A Top End Moring

摘要

Daylight was only a promise in the form of a rosy sky in the east when we launched the boat from the Corroboree Billabong ramp into the dark water. There were four of us in the GS Marine boat, owned by Dean and Libby Shaw. My wife, Eileen was also along for the ride. We headed downstream, the dim light quickly gathering strength as night turned into day. Cyclone Ingrid had dumped the last worthwhile rain on the tropical north only weeks before, a thankful cupful in what proved to be the poorest monsoon rains on record across the tropics. However, it takes little rain to metamorphose the drab dry season vegetation into lush rainforest-like gardens, or to keep it that way.