Kakadu - Yellow Water

Sunday 26th July 2009
The family is still suffering from the flu and I'm also showing the first symptoms but today is the day we had to move on so we got up early enough to a temperature of 21°C and loads of humidity. I worked up a big sweat while packing up the caravan in slow motion but still had it all finished by 8am. We left Darwin around 8:15 and headed south on the Stuart Highway for a short distance before turning east towards Kakadu National Park.
Along the way we stopped at the "Windows to the Wetlands" center near the Adelaide River bridge and had a look at the interesting displays showing the intricacies of wetland Flora and Fauna. Alexander had no energy whatsoever, he mainly sat around and found the going fairly tough.
After this stop we didn't have another stop until we got to our final destination. At the Adelaide River bridge we could have gone on the Jumping Crocodile Cruise where the big Salties jump vertically out of the water, for their full body length, to get a chicken or whatever other bait is being used.
Unfortunately we were all too sick to go on this cruise and I was happy to finish driving as soon as possible. The track took us across the Mary River and many other small creeks, past Jabiru where we turned South (towards Pine Creek) and then into Cooinda which is really just a caravan park and petrol station very close to Yellow Water, a large Lagoon system running of the South Alligator River.
After we set up the caravan and had a bite to eat the kids had a bit of a rest before we went on the Yellow Water sunset cruise. A large boat took us out on Yellow Water and into the South Alligator River where we saw the incredible wildlife which makes Kakadu world famous and a World Heritage Area.
The bird life is unbelievable with Sea Eagles, Whisteling Ducks, Magpie Geese, Jabiru's, Brolgas, Kingfishers, Bee Eaters and many other species right next to the boat. One of the more curious birds is the so called "Jesus Bird" - it got it's name because it can walk on Water.
This was also our first opportunity to see Saltwater Crocs in the wild. They certainly are big and dangerous animals but the tourist boats don't seem to bother them at all. Salties have no natural enemies, other than another Saltie, so they can be quite confident that nothing is going to harm them. The safety briefing on the cruise did say not to bother with life jackets as survival chances are minimal for a person in the water.
Although we saw a few crocs, there were many we never got to see. Looking out in front of the boat I could see this sudden movement of water as if a large body, submerged just below the surface, suddenly dives deeper and leaves this quite substantial whirlpool on the surface. This happened many times, so I'm quite sure that there's plenty more crocs lurking just below the surface, should an unfortunate tourist fall in the water.
Towards the end of the cruise we stopped to enjoy a magnificent sunset over Kakadu viewed from Yellow Water. What a glorious end to the day.
When we got back to base Alexander and Andrea didn't eat much and I was the only one left with an appetite. As soon as Alexander hit the pillow he was asleep. I think I'll suffer the same fate tonight ....