By the time we left Nitmiluk NP at Katherine, we’d decided to try to boost Australia’s ailing helicopter industry (prices indicate no chance of failing).  In keeping with this endeavour we took a helicopter flight in Kakadu and intended to take future flights at Kununurra, Mitchell Falls and El Questro.  If anything does possibly go wrong, you won’t be reading about it here!

But long before that, I had my way and we proceeded to Maguk campsite (pronounced McGook to rhyme with chook and this time the spelling is correct) where we inched ATGANI into the tightest park so far and our efforts were rewarded by a few spectacular nights of bush camping in glorious weather under star filled skies.  The drive in was both narrow and rough and the friendly ranger we met on the last day said that someone had removed the “No Caravans” sign but it would have to go up again.  Had we seen such a sign, we might have paid attention, so, lucky us! 

A kilometre or so from the campsite and lots of rock-hopping later, we reached the much recommended swimming hole, desperate for the swim.  It completely lived up to its reputation.  Not very crowded (largely due to the awful road in) and with crystal clear water, a pretty little waterfall, the perfect temperature and NO crocodiles – magic!  And we had our noodles! They should change the pronunciation.

We liked it so much, we stayed an additional night which meant a scary 60km night time drive but, in the end, it was uneventful.  That drive was because we had to get home from Cooinda after the Yellow Water sunset cruise.  Photos tell that story better than anything else but it was just great.  There were crocs everywhere but, as crocs do most of the time, they just lay there, fat and full.  Until, about 2 metres from the side of our boat a huge croc attacked another one right in front of our astonished eyes – so fast, so powerful, so ANGRY!  Exciting though!

Something that piqued my interest: what to do with the buffalo?  Many people like seeing them in the park but, of course, they’re basically feral pests.  They eat the water lilies which creates issues for many of the native plants and animals of these wetlands and they create swim channels that lead to more tidal flooding and salination, so not ideal.  A helicopter crash a couple of years ago put a halt to all culling for virtually 3 years while an enquiry was held – so, the buffalo numbers have multiplied and their damage with it.  Limited culling has started again now, but in keeping with most of our safety briefings so far, it’s hard to see why the chopper shooters weren’t just told to “be more careful!”

We had further tours booked, all sited much closer to Jabiru, so we made our way to the caravan park there which had only moderate reports but which we found pretty good.  A nice shady site and a good swimming pool as well.  It was 35° every day by now. 

The culturally based Guluyambi boat tour on the East Alligator River served to emphasise just how many crocs there are around here.  Since they were protected around the early 70’s, numbers have increased but the survival rate from each 50 egg batch laid is only 1 so they must do a bit of self-regulating.  In any event, the tour was pretty good and had the added highlight of showing us how to use a woomera.  Now we’ve seen it in action, it really does take some skill but once sorted you sure can throw a spear a long way.  Sadly, we weren’t given the opportunity to “have a go”, thus preserving the lives of countless other tourists.  We also now know 13 things you can do with paperbark!

Run by the same organisation, but even better, was the full day ArnhemLander tour. We crossed the river and out of Kakadu at Cahills Crossing, which, incredibly, hasn’t had a fatality for a few years (nice to know).  Nonetheless, we did see a handful of guys fishing on the edge of the crossing at the water’s edge and attempting to enter this year’s Darwin Awards* – we could see crocs everywhere but it’s the ones you don’t see that cause the trouble.

A large 4WD bus took us to a carefully curated selection of stunning views, ancient rock art, young men’s initiation sites and rites, an artist community with no obvious evidence of exploitation and much more.  Access to many of these sites is only via the tour and, in several cases, was on “private” land (however that is determined) owned by the two aborigines who own and run the tour company.  It surprised us (and disappointed us a little) that our tour was not led by an indigenous guide but the bloke we had, Jason, did a terrific job – a bit weird to have whitefellas telling blackfellas’ stories though? Before going to the artists’ community, he cautioned us on two counts – first, eye contact is not part of the culture; second, neither is a questioning attitude.  For example, the culture dictates that young men and women will be told the “right” stories by the “right” people at the “right” time.  Hmm, doesn’t that seem hard to reconcile with modern day living?  We really enjoyed this tour and would definitely recommend👍👍.

We did our own tour to Jim Jim Falls, mostly because we were in search of another wild swim. The walk in here was a full kilometre of serious rockhopping, much tougher than Maguk, but the falls and the swim were also more spectacular and the swim paid us handsomely for the effort.

Finally, we leapt into our helicopter (Robinson R44, doors off, since you ask) and spent almost an hour flying over various areas.  The for-now obsolete Ranger Uranium mine sits uncomfortably in this landscape and is in the middle of a decade long rehabilitation effort.  The biggest issue is a massive “lake” of contaminated water with, as far as we could learn, no method yet devised to deal with it.

The flat areas of the park are basically under water during the wet and then gradually turn brown during the dry.  Other areas called stone country are so rough that they look completely impassable. 

Extraordinarily, the rangers burn as much of half of this 20,000 sq km park each year.  The patchwork burning is obvious from the air but we saw one bit that had maybe broken away, so who knows if it’s all a cool burn?

Perhaps my favourite view from the air, apart from spotting ATGANI in the caravan park, was Jabiru’s recreation focus.  The large artificial lake looked good for water sports but is now off limits, thanks to crocs. The golf course had just been burned and looked like strips of desert. But the footy field looked like the MCG and apparently the following for the Jabiru Bombers is both rabid and raucous! I’ve no idea if they feed Essendon.

We’d had a great time in Kakadu and could have easily stayed longer but we had a date with a boat in Kununurra in 10 days time and still hadn’t seen Darwin, so leave we did.  I was excited to find out more about Darwin during the war and specifically wanted to know if we’d been any better than the Pearl Harbour yanks in predicting what could possibly go wrong?