The Adelaide River has about 6-7 thousand crocs living in it. The females use the phragmites grass along the banks as nesting areas, the males are quite territorial choosing sections of the river to defend. That makes it easier to identify them once you know a section of the river, our guide has named the crocs along the stretch of river that he’s familiar with.

You can see the crocs coming. At first they look like floating logs by the river banks and then through the muddy, murky water you can see eyes. Just eyes, in a V shaped ripple heading towards you.

I asked an Australian barista to show me how they prepare iced coffee. Here’s how you do it:

Pour about 2 shots of chilled espresso over a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Fill the glass the rest of the way with milk. Cover that with a mountain of whipped cream, chocolate powder and if you’re feeling fancy a pice of chocolate on top.

I hear a 1920's sounding cover of jingle bells playing over the speakers as I sit on an enormous wooden bench next to the pool, drinking chilled cider with Arthur until it warms-up to ambient temperature.

The view from Darwin harbor. It's monsoon season, very hot and rainy. We found orange poppyseed gelato around the corner.

(extra fancy husband guest post)

On a whim, Arthur decided for our last week in Australia to head to Darwin, into the tropics. There are plumerias everywhere, I tucked one behind my ear and Arthur is imagining that the yellow center is where the laser shoots out from.

About an hour and a half away from Canberra is one of my friend, David's favorite parks. Him and his girlfriend Sarah took Arthur and I backpacking for the weekend. In total we did about 25 kilometres in two days, hiking through brush, puddles of mud and wading through creeks while David pointed out many tiny native orchids including the Chiloglottis that I had just animated. At one point Arthur wandered off if the path and almost tripped over a 1.5 meter long goanna!