Our cruise left at 6:45am. I’m so glad we went on this one because it made the whole Kakadu experience so much better. I’d wanted to visit Kakadu for years but with everything that I'd wanted to go to so far closed, it had been disappointing. Parts were closed because of the wet season, which should have been over now but wasn’t. The other parts were due to a fight between national parks and traditional owners. Maguk swimming hole and campsite was closed due to this.
We were out on the boat nice and early. We saw 3 crocs, though they were quite hidden, a jacana and its babies (very cute), sea eagles (white-bellied), magpie geese everywhere, jabirus, whistling kites, ducks and egrets and SO MANY WATER LILIES! They were so beautiful. We took SO many photos, see below a cull of the top ones. Definitely worth the money.
We got back to camp, picked up the car then drove out of Kakadu. On the way out, we stopped at an un-signposted rockhole on the way out which was pretty.
We stopped in at Mataranka Hot Springs / Bitter Springs on the way south. The water was an insane colour. I wish we'd gone for a swim, but at the time we didn't - I can't remember why.
We camped for the night just outside of Daly Waters at Alexander Forrest Rest Area, about 350km from Tennant Creek. This will be forever known as the place of the stink bugs. We were cleaning them out of the tent for weeks afterwards.