Wednesday 8 October 2014

G Adventures - Day 15 01-10-14

 Another early morning to get on the road to Kakadu national park, my cold was now in full swing and ip felt dreadful. To top it off most of our bags had to stay at the hostel as there would be no room fr them on the bus so we had to pack a rucksack for 3 days which is no easy feat.

Nick, our new guide, met us outside the hostel and loaded us onto the 4WD bus that would be our transport for the next 3 days. Nick has a Crocodile Dundee kind of look which I suppose having been filmed in an around Kakadu makes sense, right down to the hat being a similar style. It's kind of comforting too think if we got in trouble he might wrestle a croc for us. Maybe.

Our first stop of the day was the Mary River for a crocodile spotting boat trip. Here we learned the difference between Saltwater (salties) and freshwater (freshies) and why you can swim with freshies but you wouldn't want to come within 2km of a salty. We were shocked to see people camping within 2 meters of a crocodile infested river our boat guide called them 'blimmin idiots'.

When we got back to the bus Nick had lost his voice so we changed our itinerary and went to Maguk to do some swimming in a large waterfall fed rock lagoon. Nick reassured us there were no crocs as they do not like pulling their soft bells over the rocks so in we went. The next hour was just spent swimming, exploring and jumping off rocks into the 30m deep water before heading to watch sunset at Yellow Water billabong complete with a large salty surfacing as the sun went down. Then back camp for a BBQ dinner.

Camp was a whole new experience. Unlike Yulara and Kings Canyon campsites there was no electricity what-so-ever so everything was done via torch or headlamp. There was a a lot more wildlife too with cane toads, snakes, bats and possums making an appearance. Our tents were basically mosquito next covered with a plastic roof so that we didn't get too hot. It was a different experience entirely.


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