Jabiru and Cooinda, Northern Territory

Jabiru Information Centre

Purchasing our tickets for the Yellow River Cruise we made our way to the cafe for a coffee.  I needed the caffeine fix as I dozed off  in the car. So a black coffee hit the spot and for Daniel his latte set him up for the afternoon cruise.  On board we headed out along the river to view the awesome expanse and bright colours of the land.  Huge lilypads floating on top of the surface hid beneath them barramundi amongst other fish.  No bait was permitted to be used when fishing in this region.  You could only use lures. 

More rock art sites

The many different variety of birds were just beginning their descent upon the land here for the dry season.  Magpie geese, Kingfisher, Ducks, even a Jabiru all coming in for landing to begin their mating seasons.  Not only were we privy to this but what else was on our viewing platter, but of course, crocodiles please! Yes and we did see not one, two but about 5 in all on the cruise.  All just resting on the banks of the river in the shade of the afternoon sun.  Most with jaws open. A spectacular view nonetheless. This process is for cooling their brains as they heat up.

In Kakadu, there are about 198,000 crocodiles.  That is around 250 per 100 sq kilometres, or 25 crocs per 1 sq kilometre.  There are warning signs everywhere warning against any swimming in billabongs, streams, rivers or lagoons.  You enter at own risk with a possibility of no return.  Over many years there have been many accidents.  A crocodile can jump out of the water to two thirds of its length.  How's that for power?  Cruise over, afternoon sun starting to set as we made our way back to camp for another campsite with another evening fire.

That's a kangaroo in the background!

Watching people set up camp as they made their way in for the night familiar sounds to our ears played as in 'ch, sz, rz,' with ears perked it could only be the sound of a familiar tongue.  Another couple  with their small child not very far away from us were speaking the same language, Polish!  Daniel strolled down to the billabong to do some Barra fishing, he wasn't gone but 5 minutes before returning.  I asked 'why so quickly?'  His reply "It was
getting dark and I didn't want a croc to sneak up behind me!' Ha ha!  On return he approached the couple introducing himself to make acquaintance. 

Time for a rest!

 A simple evening chat by the fire was great to catch up with someone from Melbourne doing the same thing as we were doing.  Promising to catch up in the morning before departing we made our way home for the night under open skies and millions of stars.  No power, no light, a movie for the night before heading into our own dream times.

Time for the Yellow Water cruise

Remember to keep your arms inside the boat!

Stunning water views

Amazing birdlife

Spotted a Kingfisher

Thath's a croc!

Croc on the bank

Liliypads in the waters

A pink lilypad

Stunning views

Spotter another croc

The flooding plains