Darwin day 2 - Kakadu here we come

The guy was a bit late delivering the 4WD so by the time we had collected that and picked up the camping gear we had decided to hire it was almost lunchtime before we got out of Darwin. The guy we got the tent etc. from was very helpful and suggested a couple of out of the way and not to be missed highlights, the first of which was an alternative way into Kakadu. So off we set.

On the drive there we saw the first of many prescribed burns. As they burn around 50% of the park each year there is an almost constant pall of smoke to be seen. They light the fires and then leave them as the overnight dew generally puts them out. In fact we only saw one fire with a crew and that was burning away right next to an accommodation place. The kites certainly know what fire means. In one spot we saw over a hundred birds circling above a fire and swooping down to pick off any critters that managed to escape the fire - not sure which would be worse!

The first night we stayed at Madrugal which was a National Park campsite near to Yellow Waters. We put up the tent and then drove into Cooinda to book the early morning boat cruise as suggested by Mick and Sal. It turned out to be well worth getting up at 6am for, although we were awake before then as some German tourists decided they needed to be up by 5.30am to make the cruise.