best campsite on the creek all to ourselves. The video here tells the story of a truly memorable weekend. It's better with the sound on. Willis’s Walkabouts v...isits this amazing place on some of our wet season trips. This trip was so good, we may have to add it to the early dry season as well. If you haven’t had a look yet, a quick browse of our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid should give you some interesting stories you’d have to search to find on your own. It’s regularly updated so it’s worth coming back to. You might also find it worth subscribing to our newsletter. It’s free. A simple click will take you off the list if you change your mind. https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/subscribe.shtml

16.01.2022 Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 109 -- Our Trips Are Running - https://mailchi.mp//williss-walkabouts-newsletter-109-our-

14.01.2022 For several weeks at the end of the Dry (Kurrung) and beginning of the Build Up (Kunumeleng), the Mamukala billabong in Kakadu becomes home to tens of thousands of birds. The video clip here gives you a tiny taste of what it’s like. All of our walks from late August onwards will stop for a visit. If you want more than just a taste, consider our Birdwatching and Nature Special in October, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/pdf/kak_bird.pdf... If you’d like to see some of our longer videos, have a look at our new Facebook video page, bit.ly/WW-FBVid The 15 April update on our Covid blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has some updated statistics from Australia and around the world, thoughts on food security and more. Finally, for more information about Mamukala, see https://www.seesomethingnew.com.au/mamukala-wetlands-kakad/

13.01.2022 Good news for an area near places we used to visit and may visit again.

13.01.2022 Rockhopping practice. Almost all of our walking is off-track, sometimes over very rough ground. This video shows a simple exercise you can do at home to prepare or simply use to see if our kind of trips might be for you. You’ll need the sound on for it to make sense. The 11 April update on our Covid Blog page, www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/covid.shtml , has a link to a short video with the best visual explanation of social distancing that you’ll ever see. Also: the virus translated into music, turning your smart phone into a webcam and turning air into vodka.

12.01.2022 Starting on 29 June, we will be running a special Kakadu bushwalking trip for NT residents. This video shows the first of the three sections, Koolpin to Twin Falls. You can download the detailed PDF notes from our Availability and Specials page, www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/avail.shtml Any section can be done on its own. Use the contact link to ask us for more information or about the 40% discount for NT residents. www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/contact.shtml Facebook wouldn’t let me boost the original post because of the a PDF link. For some reason, it wouldn’t let me edit it either so I’ve changed the link and am posting again.

12.01.2022 $ Know your birds? a few people read this to the end and and have a go at identifying the birds here, we'll start our $3000 giveaway. Our Birdwatching and Nature Special, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/kakadubird , is different from any other birding tour on the market. For people who want to do more than just tick off as many species as possible, it’s in a class of its own. To celebrate our first non-NT resident tour since the Covid ...Lockdown, we’re giving away vouchers to the value of $3000 on that tour. Over the next week, we will publish a series of bird videos. If you can identify most of the birds, share the video, post a comment and we’ll use a private message to tell you how to send in your answers. . . If the birding trip doesn’t suit, half the value of the voucher can be used toward any of our other trips booked within the next 12 months.

11.01.2022 With our Kakadu Birdwatching trip, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/kakadubird , nearing the 4 October departure ($600 discount places still available), I thought it would be worth showing a short video of some of the birds we’ve seen on similar trips. . We’ll give a $100 gift voucher to the first person to identify all the species and, if obvious, male or female. If no one gets it within a week, we’ll give a $50 voucher to whoever comes closest. If your sound is turned on, you’ll hear the first one call.

11.01.2022 9-10 May was the second weekend that some NT parks were open after the Covid lockdown. When a friend offered to let me join a private bushwalking trip to the southern part of Litchfield National Park, I jumped at the chance. Other places were crowded, but we had this magnificent area almost to ourselves. Part of the reason is the rough 4WD track at the start. Part is that relatively few people are willing to carry all their gear and camp away from their vehicles. We ARE open... for business. At this point, we can only cater for NT residents but that should change within a few weeks. Our recently updated Availability page, bit.ly/WW-Avail shows what we’re still hoping to run this year as well as all the 2021 trips which already have bookings. The 16 May update on our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has links to a page with detailed information about what is and isn’t being permitted in the different Australian states as well as some useful information to help you sort fact from fiction when it comes to the truth about the virus.

09.01.2022 Kakadu released a Draft Tourism Master Plan last week. A public webinar will be held Wednesday 28 October. Comments close on 13 November. Links to all the relevant information are in our latest newsletter, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.org/newsletter.shtml

08.01.2022 The video here was taken in my backyard over the course of a few days after this stick insect came calling. There are lots of stick insects in the Top End and Kakadu. This is one of the larger ones. The 29 April update on our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has links to stories about romance in the time of Covid and some updated statistics. Restrictions in the NT are easing to the point where some of us will be doing an overnight bushwalk this weekend. If you’d like to know more about stick insects, see https://www.backyardbuddies.org.au/backyard-b/stick-insects

07.01.2022 - A hot time of the year when the birds concentrate near the waterholes, when the alyurr (Leichhardt’s grasshoppers), the children of Namarrkon (the lightning man) begin to appear. This is a time to relax and camp near your own private waterfall and pool while your dinner simmers slowly on the campfire. . See the special offers at the bottom of our home page for details. https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au Quote this Facebook post when you book and we’ll take an extra $100 off the discount price.

06.01.2022 The three photos here were taken on the same creek in Kakadu. Can anyone guess which one? Facebook is designed for things to pop up and disappear. Some of the videos we post remain relevant months or even years after being posted. To make them easier to find, we’ve created a Facebook Video page, https://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/facebook.shtml Videos are arranged by topic to make it easier to find one that interests you. Facebook’s default is to turn the sound off. Most ...of these videos are better with the sound on so please turn it on at the start. The 13 April update on our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has information about who is most likely to die if they get it. I’m sure some people will be a bit surprised. It also has info about what recovery can look like.

05.01.2022 When I saw this video, I couldn’t resist this post. On our trips, we have driven cars across frozen lakes in arctic Canada. We have driven dog sleds across frozen lakes and rivers in Canada and northern #Norway. But we have never, ever, ventured onto ice this thin. We’ll stick to thicker ice. If travel to Scandinavia is permitted early next year, we hope to offer another arctic dogsled trip. Here’s a link to a video from our last arctic trip in early 2019. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=317595562261850 The 25 April update on our Covid Blog page, bit.ly/WW-Covid has links to stories showing the surprising ways the virus can affect people and another showing how the death toll is almost certainly understated.

01.01.2022 I’ve heard about this for years. Now it’s been captured on camera Black Kites picking up burning sticks and spreading a bushfire to scare out more prey. The clip here was taken from episode 2 of ‘Magical Land of Oz’ on ABC iView. I was lucky and watched it the night before it was taken down. I did find a 7 minute clip about making this part of the video at bit.ly/KiteFire . I think it’s worth a look. Australia can’t stay in lockdown forever. Our Availability page, bit.ly/WW-Avail shows what we’re still hoping to run this year as well as all the 2021 trips which already have bookings.