Yellow Water Cruises and Jim Jim Falls
Aug 1, 2023
We were very lucky to be able to do a sunset and sunrise cruise of the world heritage listed wetlands of Kakadu, the heart of this country. I had intended to only do the dawn cruise, but when booking there was a very good discount offered for a second cruise - for an extra $116 we could all do a second cruise. Or so I thought! When we got to the afternoon cruise I was the only one on the list, but the tour guide still let us on. Turns out the $116 was only for me, and for a while I felt bad that we'd swindled our way into a free cruise for Bob and the kids. But I didn't need to worry - they tracked me down for the remaining payment. Oh well!
Anyways, aside from the fascinating insight into my failed booking skills, we all really enjoyed the sunset cruise, although Josie found it a little long and whinge-inducing. Given the last response, we were a little worried about attempting the sunrise cruise - it felt like it could be a bit repetitive, plus lets not forget we are REALLY not morning people. But the lure of a buffet breakfast was enough to get everyone up and moving. And we were glad we did - there was something so special about seeing the wetlands wake up. We saw heaps of amazing birds, plants and, of course, crocodiles. Plus, our guide for the sunrise cruise, Dennis, was a traditional owner from the Mungguy people, who was able to share some amazing stories of growing up on country. He was a great story teller and engaging guide, plus his energy reminded me of my wonderful Uncle Johnny. He was fab.
The endless afternoon sky
The light of the golden hour on the sunset cruise
Sunrise over the wetlands on the second tour
Capturing the sunrise
Chocolate for brekky! There were also peanut butter sandwiches, and the buffet after the tour!
Cuddles with my tired baby!
A jabiru, which was actually misidentified and misnamed by the colonisers. It's not actually a jabiru, which is a South American bird, but it is Australia's one and only stork. Who knew!
Brolgas!! I was so excited to see them in the wild!!
Magpie geese.
A sacred kingfisher - we also saw an azure kingfisher, which was electric blue back and a brilliant orange chest. So beautiful! We also found out that Bob's got a much better camera on his phone than mine - most of these photos are from him!
A white-bellied sea eagle - see what I mean about Bob's camera?!?!
Water lily
Water lily and crocodile!
So many crocs! The kids were very taken by the fact that one of the guides said that for every croc you see, another 10 see you - by the end of the second cruise they figured they had been seen by over 300 crocs!
We also saw some feral animals, including pigs and buffalo, which are less welcome in the park, but not being particularly well managed due to lack of funding. A familiar tale! But one buffalo had been culled a natural way, through a croc attack, and the remains had been left in the water to be guarded and stalked by the big croc of the territory, Boofhead, and the young male crocs respectively. On the sunset cruise we saw about 5 crocs loitering around the carcass, but on the sunrise cruise we were lucky enough to one of the crocs attacking it, including a bit of a death roll. It was very exciting (if not a bit smelly!), but unfortunately hard to capture in photo, even for Bob's phone. You'll just have to trust us - it was super cool!
After seeing all the crocs, Toby was pretty tickled to see crocodile tacos on the menu for dinner so gave them a try!
Toby 1, Crocs 0!
Yesterday we had a big day, and experienced a definitely highlight at Jim Jim falls. It was a bit over an hour drive, including about 40 minutes on corrugated road, and then 20 mins of proper (but still pretty tame!) 4WDing. Bob drove in and I had a go on the way out, and it was definitely fun but intense!
The drive took us along an escarpment and then we walked / rock hopped for about and hour and half to reach the falls and plunge pool. Thankfully it was almost all in the shade of the monsoon forest, so it wasn't too hot, which was definitely a blessing given how intense the rock climbing got by the end.
Heading in, camel backs in action.
We were worried that Josie might struggle with the rock hopping / scrambling, with her little legs, but she did great and had SO much fun!
The big kids also loved it, and were very proud of how well they did.
We walked along the river at the base of the huge escarpment which runs downstream of the plunge pool / falls, which was lovely...
... but not safe for swimming!!
Closer to the falls there were some beaches, but we didn't feel so comfortable heading there, both in terms of sun and croc safety!
So we kept going
and going!
Until we arrived at the falls and the plunge pool!
The falls themselves generally dry up around the end of July, so unfortunately we just missed them. But even without them, it was a truly spectacular and awesome place, with these gigantic cliffs, with boulders perched close to the edge at the very top, and a seemingly bottomless pool will crystal clear water. That thankfully, due to the pool being completely cut off from the rest of the river by the huge boulders by this time of the year, was definitely clear of crocs. That's just for you, Alice!
Toby again chose not to swim so took some interesting photos, including this panorama, which gives the best sense of what the pool was like of all the photos we have, but also includes a random Toby leg!
We did have a very quick dip as it was very cold, even after working up a sweat with the walk in!
We all did really well on the walk out, although we were pretty hot and tired again by the time we got out. And then on the 4WD out a lovely fellow off-roader pointed out that one of the big spotlights on Frankie's bumper bar was a little on the loose side. We stopped and tightened up the bolts, but by the time we got through the additional 40 minutes of driving on a very corrugated dirt road, both spotlights had completely fallen off 😩. So we today we did some bush mechanics, and with the help of a lovely lady at the reception who asked the maintenance team to source a spare bolt and 2 nuts for us, we were able to reattached the lights, for now at least!! Key lessons learned - don't buy a cheap tool set on the assumption we won't need them, and where there are 3 bolt holes there should probably be 3 bolts 😡
Halfway through the job - you'll notice that we've used an old nappy to replace the foam that we lost along the way!
All done! We hope its enough to get us to a service centre at Jabiru tomorrow 🤞🤞🤞
So we've had a quiet day today, with some quality journaling from the kids as well as preparing and eating all 3 meals at home from our pantry stash, which we're pretty proud of!
Nora has been very diligent with her journaling, with a entry for every day and quite a lot of stress around remembering all of the events of each day.
Toby is taking a much more high level approach, with a dot point or two for each day, with several/many days per entry. But it still counts as meeting school requirements, I swear!
BBQ dinner!
We're heading to Jabiru tomorrow for our last 4 nights in Kakadu, which will include a day trip to Arnhem Land which I'm very excited about. We have not taken up Kersey's recommendation for accommodation - she came up for the blockade of the uranium mine in Jabiluka in the late nineties and spent some time in the Jabiru police cells. Onya Kersey ✊ (and sorry we missed the big party for your 50th!!)