This isn’t one of my images but from talented New Zealand photographer Daniel Peat. We both have lasting memories of Australia’s Northern Territory, one of the last great wilderness frontiers of the world and home to a thriving population of Asiatic buffalo. Most have typical curved horns but the odd ‘sweeper’ with straight horns is still found.
It doesn’t pay to get cute with Australian water buffalo, but on the whole they are not flighty or aggressive. The guys who head to the Northern Territory looking for a version of the African safari, complete with charging bulls, are missing the point.
You’ll see buff, kites circling in lazy sweeps overhead, dry season fires in the pandanus palms. There are paperbark swamps, baked floodplains, seas of water lilies, croc slides on the riverbanks, barramundi in the billabongs and water birds to fill the sky. There are thousands and thousands of square miles scarcely touched by human hand, compared to other places anyway.
It’s a place where just being there is the trophy.
Peter P. Ryan www.faraway.co