When: The best time to travel is between May and early November (o). The climate mid-year is coolest but not the best time to view fauna and flora. The road is impassible from late November to early May.

Length of visit: A five day itinerary is given below. However length of stay can vary between from two days to ten days.

Number of guests: 1 -6. Larger organised groups (eg of students, birdwatchers etc.) are also welcome.

Fee:(2004) This experience is highly customizable. Here are relevant costs:

• Car hire costs $150-$200 a day
• Your Aboriginal guides charge $240 a day for up to four people, $80 a day per
  person for more than four people.
• Denise typically charges $240 a day for her naturalist services but because she wants to support this program she has been waiving it for Arnhem Land trips
• Hire of camping equipment $40 a day.  Food and fuel extra.  Permit fees
  we don't know about.
• If you work through an agent such as Diverse Travel they'll organize things and smooth it all out, while charging about 20% atop of the above fees

ABOUT BABY DREAMING:
Gudjekbinj- Baby Dreaming - is 400 kms (250 miles) east of Darwin, Northern Territory, in western Arnhem Land. The Kunwinjku or 'freshwater' people have lived in this area for tens of thousands of years. Visitors can see the signs of long occupation in the little caves at Kikikyaw (Little Bird Dreaming) - the homes of 'old' people' now long gone, and the ancient rock art of the kind shown above.

Gudjekbinj is the home of baby spirits who live in the clear streams. As soon as the rains stop (March-May) the spirits become dragonflies or take human form, leaving tiny footprints in the white sand. Other baby spirits inhabit little red termite mounds on a hill.  Such termite mounds are shown at the left. Then there is Lost Baby Dreaming, a grove of pandanus, for babies who haven't found mothers. Baby spirits look after mothers, thus reflecting the importance of reciprocity in family life. where even small children learn to care for younger ones, a role acknowledged with the title of 'little daddy' or 'little mummy'. And senior people are revered. Indeed among the Kunwinjku it is a compliment to be called 'old lady'!

Gudjekbinj is beautiful country with much endemic fauna and flora.

CONTACT WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD
The only contact is via a telephone at the outstation. The campsite depending on where we stop, is 5 - 20 kms from a main road. Baby Dreaming is 100 kms. from the nearest town.

ACCOMMODATION/FOOD
Camping in such fine places as shown at the right. Visitors must bring food in with them.

TRANSPORT & PERMITS
4WD vehicles are available for hire in Darwin (eg Delta Europcar www.europcar.com.au). Charter flights are also available (phone Gunbalunya Air 61 8 8979 0165). However a hire car must still be brought from Darwin to take visitors around Baby Dreaming. Diverse Travel < www.diversetravel.com.au> can make these arrangements.

Helicopter travel may also be arranged from either Darwin or Seven Spirit Bay (Gurig National Park) to Baby Dreaming. Contact www.choppertours.com.

Permits from the Northern Land Council are necessary. Residents and Denise will arrange these.

Esther said once when showing a little visitor how to find bush honey, that 'we gotta teach all those kids. Colour don't matter - they all gotta learn". And she wasn't just talking about gathering food. Gudjekbinj is a gentle place where visitors and traditional custodians can share knowledge and get to know and respect each other as fellow human beings.

FIVE-DAY ITINERARY

DAY 1:
For the first twenty or so kilometres in western Arnhem Land the dirt road winds between towering escarpment and vast wetlands, country which rivals the most beautiful anywhere in Australia. On reaching Gudjekbinj we will make camp at Barkibong (shown at the right), a beautiful deep billabong with a rocky waterfall at one end, and edged with pandanus and paperbarks.This is a lovely site with plenty of shade and soft sand to camp in. Bathing is in a clear shallow pandanus-fringed stream with a sandy bottom and small native fish. Activities at Barkibong include fishing for saratoga, barramundi or sooty grunter, and birdwatching. There are small freshwater crocodiles here.

Day 2:
Watch for birds at breakfast (this is the time of day when they are most active). Drive to the small outstation to meet Esther and Miriam and other residents. There may be ten people there or thirty (people often come from other outstations to meet visitors particularly if they bring children). Many are shy at first, but soon respond. Residents regard visitors as opportunities to make friends. Esther and Miriam may wish to go out with us to collect pandanus and natural dyes for their weaving. We can help boil the leaves with dyes. At the left is shown a mat woven by Esther made of pandanus leaves and dyed with natural, locally made dyes.

The afternoons are hot, and this is often a good time to find a waterhole to soak in or a shady cave in which to eat lunch. However for those so inclined Denise is happy to go searching for diurnal reptiles, birds of prey, or plants. Late afternoon we can go birdwatching or fishing. Nights are good for spotlighting for reptiles and birds.

Day 3:
We can shift camp to Kikikyaw - Little Bird Dreaming. This most beautiful area of ancient sandstone is a haven for butterfly and birdwatchers, herpetologists, and botanists. Among the endemic reptiles are the 4 m. Oenpelli Python, and several species of geckoes, skinks and other lizards Mammals include Black Wallaroo, Nabarlek and Short-eared Rock-wallaby. Butterflies include the rare blue Adaluma urumelia which is found hovering over the spinifex (Triodia sp.) which grows among the sandstone (best seen from October-June). From March-May the beautiful blue-purple endemic Patersonia macrantha is found flowering on the white sand at Kikkikyaw as is the Mt. Brockman Grevillea formosa (endemic to the Arnhem Land escarpment).

For those interested in Aboriginal culture Kikikyaw is the site of the 'old people's homes', shown at the right. There are ancient paintings throughout the rocks. We can explore the caves and rocky outcrops looking for endemic animals and plants, or simply seeking rock art. That afternoon after picking people up at the outstation we could look for yams or sugarbag (native honey).

Day 4:
Explore nearby hills and rocky outcrops to look for more paintings, birds and other fauna. Help Peterson cut didgeridus and prepare them for painting or talk with him and Shane or Luke about painting. That night we may join the residents of the outstation for a dinner cooked together over an open fire. Sometimes Peterson Nganjmirra and the senior custodians will arrange a traditional dance (called Mangardi in Kunwinjku). This is done as much to teach the Kunwinjku children and visitors as anything else. Together we can grind ochre and then my sons will apply the paint to their bodies with paintbrushes made from the fronds of the little sandstone palm.

Day 5:
Birdwatching in the morning. Return to Darwin.

Denise's books Birds of Australia's Top End and Fauna of Kakadu and the Top End (available from Denise, UK Subbuteo Books, US Laurel Hill Press) will give visitors an insight into the fauna of the area and its relationships with Kunwinjku people.