Cooinda Day 2

04/04/2010


We got up for our 6.30 boat cruise on Yellow Water this morning. Holey smoke how bloody hot is it, I had a shower and then I got out of the van and had a bath.
Off we go to get onto the 4wd bus that took us through the flooded road to the jetty as the sun was coming up. Every time you want to take a phot you need to wipe the lens due to the humidity.

It wasn't glass bottom but it was a large boat and the captain was a woman who was very passionate about the environment and the waterways. The wildlife was a bit sparse but we were shown many things, the most amazing was the fact that the flood plains that are covered in lillies and grass have around one and half metres of water over them and the grass can unfurl its roots up to about 3 metres. She was saying that this area will be dry in the near future. The crocs were a bit docile and sparse but we did see 4 of them but I think that they were asleep as it was early. The cruise was great and they gave a good hearty breakfast when we got back.
We headed off and walked 3 klm into the bush looking for the rock pool at Gubara after visiting the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre. We seemed to be walking forever and the heat was so intense but

when we go to the rock pools it was beautiful and cool and again there were the sooty grunter fish swimming around. The only issue with the walk in is the fact that we had to walk out again, I would have hated to have walked much further as we had run out of water and were soaked with sweat. When drove off thriving on being back in the air conditioning of the car. Suddenly a dingo shot across the road just ahead of us so I stopped to try and take a photo of it but all I got was photos of the trees and he eased his way into the bush.

It was a little disappointing that the wet season has delayed the opening of many sites as we would have loved to have gone to Jim Jim Falls. On the way back we saw a sign leading to Jim Jim Billabong but again the road was closed but this one wasn’t a gate is was a sign across the track so using the old ‘It is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission’ we went around the sign and headed towards the billabong. The road was washed out in a couple of spots but other than that it was Ok until

we came to a creek crossing, there must have been nearly 2 feet of water running over the road so we didn’t take the chance. Living there on the bank was an aboriginal family who were quite friendly but we left them to their own privacy and headed back to camp.

We got to know a couple of older fellows who live on the Gold Coast and are simply travelling around Australia filling in time. They had been out barramundi fishing spending $180 each to go out on Yellow Water,

they returned with nothing, it seems that with all the fresh water around the fishing has been very poor.

Off to Katherine tomorrow to start the journey back to reality ...