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I got up today planning on biking most of the way to Jabaru (or to Jabaru if feeling really energetic). I stayed up later last night than I should have done as I got into my book and so had a slow morning. Cooked porridge and made coffee, had shower, packed up tent, organised food and water supplies for the next 10 hours (as there is nothing for 90km towards Jabaru). It all took a while and I was ready to go at 10.30. I popped into reception and got chatting with Ilona on reception. I said that what I really wanted to do in Kakadu was a wetlands cruise. It turns out that the closes place to do this was 27km back the way that I came rather than further into Kakadu as most of the ones further into Kakadu had shut for the wet season. She kindly booked me on to the tour at 4pm today. I was also saying that I really wanted to stay in Kakadu longer but have to catch a plane on the 11th and so have to start biking back soon. She had a Grayhound bus voucher that will expire soon that she will not use and so booked me on from Jabaru on the evening of the 10th Nov back to Darwin! It was really nice of her. She is from York and been traveling in Aus for 23 months.
As I then still had several hours to get to the Wetlands cruise I asked another guy about the best walks round the area and he suggested Bird Billabong just off the main hi-way 5km up the road from Mary River. The walk is 4.5km - perfect length.
Yippeeee - I can stay in Kakadu exploring longer and get a bus back for free, walk Bird Billabong, stay another night at Mary River and go on a Wetlands cruise! Awesome. Everything seems to be slotting into place for me at the moment.
All plans for the day having changed, I repacked all of my stuff so that I just took the things that I needed for the day and left all of my camping equipment etc at Mary River. Another 30mins of faffing!
Biked to the Bird Billabong turn off and set off on the walk - sign posted as 4.5km - as the guy had said. I walked along the dirt road for 6 km (I was wondering when I would get to the Billabong) only to find the sign for the start of the 4.5km circular walk - oops. The signs had been very amibous and the guy had said the walk was "just off the high-way". I could have biked the 6km to the start of the walk and saved myself 1 hour of time.
I decided that I should just about have time to go as I only had 15km to go to the turn off to the wetlands cruise road (and then another 20km on a dirt road), that I had enough time to go as long as I ran back. Jogged to the Billabong and I was really glad that I had gone. I was the only one out there will thousands of birds. It was absolutely beautiful. On of the advantages of going in the wet season is that there are very few tourist and so I get to experience the magic of the place without loads of other people.
Got some really awesome photos :-) I have started compressing the photos that I upload to FB as it is taking too long on slow internet connections to upload them in high quality and so many of the strong colours are lost - but you get the idea....
I ran back but in the heat of the day I really had to push myself to do the 8km back to the road. Although it is the wet season for the 5 days I was in Kakadu there was hardly a cloud in the sky. I just missed the heavy rains over the last 2 weeks. It was about 42C and very humid. I was then worried about the time and so biked really hard to get to the turn off for the wetlands cruise. I had been told it was only 15km from Bird Billabong but it turned out to be 23km. That extra 8km made a real difference when I am only managing 15km per hour (carrying so much weight with extra water/food etc).
There is no phone signal out here and so I popped into the cafe to call the people saying I was at the junction with the dirt road and that I had just over 1 hour and 20km to go so I might be a bit late or could someone pick me up for the last 5-10km. They said that a group "Adventure Tours" where coming down the road for the same cruise and I could get a lift with them. I left the cafe just to see the Adventure Tours bus pass me and turn into the dirt road. I tried to flag them down but they did not see me. If I had not gone to the cafe I would have caught them :-(
Not one to be broken, I went down the dirt road hoping that someone else might come along. It was really sandy and hard work. When I hit a particulary deep part of sand and fell off my bike, I decided that I was not going to make the cruise at 4 and decided it was time to sit in the shade and eat a banana sandwich. I then biked back 10km along the dirt track to the main road and then back the 30km to Mary River (at a rather slower pace).
When I got back to the camp I decided to go on one of the local walks for sunset and take some more photos. Once again I ended up putting up my tent in the dark - which always takes longer particularly when physically tired. When will I learn????
I had spent the day covered in a mixture of sweat, sun lotion and insect repellant and was very glad that there were showers where I am staying. I drank 15 litres of water today!
I was disappointed not to make the cruise but I had really enjoyed the day. I had really challenged myself physically and felt nicely exercised by the time I set up camp again for the day. I had also seen some amazing wildlife.
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