Yellow Water Cruises - Gagudju Dreaming - Cooinda Lodge Kakadu

While staying at Gagudju Cooinda Lodge Caravan Park in Kakadu National Park we decided to book a sunrise cruise of Yellow Water Billabong - it was a very early start but well worth getting out of bed. Our tour guide was Lisa and she was extremely knowledgeable about the local Aboriginal people, the crocodiles, birds and plants of the area. Yellow Water Billabong is Kakadu's most famous wetland, located at the end of Jim Jim Creek, a tributary of the South Alligator River. This river system contains extensive wetlands that include river channels, floodplains and backwater swamps.

We saw several crocodiles in the water - some were just staring to come up onto the bank as the sun's warmth spread across the area. Several pairs of sea eagles searching for food were spotted and we were lucky enough to see two eating fish - one in the tree and one on the shore (always within each other's sight). These are very large birds.

Whistling ducks (they actually make a whistling sound as they fly), kites, spoonbills, ibis, rainbow bee eater, azure kingfisher, Jacana (little red headed bird that walks across the lily pads with very long toes and sometimes knows as lily trotter or Jesus bird), Jabiru, Brolgas and magpie geese. Apparently one third of Australia's bird species are represented in Kakadu National Park, with at least 60 species found in the wetlands - we felt very lucky to have seen so many during our cruise.

Yellow Water Cruises run up to six cruises a day and you can see different wildlife at various times of the day and in different seasons - many people opt to book two cruises. Some plants around the waters edge were beginning to flower - they must look magnificent when in full bloom. The guides on the cruise cannot guarantee what you are going to see but we found that they never stopped searching the banks to point out as much as possible.

Included in this cruise is a buffet style breakfast at Cooinda Lodge and this consisted of hot foot, cereal, toast, fresh fruit, juice, tea and coffee and pastries - plenty to eat. As part of the cruise a bus will ferry passengers to and from Cooinda Lodge - or you can choose to meet at Yellow Water Billabong Jetty.