Kakadu was truly amazing. It was so beautiful. We went on the Yellow Water river cruise and saw so many crocodiles, birds, water buffalo, water lilies and lotus lilies. Apparently the lotus lilies come out after the rains but this year they came out and then more late rain came so a lot of the blooms were destroyed. I still thought it looked amazing. The water will keep dropping in the next month or so and eventually you will just have the river and the rest will be a dust bowl. Hard to imagine it as a dust bowl after seeing it all flooded. I would be quite happy to do this tour day after day as it was so spectacular. Saw birds I had never heard of like the Red Crested Jacana which live on the water lily pads, the female lays the eggs and then its over to the father to protect them. The chicks are tiny and they can feed themselves as soon as they hatch, they are in the photo if you look very closely. The male is only 20cms tall to give you an idea of how small the chicks are
This is a good croc spotting venue. It is on the East Alligator River and yes it’s called ‘Alligator River’ much to the annoyance of the Territorians. An explorer mistook the crocodiles for alligators back in 1820 and it has never been changed. Cahills Crossing has a seasonal phenomenon that occurs in the later part of the dry season. When its high tide and about to turn the mullet and barramundi swim and jump across this tiny causeway to go upstream and all the crocs know this so they come for their dinner. Apparently the crocodile density increases up to September. We counted 22 crocs at the same time all catching fish as they go past. You couldn’t help but back the fish.
Not easy to see in the picture but the bits that look like floating branches are crocs. Only managed to get 9 in one picture. It was great fun just watching them.