Kakadu and Katherine Gorge

Hi again

Am having a few formatting challenges so pics are a little out of sync. First one is canoeing on Katherine gorge. Second is sunset over Yellow Waters in Kakdu. Third is at the top of Gunlom Falls in Kakdu and the last is a big croc in the East Alligator River, Kakadu. See below for Tess's blog :) Em x

G’day
Its Tess, Charlie and Harry here, reporting from Daintree rainforest. Sorry for not writing for ages, but we have been out of range. I have a lot to write about, so to fill you in on our news-
After Darwin we drove to Kakadu.
On our first day we went on a cruise down Yellow Waters and the East Crocodile River. Our tour guide, Michael, told us all about some of the different species of birds that inhabit the area and also about the salt water crocodiles.
Our (Harry and Charlie’s) favourite bird was the kingfisher. It grows up to 5cm and has a blue tummy with orange back feathers. It was a good thing that it was Michael’s favourite bird, because they are very hard to spot as they are little and like to hide amongst the leaves of the trees.
Estuarine crocodiles are very dangerous. They have attacked and killed people.
That is the opening sentence of every sign warning of crocodiles in every lake, creek or billabong in Kakadu National Park.
On our cruise we saw more than 20 estuarine (or saltwater) crocodiles, but only few of them were in the water. The largest crocodile in the East Alligator River was 3.5m long, and some crocodiles grow up to double that size. He swam along side us in the boat and we got some really good photos of him. My (Harry speaking) favourite crocodile was hauled up on the bank. The vibration of the boat scared him so he jumped up and dived into the water. I think he was showing off. When we got back, we watched the sunset and the smoke from all the fires glowed red in the evening light. That night, we lathered our selves in Bushman’s mosquito repellent as the mozzies were horrendous.

The next day we went on an Aboriginal rock art walk. The colours of the paintings were red orange yellow, white and brown. The sandstone overhangs were layered with animals, handprints and spirits of the dreamtime. We liked the barramundi and the turtle. They were so detailed they almost looked alive. Then we did some rock climbing up a hill and over looked floodplains, wetlands and Arnhem Land, where Aborigines still live traditionally today. We did 2 more short walks including one where mum and I (Tess) explored the tree tops of a rainforest – a women’s sacred site.
We swam in the cool and silky waters of Gunlom falls- the only place in Kakadu without crocodiles. We climbed a mountain to the top of the falls and looked down over the bottom pools, it was a bit scary.

At Katherine we canoed down the Gorge. Mum and I (Tess) shared a kayak and Harry and dad had a canoe. Charlie paddled by himself but Mum and I had to tow him most of the time. I think he couldn’t admit he had no muscles! We pulled up at many beaches and had swims in the crystal clear water. We also paddled into some caves. They were dark and scary and we kept hearing freaky sounds.
All the cruises we passed were staring in jealousy out the sides. It looked like they wanted to canoe!!!! We hired the canoes for 4 hours and paddled 6.5km. The next morning we went on a walk to a lookout over the gorge. We saw some other people canoeing and we were waving and screaming at them “Hello!!!” This time I felt jealous!


The next 4 days we drove non-stop until we finally reached the Daintree, but I’ll tell you about that in our next blog. Bye for now, Tess and Harry