Kakadu

Our first stop on the way to Kakadu National Park is at the Corroborree Billabong  Caravan Park. 

Here we tangle with the cane toad.

Fell out of the box, got to chase him again.

We have had 4 crocodile experiences to date.

1. In a commercial venue in Darwin.

2. In the museum.

3. The jumping crocs on the adelaide River.

4. watching them in the wild.

Each experience has been terrific and given us a different perspective.

 Each croc has a name and is fed pork pieces.

Even the sea eagle gets a feed.

We headed for the Corroborree Billabong sunset cruise.

The bird below was stalked by the croc and we all thought .....  this is dinner time. 

At the last second the croc was distracted.

It would have been quite interesting to see the reactions on board!!!!!

our only stork - the Jabiru. ( Male - the eye colour gives this away)

 Sea Eagle nest.

The mighty Sea eagle scampers.

We finally stayed with the  O'Callahan family at Corroborree Caravan Park.

Daniel, Louise and Emma.

It was fantastic to meet up with our good friends and spend some quality time with them.

Hi - Ho , Hi - Ho, it's off to work we ......... Nah not today, still on holidays.

The Rainbow Serpent plays a huge part in the dreaming. 

The serpent is the creator of the rivers and landforms.

This chart explains the complex marriage laws for the tribes. 

It is tied in with the incestral laws and only allows certain skins to marry.

Top of Ubirr Rock. A great view of the surrounding floodplains.

A stop at Cahill's Crossing for a fish. 

These blokes are on the causeway, there are 5-6 , 5 metre crocs just swimming around.

  We decide to go for the safer option and fish from way above the water line.

No fish were caught .

Another Billabong, this time  we head along the Yellow waters Billabong.

This is the best tour we have gone on so far.

Those with a weak stomach should turn away.

The LLOYD's have finally gone feral.

We arrive at Patsy's home.

Tonights dinner. Magpie Geese and Baramundi.

 Dave and Saul were the guys who caught Sweetheart, the rogue croc that is stuffed and sits proudly in the Darwin Museum. Dave signs a Sweetheart book for us.

The Lilly reads are our first taste of bush tucker.

Patsy tells how to fix cheeky kids, she picked Harry in one go.

The lilly reed flower is kept on over night and the cheekiness will disappear. 

Unfortunately, no luck here.

Lilly reed, seeds and bush potato.

The funny side here, is that the croc above is only 20 metres from where we are searching for fresh water mussels. He left us alone, I think he was scared of Patsy.

Patsy makes a basket from paperbark tree.

Off we go. What to eat next?

The Ultimate hunters and gatherers.

Here, we see our lovely Karen sampling...... Green ants!!!!!!!!!!!

OK!!!!!

I can do this !!!!!!!!!

 Everyone is watching, I can't spit it out.!!!!!!!

I just ate a handful of ants!!!!!!!!!

This is where we found them. In their leafy home.

Patsy was so impressed with Karen's effort, that she shook a lot more ants for her to eat.

And you can't offend your host.

More ants!!!!!!!!

Harry digs for chestnuts.

Some paperbark for the bush oven!

Off we go to cook up a feast.

 This floodplain was littered with birds, in 2-3 weeks the place will have twice as many.

Magpie geese in flight.

Patsy prepares the bush oven.

We get a lesson in plucking the geese.

Let's get stuck in fellas.

Pluck that duck!!!!!!!!!!!!

 The barramundi goes into the oven as well.

 And the Magpie geese.

The down is burnt off.

Harry uses the feather fan to get the down off.

And Patsy guts the geese.

Told you, we have gone feral.

Green leaves over the coals and the oven is ready.

We learn to make string from the lilly reeds, every piece of the tucker you find , is used.
The string is used to make dilly bags.

After a seven hour trip, we arrived home exhausted from our hunting and gathering trip.

Anbangbang Billabong.

Nourlangie Loop walk. 

To see the rock paintings.

After a hard day in the WINTER sun, 35 degrees today. 

We treated ourselves to a stay at the Kakadu Lodge at Jabiru. 

The pool was a pleasant relief to the heat.

Gunlom Camp ground. 

A plunge pool at the base of the falls looked very much,.........ah, ....... crocodile country. 

We looked at this one.

And decided to walk to the top.

At the top of these falls we found the following rock pools. 

It looked like a tough climb for little reward. 

To our surprise,..... it was sensational. Another hot day.

Living on the edge. A natural infinity pool.

Sharing the space with a monitor.
Unfortunately, these are becoming scarce as the cane toad is killing them off.
We caught 24 cane toads in one hour the other night.
All the native animals are under threat from this invader.

There 's the van down there.

 The 37 kilometre trek out took us some time, as we had to go slow on the corrugations with the van

 The Wedge tail Eagle put on a little show us today.

On the way out of Gunlom we saw Buffalo, Eagle, 

wild horses and a Jabiru and numerous pieces of roadkill.

We will head for Mataranka as our next stop, 

need to stop at katherine for supplies as we haven't shopped for a week.