Several weeks ago Garry booked us on a sunset cruise of Ngurrungurrudjba, or Yellow Water. He’d last been here a decade ago and was determined to share this experience with me. We weren’t disappointed. A leisurely two-hour cruise in a canopied flat-bottom boat took us through a broad floodplain billabong and on into the South Alligator river. We later learnt that this area actually marks the convergence of two different ecosystems; the salty, tidal river zone and the freshwater floodplains.
As expected, we saw numerous crocodiles again, many with little more than their snouts showing on the water’s surface. However, the highlight of the cruise was definitely the varied birdlife of Kakuda’s famous wetlands. We saw several different Egrets, a sea eagle, numerous ducks, lily waders and several brightly coloured kingfishers. The most memorable highlight was definitely a Jabiru wading along the river bank with a large catfish hanging from its beak.
We returned to the billabong in time to witness a fiery orange sunset, silhouetted by birds in flight and the trunks of dead trees. It was without doubt a most fitting end to an incredible day.
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1 comment:
How lucky were you to see the Jabiru up close and personal. We saw two but they were in the distance. We loved the Billabong Cruise too, it was the highlite of our time in Kakadu
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