Some had said to us Kaka-don't but with no expectations we were keeping our minds open. It didn't take long before the land and experience drew us in and held us close and became Kaka-DO!! What a magical place and we were already in discussion as to coming back in the wet season!
We stayed 3 nights within the National park, 2 at Jabiru and the last night at Cooinda for the yellow water cruise.
Not a long drive from Darwin we slowly made our way towards our place to stay. Our first stop just outside of the national park was Fogg Dam. Our initial advice from the information centre was to take the drive across the dam wall rather than walk but then the information board stated '... in maintaining the integrity of the dam wall we would prefer if cars were not driven across the dam wall ...' hmmmm decision to drive the low lying 1km wall was made. In light of spotting a rather large saltwater crocodile just off the side of the dam wall we were all glad to have taken the lazy option.
The boys were pumped! The promise of many wild salty sightings had kicked off with a bang and the bonus we were in the car safe and sound! We are officially on croc watch!!!
The next day we headed to the East Alligator region of Kakadu with our first stop at the main attraction of Ubirr. The night before the caravan park held a free ranger talk all about the Aboriginal rock art giving us some background. The park also offers free guided ranger talks around the 1km circular track past a range of Aboriginal rick art sites. We filtered in and out of the talks which were at times a little slow for a couple of young lads who just wanted to climb and explore!! The walk also took us climbing up to the Nadab floodplain lookout. If you've seen the opening scenes of Crocodile Dundee with the character standing on one leg overlooking the floodplain ... this is where that was filmed. Zoe did an amazing job turning into our own little mountain goat "me do it mumma" as she made her way up the rock ledges. The view spectacular!
The boys were feeling hot and tired from the walk so we stopped for lunch and went out to Cahills Crossing picnic area that looked over the East Alligator river ... another salty on the other side of the river by the river crossing energised the troops and it was a big one. It wasn't hard to convince the boys to do another walk especially when a family who had just completed the walked said they saw 7 crocs ... 7!!!! Off we went on the Manngarre rainforest walk through monsoon rainforest along the river. Sure enough at the points that met the river across lying in the sun on the sandy banks were a row of about 6 rather large crocodiles!! The water is still cool for them so they spend alot of there time getting warm on the banks of the river, great! At least when they are out you know where they are, you can out run them on land but not in the water, handy to know! All up I think the boys had spotted 8 crocodiles, a productive day had by all which was well refreshed with a dip in the pool (croc free) at the caravan park.
The next day we headed towards our next overnight destination but not before a few more stops along the way.
The Nourlangie region is divided into 2 sections, Burrunggui is the Gun-djeihmi name for the upper section, here we saw more rock art which was quite amazing and up we climbed to another look out called Gun-warddehwardde. Anbangbang is the name for the lower section and the surrounding area of the rock. After some protest we all exited the car for another walk this time around the Anbangbang billabong which was a 2.5km circut around. The boys again had their eyes peeled as recent signs had indicated that a large salty inhibited the area. The billabong gave us our first good look at some of the famous birdlife that Kakadu is known for as well as some amazing water lillies which were just coming into bloom. As tempting as it was to move off the path to take a better photo the large croc warming itself on the small island in the billabong certainly stopped us in our tracks! Thankgod we had Zoe in the backpack carrier for this walk!! Satisfied with the walk we were all tired and hot and headed towards our caravan park which included ... yep another pool!
Our last day was an early start for a sunrise yellow water wetland cruise. The early morning mist over the water was truely magical and we were soon joined as we departed the jetty by a crocodile who seemed to "lead the way" before disappearing back into the darkness of the water. Apart from the crocodiles the birdlife was abundant and we all got some close up encounters with the majestic Jabiru. Australia's only stork it's bright red long legs, emerald green neck and head and long black beak it definitely leaves an impression. A variety of Kingfishers, including the tiny azure kingfisher were out and about, egrets, whistling kites, and the orange-footed scrub fowl alll spotted but my favourite the brolga was off into the distance too far away to get a close look. That aside we did get a small glimpse of wetland life in Kakadu and can only imagine during the 'wet' how much activity and life is on display. Oh yes we also saw that many crocodiles even the boys were becoming alittle complacent, "oh there's another one mum ... "
Kakadu well and truely delivered.