Stray Tag-a-long Tales: Kakadu and Darwin

Hello from the top end and a very hot and sticky one it is. Some locals saying it looks like the build up to an early wet season, with clouds starting to appear in the sky and humidity rising.
Darwin is what I remember from previous times; an appealing city with a slow easy pace almost like a big country town.
There is some development going on but according to the Minister of the Territory they need more people and he is now calling on FIFO workers to cease and make the workers of mines live in the territory. Good luck with that if economics have anything to do with it!
Anyway enough of the everyday life what I really want to concentrate on this episode is our week in Kakadu, which in one word can be described as AWESOME!
We started on the south side of Kakadu after obtaining our pass and were told by Kaye and Shane we MUST go to Gunlom (a 4WD road to a plunge pool). This proved to be a very rough, corrugated, arduous journey with the end result a very dry patch of dirt in the shape of a camp. Yes, there was a plunge pool with a very friendly freshwater croc as resident. Yes, we did go swimming, but other than that there wasn't that much to do. Not the best first impression I must admit but if we had stayed a few more days they were having some ranger activities on the weekend that may have been worthwhile. After another 39 kms out we headed to Coowinda on South Alligator River, where we went a bit more civilized in the caravan park.
From here we did our most expensive adventure by taking a boat cruise out on the river just before sunset. Along with about 100 others spread over 4 boats, we had a lovely time cruising up and down the river looking at all sorts of wildlife; crocodiles, Maggie Geese, Black Bittern (very rare apparently), Small Kingfisher (also rare), Whistling Ducks (of which there are many), Egrets, Herons etc. Life is certainly plentiful on the wetlands and this is into the dry season now!
After our sunset we then returned to base where we

Not sure if he was so pleased to see us.

indulged in a Pizza at the bistro, sitting alongside some lovely Dutch people out here for a 28 day tour.
Our next stopover was Jabiru to stock up on a few essentials and to have a quick look at the Ranger uranium mine, a few kms out of Jabiru. Quite a big mine in full action by the number of cars at the entrance to the mine. As nothing held our interest in Jabiru we then headed to the East Alligator camp site. This by far was the best place we found in the park; ranger talks on aboriginal art, ancient rock formation, kinship etc. We even had the opportunity and privilege to do some weaving with some lovely ladies from Arnhem land.
Ann and Jennifer showed us the process of stripping the Pandanus palm leaves, then cutting them into strands, colouring them with plant matter by boiling them in water, and finally the actually weaving. I have a new respect for these ladies as they plied there talents making us 'balanda' (foreigners) look very tardy. The actual weaving was the easy part; I couldn't get the hang of the stripping the palm fronds for love nor money, yet Ann, particularly, made it look oh-so-easy. All in all a great morning.
I have skipped over the major parts of our time here but there were other walks, talks and interesting places to see and do. Cahill Crossing for one, which is a causeway between Kakadu and Arnhem land, where the crocs actually line up at the causeway, on an incoming tide, to catch the barramundi. Wild!
Please enjoy the photos I have posted as well and I will talk to you another time.