We have often spoken of the large saltwater crocodiles here, of how huge and bloodthirsty they are. The other day we saw a real monster tucked away in a billabong. Our guide, Austin Griffis, had nicknamed him Awesome because he was the largest he had ever seen. I took this with a grain of salt - people tend to exaggerate - and I propped up my tripod on the very edge of the bow, inches above the water.

We snuck up on him several times but he would slither off the mud into the water long before I could get a good look at him through my binoculars. So we floated downstream quietly and as we rounded the curtain of Pandanus palms there he was. HUGE. All 7.5 meters (23 feet) of him stretched out on the bank in the sun. With age crocodiles spread in all directions (don't we all) and Awesome was extraordinarily long, tall and wide. He looked like a beached submarine - his jaw misshapen from too many territorial battles, great white scars on his head and endless armored body, teeth rounded from wear. Austin said he was at least 80 years old but to me he looked like a prehistoric monster auditioning for Jurassic Park. And he was only 30 feet (10 m) away - right in front of me!

Suddenly Awesome exploded into activity - from submarine to freight train in a millisecond - and I started shooting film like a machine gun. He came right at me through the flying mud and water, stubby legs churning like windmills. I kept on shooting as he slid under the boat. Ellen stood speechless and pale. Then we all laughed, relieved that Awesome had not zeroed in on me instead. I hope at least one picture comes out - that one goes into the book! If not, all I will have to show for it are a few more white hairs.

On a more quiet note we have been exploring Kakadu National Park and Arnhem Land, a huge expanse that covers an area half the size of Florida with no I-95 to speed up the process. There is only a thin dirt track that snakes its way out to the Cobourg Peninsula which is as remote as you can get in the Northern Territory. It juts out like a crooked finger at the very top of Australia beckoning to Papua New Guinea across the Timor Sea. To get there you need a 4WD to wade through the creeks and bounce along the rough track for six hours. We waded through 16 creeks and 20 flooded spots - it was a bit like driving through chocolate mousse.

The highlights of the Peninsula are the Cobourg Marine Park offshore and the Gurig National Park inland. The offshore reefs are spectacular and you can see 6 species of sea turtles, the rare Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and the dugong. We settled for the endless beaches and coves. But no swimming - more saltwater crocs and stinging jellyfish are waiting.

The British explored the Peninsula in 1818 and set up a garrison at Victoria Settlement which lies in ruins today. Bugs and disease decimated the settlers and the Aboriginals who love this area were probably happy to see them go. We spent a great day with one of the Aboriginal custodians, Victor Williams, who showed us all sorts of medicinal plants and trees. We pried palm-sized oysters off the rocks at low tide, thick and juicy, and hunted for stone crabs among the mangrove roots. We felt like kids on a school outing, learning and loving every minute of it. Victor was special too - a poet, a musician, a pearl diver, a botanist, a father of four, once an alcoholic. He was soft spoken, unassuming, and great fun when we were with him.

I asked Victor what he expected from life with his many skills: " I want to hold on to my culture and respect it. I think your own ideas are the wealth of your life," he said. And then he smiled.

And of course I met a new critter too. Much smaller than the bilby I told you about last time, this one is hardly longer than its Latin name: The Fat-tailed dunnart Sminthopsis crassicaudatus. A dunnart is a mouse-sized marsupial that is an insectivore, pouncing on any creepy crawly that it finds as it scuttles around at night. I watched two of them at the Northern Territory Wildlife Park zipping around in a miniaturized replica of their habitat in the Nocturnal House. They paid not the slightest heed to each other, intent on finding every last meal worm first. Just seeing them racing around was exhausting - an enormous amount of energy is packed into that tiny body.

We are now heading due west into the beautiful Kimberley region before we turn south towards Perth.