It thinks we can’t see it. And the truth is, I’m surprised we can. Moments earlier, the four-meter-long saltwater crocodile had been sunning itself on a gorgeous stretch of beach in Port Essington, inside Arnhem Land’s (Miwatj) Garig Gunak Barlu National Park. If it hadn’t been, we probably wouldn’t have spotted it at all. As we crept closer it picked itself up off the sand and slunk silently into the water.

Our latest croc is an amazing wildlife experience, though it’s certainly not our first on this tour. Nor was it our last. As we docked at the jetty back at Seven Spirit Bay, hordes of lemon and black-tipped reef sharks embarked on a feeding frenzy, fighting over the filleted scraps that had been cast into the water.

Earlier in the trip, I’d wandered onto the decking area outside my tented accommodation at Murwangi Safari Camp, just as the day was dawning. I’d been roused from my slumber by nature’s alarm clock – in this case, a flock of rowdy corellas taking flight – and was still wiping the sleep from my eyes when a herd of buffaloes ambled past my door. More than 200,000 of these brutish beasts now populate the region and we’d see a fair chunk of that number over the next two days, including later that evening when I accompanied the camp manager in his all-terrain vehicle as we crashed through paperbark forests in pursuit of brumbies, dingoes and wild boars.

The brumbies proved easy to find, stirring up dust as they galloped through the undergrowth. Even the dingoes weren’t difficult, slinking through the shadows in an area they were known to frequent. And the boars? Well, we found them buried snout-deep in muddy wallows not far from camp.