We are now in Katherine Gorge, after having left Darwin about a week ago. Spent 1 day at Berry Springs having a good soak before tackling Kakadu and beyond. In Kakadu we made Jabiru our base and ventured out to Cahill's Crossing to have a go at Barra fishing ( 2 days later on a river cruise we saw a 3mtr Saltwater Croc not too far from where we were fishing !!). Made the pilgrimage to Ubirr to see the rock art and make the climb for the sunset ( cloud came over late so we missed the sunset spectacle this time). All through Kakadu they are patch burning to reduce the risk of major bushfire during the build up to the wet later in the year, wherever you go the smell of fire hangs around and smoke is constantly visible.

As we are travelling with Nic's folks at present we were able to have a trip to a Billabong with one of Nic's Dad's old school friends David who was the Park Ranger for Kakadu back in the 70's and 80's. he now runs a buffalo farm out of Yellow Waters with his partner who also works for one of the tour companies taking people out on Bush Tucker tours. There we were sitting in a small trailer being towed through a swamp by a quad bike being chased by inch long mosquitos as the waters had not yet receeded enough to drive through. Once through the swamp we approached the billabong which had a small fence make from tree trunks covering an opening, on this fence had a sign beware large saltwater crocodiles inhabit this area. Just past the sign we saw some bubbles circling and there right in front of us no less than 1 metre rose a 5.1m Saltwater Croc. David has been feeding this croc from some time as it is blind and unable to easily catch its own food, the croc is called Rough Nut ( looking at the size of the head an appropriate name). We fished there for about an hour catching 1 Barra, after a while you forget there is a large Croc at your feet looking at you ( easy to see how people become complacent).

We undertook a boat cruse on the East Alligator River which was quite enjoyable with lots of Crocs and birdlife to be seen, during the cruise the cloud cover started to clear so when we arrived back we made the pilgrimage back to Ubirr and witnessed an amazing Sunset.

We then left Jabiru and headed down out out of the park to Mary River and made the day trip to Gumlom Falls, original plan was to take the vans in here but the road conditions prevented us from doing this with 30km of heavy corrigations shaking the car let alone the van. Gunlom is amazing after making the trek up the side of the falls ( quite challenging in thongs and carrying a baby) you are met with a series of crystal clear pools that are beautiful to swim in and are croc free !!.

Out of Kakadu an on to Katherine Gorge for some rest days around the pool with the occasional walk and cruise through the gorges. And an early celebration of Lyla's 1st Birthday.

Here we farewell Nic's Sister and family from Yepoon and her Folks who have been travelling with us for nearly 4 weeks.

Next stop "Not Quite Sure" but somewhere West

Until the next Blog "Boh Boh"