Kadadu - gunlom, yellow waters and nourlangie

At last we're at one of the highlights of our trip - the famous Kakadu. Boldly striking into Gunlom Waterfall, we were rewarded with a stunning series of pools above the waterfall - clear safe swimming spots everywhere. The road had deteriorated since they had worked on it and it was quite washed out for the last 10km - Russ drove carefully and our vehicles made it out safely.

That's me lounging around at nature's own infinity pool - how divine!

Staying at Mardugal near the Jim Jim Billabong, we were close to Yellow Water and thoroughly enjoyed the birds there. We saw Jabiru, Jacana, kingfishers, rufous night heron, loads of little, intermediate and great heron and the magnificent plumed whistling ducks and green pygmy geese. This met our expectations of Kakadu at last!! In fact 80% of Kakadu is savannah vegetation (dry, gum trees and paperbarks, very dusty in the dry season). Russ caught another barra under the Barramundi Creek bridge, after seeing snakes and crocs - tasted all the better for the dramatic circumstances of its catch.

One of the other key features of Kakadu and one of the reasons for its World Heritage status is the rock art and the fact that there is a living ancient culture. Kakadu therefore provides guided walks to the art sites, with talks by rangers about the art and the aboriginal culture. We were lucky enough to do one of these to Nourlangie rock art and also heard about the aboriginal kinship laws which are incredibly complex.

This croc and the 2 rainbow bee eaters were at a lagoon near the Nourlangie rock art. We did actually crop this photo - we weren't as close as this photo implies.

 The male bee eater has the long feather extending from the end of his tail. We've seen them everywhere but we continue to find them fascinating.