Cruisin' on the billabong

Today we headed back to Jabiru to find out about helicopter flights over Kakadu and other tours available. On our way out of the resort Fin pointed out the corellas that were all around a sprinkler and one or two up on the sprinkler head trying to get a drink or get wet and cool down. More Corella antics! Got the camera out and took some pics and had a good chuckle again – some were drinking from the water but others were just trying to wet their feathers and cool down and it was funny to watch. However, we had to organize some tours so off we went to Jabiru. We found that there is a small township with a supermarket, library, council chambers, bakery, souvenir shop, newsagents, coffee shop/take-away and a couple of travel agents. We got some Stingose from the supermarket (yes there are bitey insects here!), filled up with petrol then had something to eat at the bakery though not a coffee because, despite being too hot to sit and drink coffee in an outdoor area, their coffee machine was one of the kinds you get in hospital day rooms if you know what I mean. No freshly ground beans made into frothy cappuccinos here!
Next we went to the airport and talked to the people at Kakadu Air about a helicopter flight over Kakadu. *Travellers tip: We were glad we did this rather than booking through the resort or an agent because we were able to talk to the pilot and find out the best time to go and where we would be going as well. After this we went to the Bowali Visitor Centre-Park Headquarters which was really interesting; they have a display showing plants and animals of Kakadu and giving information about them. Another very worthwhile thing to invest some time in because you learn so much about where you are and many of the plants, animals and bird you see in this environment. When we got back to the resort we decided to book the Kakadu by Night tour which involves a guided bushtucker walk and three course traditional campfire dinner, traditional aboriginal activities such as basket weaving etc and a boat cruise on a billabong. However, it wasn’t happening at the moment so we settled for the Night Wildlife Boat Cruise on its own instead. The next problem was how to get dinner since it was at 6.20 – 8.20pm and about an hour’s drive away which meant all the meals would be finished here and as it turned out in Jabiru as well. We went to the Cafe here and asked for some take-away sandwiches but until we convinced the lady that we would refrigerate the sandwiches and we had no other choice she was reluctant to provide them.
So we put our sandwiches in the fridge, got into our long sleeved clothes that were required for the trip and our insect repellent, camera, binoculars and water bottle and headed to the pick-up point. We had to wait around for quite a while since we were early and were quite uncomfortably warm in our full length clothes but never mind; better early than late! The tour began with a talk around the campfire area explaining some of the traditional cooking methods using rocks in pits in the ground and then we went down to the boat. Freddy was our guide and his sister, Jen was the boat driver. They are both park rangers and in the dry season do the tours as well as their usual work in the park. Freddy gave us some information and showed us some things about crocodiles and explained what we might see and what usually occurs on and in the billabong. Did you know that crocodiles cough up hair balls too? Well, they do and he showed us some – much bigger than the ones pussy cats have! We cruised down the billabong and were told about more creatures along the way but didn’t see a real lot. We did see a cute little fly catcher sitting on a branch, sleeping and a gorgeous azure kingfisher too. There was a fresh water crocodile ‘Gumegan’ only a few people saw before he slipped away under the surface; Fin saw him but we didn’t see the big salt water crocs known as ‘Ginga’ Neither did we see the giant 5 metre resident called “The Boss” Freddy showed us what the big Ginga do to floats they put out on a rope, usually hanging from a tree. They are made of hard foam and the crocs bite on them and leave teeth marks. It gives the rangers an idea what is out there because they are obviously hard to see most of the time. The Boss has taken his float off to a quiet side stream because it is gone now. Despite not seeing lots of wildlife it was a great experience that we would recommend. On the way out of the camping ground where we went on the cruise, we stopped to try to photograph a beautiful little Tawny Frogmouth bird sitting on a white post by the road. He seemed unperturbed by us being so close but before I could get a good shot a big four-wheel drive carrying some other people from the curise came ploughing through and scared him off! My initial hurried photos were blurry and I am sure I could have got some better but at least was able to use it to identify our little night flyer.
Doing the helicopter flight at 4.30pm tomorrow. Wow! How exciting!