Kakadu

"I'm from Darwin I should not be in this part of the blog."
Shuddup your a frog, stop talking. Ed.

Leaving the big smoke of Darwin we headed south and east out on the Arnheim Highway towards Kakadu. There was a stop we had to make on the way and that was for the jumping croc's out on the Alligator River. It's called the Alligator River because some bloke called King had seen alligators in South America and mistook our friendly crocs for alligators. He should have counted their exposed teeth or talked to a nine year old called Callam who would have put him straight on the differences. Anyway before we got to the crocs we were able to visit the Windows to the Wetlands centre just up the road. Great place and lots of interactive displays which gave us a great idea of what the Kakadu wetlands are all about.

Down the road we hopped on small boat and headed out with our all female crew for a bit of croc feeding. I think the girl that did the feeding was the same chick in The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo, very wierd, but she was very well behaved and did not kill anybody. The skipper looked a little like Fifi Box but when she talked she was very intelligent, again a bit wierd. Crocs don't actually jump, reallyyyy, no they don't but they get a long way out of the water by using their tails as propellers and their jaws make an awesome snapping sound.

Say arrrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

They are a very impressive animal and although dangerous they have a very likeable smile on their chops.

Mmmm..you look tasty, jump in the water with me.

The creepy thing about these crocs is that they come up to the boat very silently and quickly, sometimes two at a time. This situation needs to be avoided because they are not always friendly to one another, even when making out. A couple of days before we got here there was a large 4.5m albino male that attacked and ate a 2.5m female who made the mistake of possibly thinking he was up for some love action but was obviously not in the mood. The other thing we were told was that for every croc you see there are another eight in the near vicinity. Fall in the water here and you become croc poo very quickly because they can pick up the faintest vibration in the water up to 1km away, that includes a heart beat.

After feeding four "jumping crocs" skipper Fifi turned the boat back and Lisbeth Salander fed these Whistling Kites that swooped out of the air and took pieces of meat only centimetres from her hand. She looked like she might just grab one by the neck for the hell of but she never did.

After a right turn at Jabiru we headed down the Kakadu Highway to Cooinda and Yellow Water. The bugs at this place were thick and imune to any sort of insect repellant. They would fly up your nose, in your ears, eyes, mouth, hair and then bite you. The trouble with Kakadu this time of year is that there is only limited access to some of the spots in the park. Best time of year to visit is June/July where everything is opened but there is also an influx of thousands of tourists. We were lucky enough to be there the day Gunlom Falls were opened. A bit of a steep walk up but worth it for the view from the natural horizon pool at the top. 

View from the top

View from the bottom.

And when in this part of the world a trip on Yellow Water is essential. Although the wet was a bit week this year there still seemed to be plenty of water about and plenty of bird life, there were also resident crocs and for some odd reason very large stingrays which you tend to associate with salt water but these were 100km plus up stream.

Alright who left chewing gum on this branch.

Wetland, very wet it is.

Allo, allo. What's your name then.

Got anything to eat, I'm starving.

Next stop before the Isa after Kakadu du du was what's the Mataranka. Quick swim there with the preferred vote going to Bitter Springs over the Mataranka Springs. Both worthy of a visit, turtles a Bitter Springs but better rocks for doing bombs at Mataranka.

Mataranka Springs

Bitter Springs