We drove over to Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre this morning. It's an interesting bit of architecture, shaped like a pig-nosed turtle apparently. Inside was a museum/cultural exhibit that explained a lot of the history of the local aboriginal people over the last 150y. They have seen tremendous change in that time: white settlers, buffalo hunters, crocodile hunters, cattle farming, and now National Park status and a return of a large amount of control of their lands. They call non-aboriginal people Balanda and crocodiles ginga. They divide the year into 6 seasons based on the temperature and the rain and they link them or define the seasons even by things like when certain trees flower and fruit, when the magpie geese flock, when the crocodiles lay their eggs, etc. It was very interesting. At the gift shop J bought a book called, "Australian Plants as Aboriginal Tools." I got, "Frogs of Australia." C got a beginner's guide to aboriginal art.

Hot today, 36° apparently but Todowold thought it was 41. Whatever it was, it was hot. The mozzies are bad here and they have a definite predilection for me for some reason. I seem to react to them quite badly and the bites itch for ages.

This evening, we took the Yellow Water cruise and that was excellent. I took 286 photos in 2 hours. Yellow Water is the lowerest billabong on the South Alligator river system. It's freshwater, about 30 km from the salt. At this time of year, the water is low and so all the wildlife is concentrated. There are so many crocodiles! And heaps of birds: Jabiru, herons, ducks, geese, kingfishers, spoonbills. The sunset was magical. The water pandanus is thick by the banks and rafts of reeds stretch off like grassy plains to the distance. We saw magnificent brumbies grazing and fish dancing in the water. A jabiru nest was perched at the very top of a high gum tree, but it was a long way off.

The meal last night was so good we went back for another. J and C stayed in the van and had pizza from the bistro so A and I got to have a meal on our own. It was excellent again. 5 Stars.