Kakadu is wild.
For a place with such well developed tourism. Kakadu is still wild.
This is my fourth (or maybe 5th) trip to Kakadu, all at different times of the year. It’s also my longest – 11 days this time.
And I still haven’t seen it all.
There are things I do every time I come to Kakadu. The Yellow Waters Cruise. I did it twice this time – once at sunset and again at sunrise. It is different every time.
I always visit Ubirr. There’s just something about Ubirr. The rock art is amazing, but it’s more than that. You can almost feel the presence of the people who lived there for thousands of years. And the view changes with the seasons. Even though I was there right at the end of the dry, there was still water on the floodplain.
I like hiking in Kakadu, but this time it’s just too hot. High 30s every day, with the build up really settling in.
So this time I’ve done a couple of different things.
I visited West Arnhem Land. Twice.
Once I crossed Cahills Crossing. Well, I didn’t drive, I did a day tour. Still, it was pretty cool.
We visited some amazing places, including the Injalak Art Centre. Their fabric prints are beautiful!
We stopped at a gorgeous beach on a river for lunch. It was hot, so we sat in the shade of all the gum trees and stared longingly at the water. But this is croc country. Big croc country. So we couldn’t swim.
The second time I went into West Arnhem Land was on a cruise along the East Allegator River, where we pulled into the bank on the Arnhem Land side and got out for a short while. And had an amazing demonstration by our guide of spear making and spear throwing with a woomera. The distance he could get using a woomera had to be seen to be believed. Without even trying! Just as a demonstration for tourists.
I did try to get a permit so I could go to West Arnhem Land myself, but getting a permit for West Arnhem Land is more difficult than for East Arnhem Land. You need exact details of where you’ll be and when. And you won’t get a permit just to cross Cahills Crossing and come back again.
As well as trying to control who goes into West Arnhem Land, and why, I guess there’s probably a duty of care there. You can’t let just anybody cross Cahills. Because people are stupid.
It is a dangerous crossing. It can get quite deep, and it’s tidal so can be very fast flowing. If you get it wrong you’ll end up in water that has the highest concentration of crocodiles of any place in the world.
And this is where Kakadu gets really wild.
I sat on the bank at high tide and watched all the crocodiles in the river below. I counted 23 crocodiles in one small space by the causeway. And that was just the ones I saw. All just sitting by the causeway waiting for the fish to wash over with the tide. All big salties.
Well, except for one. There was a tiny crocodile hanging out at the edge of the causeway. I thought it was going to get eaten by the bigger crocs at one point. But it survived. That is going to grow up to be one very tough crocodile!
There are just as many on the other side of the crossing. Some days there are more. In a very confined space, which isn’t normal crocodile behaviour, but they make an exception here because there is so much food.
Let’s hope somebody falling in isn’t part of that food.
I watched people fishing from low rocks by the river, casting lures right into the middle of the crocodiles. Some even standing on the causeway while doing it. All while there are at least 23 crocodiles right in front of them. One bloke even slipped on the rocks and dropped his rod into the water while trying to stop himself from falling in. Then he climbed down to retrieve the rod.
I also watched cars go across and back. One with a couple of young woman standing on the steps outside, filming as they went across. That causeway isn’t smooth. You will bounce around. If she slipped, she was in the water with big, opportunistic predators just waiting for a feed.
Darwin Award coming up in 3 .. 2 ..
People really are fucking idiots.
You do however have to get up very early to see them. Sunrise is the best time, when it’s still cool. I went to Mamukala Wetlands where there are thousands of magpie geese, as well as lots of other birds. I got up at 5am, packed up my roof top tent in the dark, and drove 75k to be there for sunrise. Lucky I did because by 8.30 it was all quiet. It was already getting too hot for the birds to be doing anything.
I’m not sure if I should admit this, but I also did a lot of bird watching. The birds in Kakadu are amazing. And there are so many of them at this time of year, when water has dried up elsewhere and there are still wetlands in Kakadu.
I did the wetlands walk and saw lots of beautiful, small songbirds. But they’re too fast and I’m not good enough to photograph them yet. I would have sat down and waited patiently for an opportunity, but I’d already done that with a kite. I sat on the path with my camera focused on it, waiting for it to take off from the tree it was in because I wanted to get it in flight. I was concentrating on the bird so wasn’t really aware of my surroundings, but my subconscious heard a noise behind me. I turned around and there was a big mob of pigs. Big pigs. Around 8-10 of them. And I was sitting on the ground. Making me smaller than them, and much more vulnerable.
Not a good situation to be in.
I also noticed buffalo tracks.
So no, I wasn’t going to sit down and wait again.
And I finally got to Gunlom. More on that to come.
