Garnamarr campground will open for business tonight, the gate at the start of the 4WD track will be unlocked at 06:30 tomorrow morning. Yay!

These are the good news – but there is a little twist to the story…

Twin Falls will remain closed for a little while longer as will the Jim Jim day use area and our beautiful morning tea spot at Budjmi lookout.
Work is still continuing to fix the washouts along the way to Twin Falls.

We have also been advised that there won’t be any swimming below
Jim Jim Falls until further notice as rangers have spotted a 2m crocodile in the plunge pool. Park staff have spent the last few days and nights in the gorge on the lookout for crocodiles, conducting their final surveys.

At this point we haven’t been given a great deal of information but our guess is that the crocodile they spotted in the deep pool right under the waterfall is one of the resident (and generally harmless) Freshwater crocodiles – otherwise they wouldn’t grant us access to the gorge at all).

Freshies usually hang out in the creek and the beach pool where there are lots of places to hide from people. However, this one made it into the plunge pool, where, if disturbed or even cornered, it may become aggressive in a bid to defend itself.
Rangers are monitoring the situation as they are concerned about the potential risk to swimmers if the crocodile stays put.

While there’s no opportunity for a swim at the bottom of the falls, there will be on top of the escarpment. Yay!

Barrk Malam Walk

The Barrk Malam walk will definitely be an experience you won’t forget in a hurry, featuring shady monsoonal rainforests, rugged sandstone formations, endemic flora and fauna, awesome views from the edge of the Arnhemland Plateau — and much more.

However, it s not a leisurely stroll in the park, it is actually quite strenuous! This 6km return walk is rated difficult and the initial ascend will get your heart rate started. Once on top of the plateau you’ll have time to catch your breath again.

To tackle this walk you definitely need to be fit and willing to get a bit sweaty. As sitting it out at the bottom of the falls is really not an option, please only book this tour if this sounds like you!

As an alternative, we will continue to offer our Kakadu’s Early Dry for another week or two. Until we’re able to access Budjmi and Twin Falls, we will also be available for touring the southern part of Kakadu. Gunlom’s looking great and so are Motor Car Falls and Ikoymarrwa!

Watch this space for further updates…

Boh boh!
Anja

Overnight temperatures have been dropping below 20 degrees lately.
The nights are starry, clear and pleasant – before it gets chilly, not unexpectedly but rather rapidly, just before sunrise. Anyway, it really is worth getting up early to watch the mist rise over Kakadu’s billabongs and floodplains as the sun warms up the country once again.

And to avoid hypothermia I can thoroughly recommend physical work!
We certainly weren’t feeling the cold last week when we were out and about with the Jim Jim district rangers (although our motivation for getting up early and heading down to the ranger station was a different one).

It’s a very busy time of year for park rangers. With flood waters receding and the country slowly drying up they can finally access those destinations that visitors are coming to see here in Kakadu National Park.

Yellow Water in the Wet Season

District staff are doing what they can to prepare visitor sites for public access. Among a lot of other ongoing tasks they’re currently cleaning campgrounds and day use areas, re-installing infrastructure, clearing 4WD and walking tracks, conducting crocodile surveys, patch burning to ‘clean the country’ and protect facilities from hot fires later in the year.

This year, for the first time, we have been given the opportunity to do our bit and help out. Traditional Owners and park managers have extended their invitation to tourism operators and guides to volunteer and help park staff with some of the enormous tasks they’re facing.

Last week Jeanne, John and I helped Jim Jim district rangers Anthony, Jason and Dennis with their clean up at Yellow Water.
In the wet season the whole area, including the car park, the boardwalk and viewing platform and a walking track to Home Billabong get flooded. The other day we found the boardwalk completely overgrown by a green mess of native Hymenachne grass.

Image Courtesy Kakadu National Park

Armed with buckets, rags and scourers we got stuck into it, always keeping an eye out for Estuarine crocodiles and prepared for other wildlife encounters as well. After a full day’s work only about one third of the boardwalk was freed of the buffalo grass.
But let me tell you, we felt immensely proud of our achievement!

Image Courtesy Kakadu National Park

A few days earlier Jeanne and John had already put a few hours in at Garnamarr campground and also on the 4WD track into the Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls area, where the rangers have since placed the crocodile traps and commenced their crocodile surveys. They will have to remove at least three rather large Estuarine crocodiles from the precinct before it will be safe for us to visit.

A big ‘Thank You’ goes to Jessie Alderson and Jeffrey Lee for allowing us to help looking after their country. We would also like to thank Kathy Wilson and all her staff at Jim Jim Ranger Station for making us feel so welcome.

Giving us the chance to gain an insight into the work of park rangers, getting to know the guys we share our workplace with and to experience this stunning environment from a different perspective is much appreciated!

We’ll definitely be back for more in the coming weeks!

Boh boh!
Anja

There is the  relatively small and rather timid Freshwater Crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni) which is generally considered harmless to humans. “Freshies” thrive on a diet of insects, frogs, fish, crustaceans, generally small stuff they can get down their narrow throat, and are usually found in the upper regions of tidal rivers, billabongs and creeks, right up into the stone country.
Attacks on humans are rare and usually only occur when these shy animals are provoked by those rather inconsiderate individuals who feel the need to crowd or annoy them.

The other crocodilian calling Australia home is the infamous Estuarine or Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus).
While you would expect “Salties” to inhabit the coastlines, mangrove mud-flats and tidal sections of rivers of tropical Australia, as their name suggests, they can also be found in freshwater billabongs and wetlands and all the way up in the headwaters of our freshwater streams — and sometimes even in the plunge pools under Kakadu’s waterfalls.

Make no mistake!

Estuarine Crocodile

Expect to come across this cunning stalker in any body of water connected with the tidal rivers of Australia’s tropical north, whether permanently or only temporarily during wet season flooding. And only because you can’t see them while you’re fishing — with the water of the East Alligator River up to your knees at Cahill’s Crossing — doesn’t mean there aren’t any!

Right now you’re probably wondering why we’re asking you to bring your bathers on tour — and I’ve probably got some explaining to do…
Rest assured,  if there was only the slightest risk of a hungry saltie lurking in the shallows, we wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the water!

One of the reasons why we can’t predict in March when Top End Explorer Tours will actually be able to visit Gunlom and Maguk in the early dry season and Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls hopefully following soon after is that we have to wait for the completion of the mandatory crocodile surveys in the dedicated crocodile management zones.

Kakadu National Park staff involved in crocdile management take their job very seriously. And it’s a good thing they’re taking their time with it!

Crocodile management in Kakadu serves two purposes. While it is aimed at minimising the risk of crocodile attacks on humans, it is also supposed to ensure the protection of crocodile populations at the same time.

Crocodile Warning

To start with, rangers might visit the sites by helicopter, even before they have road access after a wet season that usually leaves the 4WD tracks with bad washouts and in need of repair. Crocodiles can easily be spotted in the clear water of the creeks and plunge pools from the air. It gives the rangers an idea of how many Estuarine crocodiles (or “Ginga”, as they’re called in the local Aboriginal languages) have made the journey up the swollen rivers during the wet season and how many Freshwater crocodiles have remained in their habitat.

Once the roads have been fixed, large baited traps will be brought in and positioned. The bait, usually a pigs leg, is attached to the trap door via a rope. When a croc swims in and takes the bait — bingo!
It will then be removed and taken either to a crocodile farm in Darwin or to one of the local communities as a food source.

Rangers use large spotlights during night time surveys to detect the reflective pairs of eyes of crocs that have been avoiding the traps.
They also regularly check the banks for slide marks and fresh tracks, they’re on the lookout for floating carcasses and they also use their noses:
Salties sport a very fishy, pungent smell from a gland on the back their necks — a dead giveaway!

These checks usually take several weeks and only when the final surveys return no indication at all of Ginga in the area, travellers will be allowed to visit Kakadu’s beautiful waterfalls.

Don’t expect to see any official stamps of approval reading “guaranteed crocodile free swimming spot”! There are reasons why these days we’re not permitted to swim up Twin Falls gorge anymore and we stay away from the water’s edge at the Jim Jim Creek crossing.
But salties aren’t any good at rock climbing and therefore we know quite a few swimming spots they won’t conquer!

A lot more is to be said about Kakadu’s crocs, so watch this space!
In the meantime, we’d love to read your comments!

Boh boh
Anja