Classic Kakadu

Crossed off a couple of the biggies today. After a pre-dawn start we made the dawn cruise on Yellow Water. Our guide was obviously a wildlife nut, knew her stuff and knew where to look for it. In the end not a fantastic sunrise, but the birds are active at that time, and you get the nocturnal ones finishing and the daytime activity starting. The “elusive” rufous night heron turned out not to be at all, featuring many times during the morning. Saw egrets in many forms, sacred kingfisher (among others), whistling duck and others, spoonbills, jabirus (which is a Portuguese name, not aboriginal), and a white-bellied sea eagle. We were treated to a display by a juvenile of these flying in and putting numerous flocks to flight, it then zeroed in on a fish in front of us, flying off with its catch.

In addition to the birds, we saw Lotus lilies in flower, snakes, and of course crocodiles. The biggest of these was only around three metres, but we were close enough for that to be more than enough. We were heartened by the fact that the crocs don’t tend to feed early in the morning (still warming up), eat rarely (can go months without), and was photographed last week devouring a 3m shark!

Back for our buffet breakfast included in the tour. I told my kids that they had to eat $78 worth, and they didn’t disappoint. After training last night on the pasta, they were all in fine form by 9am. Then back to pack the tent, a last goodbye to Jandiga our resident two year old we have been chasing through NT and off.

We had been weighing up going to Jim Jim Falls. The road in is 60km, and listed at two hours, which seemed like hard work. The case against was firmed by a story from our last night Europeans saying they had failed to get in, I think in a Toyota, and needed to be towed out of a bog. However, I pulled rank. You really couldn’t miss the opportunity. Turned out to be a good call. I can’t imagine why they had trouble with the road, and 1 hour 20 was all it took. And what a view! Words and pictures won’t do justice to swimming backstroke into a waterfall looking up at surrounding cliff tops over 200m up.

It turned out we spent most of the day there swimming in two of the three available waterholes. Back on the highway around 5pm, and down to our campsite at Muirella Park, home of the Kakadu Culture Camp, but apparently not on a Saturday night. Red sunset aided by the fires in the area.

Statistics for the day. No idea really. Perhaps nearly 200km finally. Yes, we paid for the late night and early morning, but we got through.