Day Sixty Four - September 8th, 2013
Kakadu National Park

We started our day with a walk up to a vantage point looking out over a great view of the park, with amazing aboriginal rock art lining the path. We took the stairs cutting through a cave which was used as shelter for more then 2,000 years by the indigenous people of the area, and still had fantastic samples of the kind of art found in Kakadu. We unfortunately ended up behind a tour group which held us up a little, but we pushed past them and got out ahead.

Angus took us on a 2.5k walk around one of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, billabong in the park. The signs warning of crocs near the footpath had me in a panic, but Elly and Angus assured mum and me that all would be well. We did in fact end up spotting a saltwater crocodile surfacing - terrifying but exciting! All the birds had retreated to the water's edge, and we stood far back on the path!

The next stop was the Warradjan Cultural Centre where we learnt all about the lifestyle of the aboriginal people from this area. There were no photos allowed in the exhibit, but we took in all the information about hunting, missionary's, tradition and what the future might hold for the inhabitants of Kakadu. We stopped for lunch and then tried to do another walk, but we found it was closed for the season. Instead we took a drive around the area and saw another nice billabong and camping area. Our cruise out onto Yellow Water was leaving at 4.30, so we grabbed a cool drink under a fan and managed to keep the flies off our faces for the first time all day.

We piled onto the boat, and could see straight away that we would see amazon wildlife in a perfect setting. Our tour guide, Nathaniel, was funny ad informative and stopped to give us all a great view of nature, no matter which side of the boat we were sat on. We encountered a croc very early on, and I suddenly realised just how many are in one place. Each male has a territory of around 500-1000m, and are the only male in that particular space. We saw our first big man 'Water' who stood his ground and eyed us from his place in the water. Nothing phases him! We saw lots of females cruising around, and one lying on the bank with its mouth open to keep cool. We had an unfortunate moment when a female caught a fish, and sensing Water close by, was not as aware of her surroundings as she might have been, didn't move out of the way of the boat. We ran straight over her - making an awful ruckus! For a terrible moment I thought the boat might go down in these hugely croc infested waters, but soon she reappeared, fish in jaws, and skulked off towards the bank. Nathaniel assured us they go through much wore during a fight!

We saw all kinds of birds including Sea Eagles, Red Kites and Pelicans which synchronised their feeding by working in a pack, pushing fish out from the reeds and dipping down to retrieve them. The sun started to set, and we headed for home after two hours of what felt like an Attenborough program! We ended the cruise with Water lazing nearby, the red sun blazing a path as it set and Nathaniel playing the didgeridoo - amazing!

Back to the hotel with M&A for a yumy barramundi supper and home to bed. We found our cooler bag riddled with ants and had to throw away all our food - an end not fitting to an otherwise incredible day!