Wednesday 17th December

Monday 15th - concluded
Well, we didn't swim with the crocodiles but the Crocodylus exhibit in Darwin was really good. Billed intriguingly as "3 storeys of crocodile pens"... well, it's exactly that. It IS possible to swim with Snowy, a particularly mean 6 metre croc - in a strenghtened perspex cage bearing his teeth marks. But at $120 we decided against it. But there are loads of good crocodiley things, and an excellent Reptile Cente showing lots of the things that crawl, slither and bite up here -with good advice if you do get bitten. (Try to remember what it was, don't go near anything brown) We also cuddled a bearded dragon (about 20cm), a blue-tongued skink and an olive python. All were very lovable and well-behaved but we weren't allowed to take them home.

Tuesday 16th December
Up at 5.30 (this is habit-forming) for a pick-up by the coach taking us to Kakadu. Apparently this used to be a 14-hour drive by 4WD 30 years ago, but is now only 2hrs30 min from Darwin. Very beautiful drive passing througfh 5 distinct types of vegetation, from floodplain to rainforest, but mostly savannah. Raining all the way, very green! We started by seeing the Aboriginal rock paintings at Nuralangie and going for a short bushwalk to a lookout - during which we saw something brown, a deadly brown snake, which luckily slept peacefully in a watercourse and left us alone. Pretty little agile wallabies were around all day. The lookout gave us an inkling of what we were to experience - untold miles of untouched country, steep escarpments in the distance. The paintings were wonderful as well, we also began to get a feel for the culture which could survive in such a place.
By afternoon, the rain had cleared, not to return until the night; very hot and humid, but we were told it wasn't nearly as bad as it was last week when the Wet began, so we felt very lucky - and it was more tolerable than we'd expected. So we had a glorious cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong. We saw pretty little jacanas tiptoeing over the lilypads, white-bellied sea-eagles, bid Jabiru storks, a lovely diver -a bit like a cormorant but with a very long neck, called a Darter, brolgas flying over, magpie geese, several types of egret... it was very like being in Galapagos, the wildlife let us get very close without being disturbed. And that went for the crocs as well...about 7 or 8 of them. Very exciting.
After that, we'd opted for a flight over this bit of Kakadu, along with one other person from the tour, so we were taken to a tiny bush airstrip for a completely staggering hour's flight on a small Skyvan light plane. What an experience, flying over the savannah and wetlands until we reached the escarpments we'd seen in the morning. We were flown aroungd some of the famous waterfalls, which after the rains of the last week were very spectacular - as was the flying at this point, involving banked turns of 40 to 60 degrees! We flew as close as you can get to Arnemland, which is Aboriginal land and can only be entered with a government permit. The escarpments were magnificently eroded into endless rock formations. It was impossible to see how the first explorers ever made it to the Top End. We finally landed at another tiny airstrip - made for a large uranium mine which we flew close to . With a healthy glow we emerged from the flight- we were so glad we'd done it. We were told that in that hour we'd covered perhaps 1% of the area of Kakadu. Trying to describe its vastness is impossible.
Then we were delivered to our motel, in the depths of the bush. A lovely place, where you can walk out of your room to see dingoes and wallabies within a few yards. We went for a walk to the local billabong - making sure NOT to go close to the edge, and watched the birdlife and the butterflies smothering a tree in blossom - all the varieties you might see in a tropical house at home. Then a swim in the pool as it got dark, flying foxes overhead, and delicious barramundi (they live in the billabongs) for dinner.

Wednesday 17th December
A lie in this morning, breakfast at 7:00. This morning there were only 2 of us on the 46 seater coach. The "crocs" didn't get the rest, all bar 2 were only on a day trip and returned to Darwin last night. We had a 45 minute drive back across Kakadu to its western border, picking up the other couple who had stayed in a more expensive hotel built in the shape of a crocodile???? Our first stop was at Ubirra, a site of many Rock paintings that has restricted access. Our coachdriver has a key for a locked gate, but he was still checked up on by a ranger a couple of hours later. On the way to this place the coach had to cross two floodways with water about half a metre deep. The paintings were spectacular but the views over the escarpment and the wetlands from the lookout matched them. You don't know what green is 'till you've seen Kakadu in the Wet. As usual there were many interesting plants and wildlife including "Drongo" birds, Kites, Monitor lizards, tiny rock wallabies and the huge Walleroos, a heavily built species of Kangaroo, of which we saw two having a stand up boxing match.
Then came a hic-cup in the day. We were at the East Alligator river which was now in flood. These flood waters had covered the floodways we crossed earlier and had now cut the main route eastwards (until next March!!!). It had also caused our scheduled boat trip to be shutdown and the boats taken out of the water and moved to their wet season location. This move wouldn't complete until next week so the tour was rejigged. Morning tea then a drive back out of the park on the way the coach had to brake hard to avoid hitting a 2/3 foot Frilled lizard that sat in the middle of the road and refused to give until with the coach over the top of him he took to his hind legs and ran.
A lunch stop at the "Bark Hut" (transport caff. extraordinaire) then a hastily organised trip on the Adelaide river closer to Darwin. We had a 30 seat high speed swamp boat with just 4 of us in, as the guide cruised the river and tempted out about 8 crocodiles in various places who have learned that this boat gives them a quick snack of lamb chops if they swim out to it and are prepared to jump high out of the water to grab it. Each of the crocs had different features, "personalities"? The biggest "Stumpy" an old black male took his chops then cruised around the boat leaving you in no doubt that he fancied you next.
The guide then fed the Kites that dived and plucked the meat off the waters surface with great skill. Crocs. have proved to be frightening and fascinating, undoubtedly some people in the Northern territories have a "croc" obsession which is quite understandable. They are predicting a bad flooding "Wet Season" based on the early breeding of the crocs. Back to Darwin tired with exhilaration but we now have the warnings of the first Cyclone of the season and may look for an early flight out.