Crocodile swimming in my direction!
Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th July, 2024
Highlights of the past two days have been visiting Yellow Waters Wetland Park on Wednesday and dropping in at the Visitor's centre, where we paid our park entry fees, going to Cahill's Crossing Crocodile Viewing Platform, and visiting the Ubirr Rock art Site. Cahill's crossing is a bit north of Jabiru, where we are based and the Ubirr site is just a bit further on from there.
It's been over 30 degrees, with hot, humid nights, so not at all comfortable in terms of weather. It's also been partly cloudy, which leaves us wishing it would storm and get it over with, however no rain is forecast.
However, we've made the best of our time here and in some ways it's better to be sight seeing in the open air than sitting inside our little Sherwood in the noisy air conditioning.
We've also done a huge pile of washing that accumulated since Banka Banka and there is quite a good supermarket here in Jabiru where we've been able to stock up on food.
There are still sights to see on our way to Alice Springs and we've planned a night in a roadhouse caravan park for tonight as we will definitely need power for air conditioning in this hot spell. It cools down a little bit in the mornings, but too late to guarantee a good night's sleep.
Buffalos at Yellow Waters Wetland Park
The wetlands was a very peaceful place to be, despite warning signs for crocs. It reminded us of visiting a similar place in England, with the wide fields and birdlife. You can take boat tours, but we preferred to follow the boardwalk to a small, shallow area where there was lots of birdlife. We saw the buffalos in the distance.
It was whilst we were there that someone told us about Cahill's Crossing as a place to see crocodiles. The river is tidal and at high tide the crocs like to fish near a crossing.
On our way to Jabiru we followed signs to a couple of places on the way, but it was too hot for exploring on foot, so decided to get ourselves checked in at the caravan park.
Yesterday we did the washing and shopping before going to the Visitor's Centre. We decided not to stay as there is no air conditioning, although with wide and deep open areas and a slight breeze it wasn't too bad. We also spoke with someone at reception and got more information, including tide times. We paid our park fees at that point as well.
I really, really wanted to see crocodiles, enought to drive 40 kms to the viewing platform before we even thought of lunch. The viewing spot is well above the water, though many people were perched on rocks near the causeway, despite a sign saying there had been a fatal croc attack there.
I took many photos before realising my camera was set to over expose. Fortunately I caught it and could go back and take photos and videos with the correct exposure. A problem with switching between two cameras, both Sonys, but with different menus and controls. I use the Sony A7R IVa with a 24-240 lens for wildlife and a Sony A6700 with an 18-135 lens for everything else. The smaller A6700 is more responsive and I have to remember to wait a little for the large camera to focus or can get blurry photos. It's a much more powerful camera with a larger sensor and high mg count.
The river water is muddy and the tidal rush very powerful, so the crocs had to work a little to maintain a position near the causeway. I didn't actually see them catching fish, but sometimes they dropped out of sight, so perhaps that was after a catch. Or, they were moving in on the people below the platform.
We had bought a chicken and salad pack from the supermarket and found some tables and chairs at an old store which was now selling art and icecreams. There was a constant water spray on plants and that helped us to be a bit more comfortable as we were eating. We had icecreams as well, of course.
The Ubirr Rock Art site was well worth a visit, though I enjoyed the trees and other vegetation as much as the art works. It was only when processing the photos that I could see some of the paintings clearly.
Our caravan park has a swimming pool and bar, we looked in, but didn't feel the need to stay. It is fairly casual, so attractive in that sense. There were lots of children enjoying the pool.
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