Ella's birthday in Kakadu

Ella loves her Bonnie and Clyde machine!

Tuesday was Ella's birthday and we started the day with a very excited 8 year old tangled up in our sleeping bags! Soon we were all up for pressies (necklace from Marcus, a Bonnie & Clyde chasing machine made by Marcus and some of the busking money in a sock from Lachie!) and cocoa pops for birthday brekkie. A day trip to Kakadu was soon underway - we wanted to spend more time there, but had to make up for all the days in Darwin!

Our first stop was at Ubirr, where we walked around the fascinating rock art sites. A short, but steep 250m climb up a rocky escarpment led us to a lookout over the Nadab floodplain. The vista was totally unexpected and really beautiful.

Look!

We drove a little further to Cahill’s crossing, where we had been told we would find crocodiles. There were 4 near the boatramp which Lachie kept a careful eye on as we had lunch. The crossing over East Alligator River into Arnhem Land was near a viewing platform which afforded wonderful views of another 11 crocodiles digesting their breakfast in the sun. Apparently the 7m tide pushes up inland and the crocs are very active catching their food at the weir then. We spent an absorbing hour or so watching the crocs which was fantastic.

Hey! You! I'm still hungry!

Ella had a few tears wishing she could cuddle Bonnie and Clyde on her birthday, so I diverted her into writing them a postcard. That, and an ice block, took her mind to a happier place!

Time was ticking on so we drove back to the Mamukala Floodplain to see the magpie geese return from their day of foraging. These birds migrate from Siberia and Mongolia to spend the summer months here. We had just settled in the hide when a jabiru flew down and landed just a couple of metres away, then commenced fishing. He caught and ate 3 fish while we watched spell-bound. The whole process involved a lot of spearing the fish with his long pointed beak and the fish was dropped a number of times. A whistling kite flew down hopefully, but the jabiru spread out his massive wings and the kite decided to go and get his own food!

We spent a truly wonderful few hours at the bird hide and Ella declared this “Absolutely the most bestest birthday ever” except that she was not spending it with Pap! Pap would have been glad of that as it was 10 o’clock by the time we got back to Darwin and the only good thing about the drive back was the beautiful full moon. Behaviour in the van was not beautiful!

Stay tuned ...