Katherine (for Mar. 8)
It was tough sleeping last night. 28 degrees at 2 AM. 27 degrees at 6 AM. Very high humidity and no breeze. We slept in puddles of sweat. There were a few mosquitoes around at dawn, but not too bad. We were up early to eat and break camp for the 50 km drive to Yellow Water for a 9 AM cruise of the Alligator River floodplain. All our sweat-soaked clothes are just as wet as when we took them off last night.
Wow! There is a lot of water out there. Part of our boat cruise was over top of the dry season walking trail. The level varies about 5 metres from wet to dry, but the area covered varies exponentially. From a narrow river, the watercourse expands into a veritable inland sea. It is miles across for 100 miles from the ocean. The plants have adapted to live part of the year submerged and part totally dry and many of them float, never actually taking root. There are gazillions of birds out there. One of them is the Magpie Goose, a black and white goose that sits 
in trees. Another is this guy and his 4 chicks that they call the Jesus Bird. He has toes as long as his legs and runs along on top of floating vegetation. The day is pretty sunny through broken cloud and very warm and humid again. Fortunately, there is a hint of breeze on the water.
This was probably our last chance to see crocs in the wild. Although we are continually warned to stay away from the water, there is so much water that they are spread out over hundreds of square miles instead of being concentrated in rivers and billabongs (sloughs).
The water is so brown from the high runoff that there could be one right under your nose without you seeing it. They like to hang out near the shore and grab prey when it comes to drink.
From the cruise we went to a little known swimming spot at the foot of Moline Falls. What an idyllic spot. Shaded by the rocks and trees, the water is just the perfect temperature and we were totally on our own.
From there we exited Kakadu for lunch at its southern border. While some of the gang was setting up lunch in one of the picnic shelters, one of the guides spotted 4-5 Brown Snakes, apparently very poisonous. We moved to the other shelter.
After Yellow Water we were mostly in savanna as we gained some altitude through rolling hills. We started to get a little rain that intensified into fairly steady moderate rain for much of the afternoon. We stopped at Edith Falls for a swim and some pictures, but the views weren’t great in the rain. We went on to the town of Katherine and set up camp for the night.
Wow! There is a lot of water out there. Part of our boat cruise was over top of the dry season walking trail. The level varies about 5 metres from wet to dry, but the area covered varies exponentially. From a narrow river, the watercourse expands into a veritable inland sea. It is miles across for 100 miles from the ocean. The plants have adapted to live part of the year submerged and part totally dry and many of them float, never actually taking root. There are gazillions of birds out there. One of them is the Magpie Goose, a black and white goose that sits 
in trees. Another is this guy and his 4 chicks that they call the Jesus Bird. He has toes as long as his legs and runs along on top of floating vegetation. The day is pretty sunny through broken cloud and very warm and humid again. Fortunately, there is a hint of breeze on the water.
This was probably our last chance to see crocs in the wild. Although we are continually warned to stay away from the water, there is so much water that they are spread out over hundreds of square miles instead of being concentrated in rivers and billabongs (sloughs).
The water is so brown from the high runoff that there could be one right under your nose without you seeing it. They like to hang out near the shore and grab prey when it comes to drink.
From the cruise we went to a little known swimming spot at the foot of Moline Falls. What an idyllic spot. Shaded by the rocks and trees, the water is just the perfect temperature and we were totally on our own.From there we exited Kakadu for lunch at its southern border. While some of the gang was setting up lunch in one of the picnic shelters, one of the guides spotted 4-5 Brown Snakes, apparently very poisonous. We moved to the other shelter.
After Yellow Water we were mostly in savanna as we gained some altitude through rolling hills. We started to get a little rain that intensified into fairly steady moderate rain for much of the afternoon. We stopped at Edith Falls for a swim and some pictures, but the views weren’t great in the rain. We went on to the town of Katherine and set up camp for the night.
posted by Celeste at
8:52 p.m.
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