Kakadu Day 1

Happy Yom Kippur, everyone! I am being good and fasting today, despite the 92 degree heat + humidity. I have secured myself an enviable chair by the pool, so I'm just going to give you a quick summary of my time in Kakadu. It will be more awesome when I can post pictures, anyway. Here is the first day; I will post the second day tomorrow (or later tonight if I feel like it).

At 7:00 AM I met the rest of my group and the tour guide, and we began our journey in a 4WD truck with no air con into Kakadu National Park. We drove through eucalyptus savannah and dry floodplains (it is, after all, the dry season; below is a picture), and ended up at the Adelaide River, where we were to go on a 'jumping croc cruise'.
Essentially this cruise is on a small boat that travels out onto the river and then dangles meat over the edge, enticing the saltwater crocodiles to jump out of the water. The biggest one we saw was 6 metres (18 feet) long! Although the jumping crocodiles was a little touristy, it was awesome to see them in their natural habitat, basking on the edge of the river or making their way slowly through the water. The one in the first picture is one of the smallest crocs we saw.






They can jump their entire body length straight into the air, which was awesome to see. The best part was once we were dangling the meat over the edge, and a sea eagle came in a dive out of the sky and grabbed it. It was an amazing bird; about the size of a bald eagle if not a little bigger, and all grey and white. There were also mudskippers on the edge of the water, and although I was excited to see them they didn't seem that interesting to anyone else. As we left, we were followed by kites, small birds of prey that swooped and dove past us.


After the cruise, we continued into the park, stopping along the way at billabongs filled with incredible birds. Our camp was beautiful, surrounded by ridiculously tall rock faces.


After we left our trailer at the campsite, we drove for fifteen minutes over a crazy dirt road filled with bumps and potholes and deep water and sharp turns to reach the Jim Jim Falls hike. There were signs everywhere warning not to swim because of crocodiles.


As we hiked (in the incredible heat), the scenery changed from relatively sparse eucalyptus to lush, rainforest-like foliage, with huge, huge, HUGE rock cliffs rising all around us. We followed an incredibly clear river and occasionally spotted small freshies (freshwater crocodiles, smaller, and not quite as dangerous) along the banks. After a long scramble up rocks, we came to a white-sand beach at the plunge pool of the dried-up-for-the-season Jim Jim Falls.


It was incredible to see, and the sheer height of the rocks surrounding us made you feel very insignificant. Apparently, this pool was also safe for swimming, as it was cut off from the main river by the rocks we had climbed to reach it.


The water was amazing and wonderful after the hike, but I still had a hard time relaxing *completely* after seeing all those crocs. There were these little frogs on the banks who, when they were scared, would actually hop on top of the water. On the way back, we stopped at an outcropping of rocks and watched the cliffs change color in the sunset.




After our hike, we headed back to camp and made a big fire. We wrapped potatoes in foil and put them in the coals to cook. As we waited, we grilled sausages, kangaroo, and made a big stir fry. After dinner, our guide taught us a bit about playing the didgeridoo and passed one around. It is HARD, but we had a lot of fun. I really liked all the people I was with, and I will tell you more about them and the rest of the trip when I do my post on the second day tomorrow.


Now, I'm going to go back to laying by the pool.