Greetings From the Top End

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Alice Springs to Kakadu.
First stop was Wycliffe Well - the UFO Capital of Australia. Even the barmaid had seen about 40 UFOs in the 4 months she had been there. Most with rows of blue and red lights. The road is on a bit of an embankment, making it about 30ft above the campsite and roadhouse. Interestingly, most road trains seem to support red and blue lights along their sides at night -I wonder if this is significant! Needless to say, we didn’t have a ‘close encounter’ - but the signs and models etc were a bit of fun.
Next night we stayed at Mataranka Homestead, where they had a thermal pool. This waters from this pool flowed into the river, which was populated with fresh water crocodiles. The trees surrounding the pool where festooned with fruit bats and at dusk we sat and watched as the bats flew to the river for water. For the crocs, this was instant dinner, and we watched in awe as they fed on the ones that didn’t get away quick enough. ‘Freshies’ are supposed to be harmless to humans, but I wouldn’t argue with one.
Next day we went on a boat trip up Katherine Gorge - superb. The gorge was magnificent, as the ‘wet season’ hasn’t started yet, the water was low, making the gorge really deep.
Now in Kakadu. It is so dry that the countryside isn’t the lush green we were expecting. The lakes are low though, meaning the birds are all squashed into a small area - so the placed is teeming with them. We walked to Maguk Gorge and swam in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall (we hadn’t intended to, but it was so hot and there were other people in there so we figured we would be very unlucky if a croc chose us!)
We’ve seen some crocs at Cahill Crossing and some 8000 year old rock art at Ubirr.
At Mamukala there was a free viewing platform where we were privileged to see more bird life than I have ever seen in my life. We sat there for ages - must have been 50 odd different species of birdlife - Bill Oddie eat your heart out.
I read in the guide book that the best place for catching Barramundi was Mary River, and Shady Camp in particular, so up the 70km dirt road we went. Sadly chicken for dinner, but crocs, did we see crocs! I was on croc watch and idly swept the binoculars across the shoreline - and counted 12 of them - most of them HUGE - and with their mouths open showing off their fearsome teeth.
We are now in Darwin, to fill up on fuel for both Syd the Camper and ourselves - then off south towards Lichfield National Park and then west on to the Kimberley and more.

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