Darwin - Day 4 - Yellow Waters Sunrise cruise, Maguk Falls, Kakadu scenic flight & Signs

Joining Tom for the SIGNS meme.

At 6am a shuttle bus picked up our group at the entry to Cooinda Lodge, and ferried us down the road to Yellow Waters Billabong for the sunrise cruise.

Panoramic view of the river and one of the boats while we were waiting to depart

The moon was still shining just before we departed on the cruise

Kakadu was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in  1992,  in recognition of its cultural and natural value. It is home to an incredible 2,000 plant species, 280 types of birds (around one-third of all Australian bird species) and about one-fifth of all Australian mammals.

The landlocked Yellow Water Billabong flows into the South Alligator River, which is made up of swamps, floodplains and river channels. Yellow Water Cruises, is an Indigenous owned Company with exclusive use of the billabong and they run 6 cruises a day from sunrise to sunset, all year long.

Once passengers filled the 2 boats we departed. Soon we spotted the first salt-water crocodile in the water. During 2 hours, we drifted slowly along the still waters, while our very humorous half-Aboriginal tour guide pointed out crocs, various birds, wild animals and local flora.  I have never been into bird spotting, but I really enjoyed seeing so many different species in their habitat. 

Hope I got their names right!

Crocs in and out of the water

Buffalo, Plumed Whistling-duck, Egret, Cormorant

 

Nakeen Night Heron, Comb-crested Jacana?, Great blue heron?,  Brolga

Black necked stork (jabiru), White bellied Sea Eagle, Azure kingfisher, Magpie goose

Dozens of ducks everywhere on river or land

The sun rising and the golden hues and spectacular reflections on the water were just breathtaking!

The Yellow Water Billabong was certainly the highlight of my trip.

On or return to Cooinda Lodge we had our Continental breakfast.

This cute Jabiru was a regular in the breakfast area, jumping onto tables to pick on leftovers as soon as guests departed - they usually eat fish, molluscs and amphibians, so not sure what appealed to him in eggs, toast, pancakes?

At around 9am the group got on the tour bus on the way to Maguk or Barramundi Gorge Falls, 14km away.

The road includes 12km of unsealed corrugated road, more suitable for 4wd.  To reach the beautiful crystal clear pool fed by a waterfall and surrounded by steep gorge walls, you have to walk 1km through monsoon forest, a low river, small sandy beaches and jagged rocks marked with arrows to show you the way.  The older couple in our group decided to stay at the Lodge, as the walk and climbs of the day would be too strenuous for them, and one other lady with bad knees stayed at one of the small "beaches" just before we started our rock climb.

The pool surrounded by vegatation, the rocks and boulders on our 1km walk/climb to the pool and one of the small "beaches" along the way

But it was all worthwhile, as when you reached the pool, the scenery was breathtaking. We had our bathers under our shorts and t-shirts and were given about 1 hour to enjoy the cool waters. Swimming along the rocks on the right I managed to almost reach the hole in the rock just before the waterfall, but decided to get back to base and just enjoy sitting on a rock with my feet in the water.

Panorama view of Maguk

The falls and huge hole in the  rocks

Before departing to Nourlangie Rock, about 1h away, we used the toilets to change into dry clothes and had a snack.

About 36km from the town of Jabiru (where we stopped the day before), Nourlangie Rock (Burrungguy)  was a place known for providing shelter to the Aboriginal people during the wet season. The rock paintings document life in the region from 20,000 years ago to the first contact with European explorers.  There is a 1,5km circuit walk to see rock art.

Nourlangie Rock from the car park

Our next stop was at the Bowali Visitor Centre in the town of Jabiru. With a  library, small theatre and interpretative displays, this visitor centre wil tell you everything about Kakadu. Park passes can also be bought here if you haven't got one online or haven't bought one in one of the 10 other venues that sell them (our tour guide had arranged these before our trip).

After our tour, came our last adventure for the day! A sunset flight over Kakadu.At the Jabiru Aerodrome we joined a couple of people already there, we were weighed, given a short talk about our flight over Kakadu and distributed between 2 small Cessna planes. 

The Mercure Crocodile Hotel, Jabiru town, the Uranium mine and me and travelling companions 

Rocks and Rivers of Kakadu

As would be expected the sunset seen from the plane was beautiful...

Our tour guide Paul was waiting for us on the ground when we landed, and we were driven to Cooinda Lodge where we arrived about 40min later at around 7,30pm. 

After a shower I put laundry in the washing machine in the communal laundry (a free guest perk). Joined the others, ordered dinner and while waiting for dinner  popped back into the laundry to change the clothes from the washer to the drier and I went back a while later to collect the clothes after they dried. All ready to be packed up later on!

I ordered fish and chips for dinner, and the group sat around the table with the older couple who hadn't gone with us, relaying our adventures of the day.

We were leaving Cooinda Lodge the following day to go to Katherine, so before going to bed I called Jose from the free phone cabin, to tell him about our very exciting day! 

Map of our itinerary from Coinda Lodge and back:

We covered about 366km from 6am to 7,30pm.