That was the first order of the day as we boarded a 6:45 am cruise on the Yellow Water billabong. We finally made it to Kakadu national park last night and arranged a sunrise wildlife viewing cruise on our first morning here. As soon as we pulled away from the dock the reason for the order appeared. A salt water crocodile, or a saltie in Aussie vernacular, swam slowly across the surface without a care in the world. We would see several more but it was a nice start to the morning. The larger mammals spotted were a Cape buffalo and some wild horses. The rest of the fauna for the day were birds. On the cruise we spotted magpie geese, black necked (also called jabiru) storks, jacaranas, kingfishers, ibises, darters (basically Australian anhingas), cattle egrets, and a white-bellied eagle the caught a fish and ate it in plain view.
The reason the ranger told us not to swim anywhere in the park, ever.
White-bellied Eagles and breakfast.
Birds, birds and more birds.
Some of the pretty sunrise scenery.
The rest of the day was all about driving and hiking around in more prairie in the first serious heat. Still we did see an Australian bustard (a turkey relative apparently) and caught sight of some red-tailed black cockatoos. Those latter birds are incredibly skittish, so no pics.
And oh yeah, we finally joined the other, less refined tourists in the camp pool. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet associate with the riffraff. We even ate at the camp bistro and watched Australian rules football. That sport kind of reminds me of when Calvin and Hobbes played Calvinball, just making up the rules as they went along.
It's Opener There 