Sunset on Yellow Water

Following on from sunrise, we are back at Yellow Water for a 2 hour sunset cruise. This evening’s entertainment and informative guide to the Yellow Water is Reuben’s brother Dennis. Not sure if Dennis is a Brother Brother, a Brother or just a Brother? What we know is that they are related and are from the same clan, the Murumburr people who have many brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles of the same blood line.

Dennis is a larger well rounded man with a wide Akubra hat and he likes his geese fat, his buffalo juicy and tender and his favourite recipe is duck curry.

As Dennis boards the vessel, a passenger on the front row notices something on the brim of his hat. It’s a large Huntsman Spider the size of a hand and Dennis calmly flips it off and we haven’t even started our adventure yet.

The sun is still relatively high and hot at 4.30pm but there’s a different vibe to the place and everything is brighter and the yellow water is shining well... yellow. Reason, the Melaleuca tree roots have created a yellow tinge to the water.

Straight away we spot a dominant male ”Max the croc” on the banks of the Billiabong and within moments, the adrenaline is up and it’s all happening again...

Nine o’clock, Sea Eagles pitched on a dead tree branch, one o’clock, Wild Horses behind the scrub protecting a foal, eleven o’clock a lone Brown Kite in the tree, wait on is that a snake in the tree as well, three o’clock, Wood Ducks with their tiger like markings, twelve o’clock in the distance, wild Buffalo grazing, above and on the move, a large Jabiru in flight which looks like a Terradactyle, one thirty upstream, a group of ducks are spooked by something, probably a croc and take off on mass into the sunset.

Phew, let’s take a breath for a moment.

Dennis spots a large male crocodile fully out on the left river bank. He’s impressive in size and we get so close to him on the bank that one could reach out and almost touch. Not so quick, he spotted us well before we spotted him and his eyes are following our every move so careful, his reaction time is like lightening. The croc is a new male to the area and Dennis tells us there’s about 300 crocs per 1km stretch of water so if you fall in, chances are, you be eaten.

The large male croc suddenly turns, pitches his head up and opens his mammoth jaws as a sign of aggression, don’t mess with me kind of look. Well is there any other look???

Jen manages to get a shot of me with my back to the croc and I think she was strategically moving me closer and hesitating with the camera settings and focus... “just take the shot”.

The sun has reached the point where it drops quickly on the horizon so after two hours which seems like 30 seconds, we head back to Yellow Water billabong to sit still, sit quiet and take in sunset. The occasional bird is making its last call from the grasslands and everything has turned peaceful and calm.

Myself and Jen are totally exhausted from all the excitement on the Yellow Water Cruise today. Dawn till dusk, It’s been a blast. We get dropped off at the resort again and treat ourselves to battered Barramundi and chips from the food van at the resort as a dinner treat.

Kakadu has been an amazing place, a 2.4 billion year old place where you have to sit still, take it all in and appreciate the abundance of wildlife, the spirit of Dreamtime and a 65,000 year old Aboriginal culture that still follow the same stories and traditions today.

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