Yellow Waters Billabong and the Daly River

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Well it has been a while but we have been out of service range. After leaving Jabiru we headed to Cooinda and the Yellow Waters Billabong. We decided to book a boat cruise on the billabong and thoroughly enjoyed it. After Jabiru we were not as impressed with the camping ground at Cooinda but we eventually got set up and enjoyed our time there. We were tempted to put our own boat in the billabong but I was a bit nervous about the crocs (and there were plenty of them). We did cruise past a guy in his own boat who was just dragging a Barra into his boat but we decided that since we were heading to Daly River from here we would wait. Having left Kakadu, we must say it really did not live up to John's expectations. It would really make a difference just after the wet runoff when it is a lot greener with much more water, but by July most of Kakadu is dry and black from the burning. Over 80% of Kakadu is grassland or woodland (boring), with a few well promoted tourist sites in between which are quite spectacular but few and far between. We commented after leaving Darwin that there was a constant smoke haze over the country from the back burning.
We arrived at the Daly on Friday lunchtime and headed out on the water on Saturday morning without an Esky because we were just checking out the river. John landed his first Barra fairly quickly and after a couple of pics we had to put it back in the water. I managed a smaller one but it wasn't legal size so back in the water for it as well. Sunday saw us on the water again and this time we had the esky so we were ready for my first legal barra and then another one for John plus a couple of smaller ones that we threw back. After a rest day we headed back out and had a really good day catching Barra, nine in total that day.
It is a very tricky river with lots of snags, trees, rockbars and sandbars to catch the unwary fisherman and we had to travel about 40kms down the river to where the fish were so it made for a long day with a 90kms round trip. Well worth it mind you, with enough Barramundi in the boat to make us happy.
It was time to move on so headed to Katherine and booked a cruise for the Gorge. There are actually about 13 gorges but most of the cruises can only access two or three. We opted for the two gorge cruise and it was magnificent. After leaving Katherine who knows where we will end up.

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Photos

The billabong
Some of the billabong was very nice, however as the water evaporates later in the year John suspects that billabong is a promoters terminology for swamp. I guess yellow swamp does not sound as inviting as yellow billabong

Croc close up
He was coming stright towards us

Typical Kakadu
Over 80% of Kakadu is simple grassland/woodland

After the Burn
Or looks like this

Jabiru
The only animal/bird threat to a croc, apparently they can kill the smaller crocs with a blow on top of the head.

The Daly
The Daly River crossing upstream from the Caravan park

Baby Doves
Only a week old