At 5:00am the alarm sounded. It was easy to get up as we had to be ready to depart the caravan for the resort shuttle by 6:00am. With breakfast included within our tour cost, we assumed it would be like yesterday so we both had coffee and swallowed tablets.
We were at the shuttle stop just before our scheduled arrival time and boarded a bus for the shot trip to the Yellow Waters jetty where we were guided into one of the four boats ready for departure. There were no steps so “He” simply smiled.
We left the jetty just as the sky started to lighten and were in the Yellow Water Billabong as the sun started to rise. We were rewarded with several brilliant photographs of the sunrise.
After entering the South Alligator River, we came across our first crocodile. That sighting was followed by several others before we finally returned to the jetty.
We spent close to two hours slowing cruising around the area and enjoyed looking at crocodiles and the massive bird population. It was amazing to see nature wake up during and after sunrise. Due to recent rain, the area had not dried and we were spoilt with views of the floodplains and the vegetation. We took many pictures that will serve us well to stimulate memories of this special morning when we reflect in the future.
Returning to the jetty we expected to see a table with an urn and some cups. That was not the case. Instead we were returned to the resort by shuttle where a hot breakfast was waiting for us. With our stomachs waiting for food, we were served scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, tomato and baked beans. Croissants, toast and other savouries were available together with juices, tea and coffee. This certainly made up for yesterday.
The resort also has a deal that if you pay the full price for one cruise, every subsequent cruise can be done for $25.00. Having been made aware of that, we had also booked the sunset cruise for today.
We finally returned to our caravan late in the morning and in spite of leaving the air-conditioning running, the van was warm. So was our refrigerator. “He” was concerned that the fridge temperature was sitting just above the level where food starts to spoil. “He” is very disappointed that we left our small compressor refrigerator at home as we know we could have kept the temperature at zero and we have the battery power to do so when travelling and/or free camping.
We stayed in the caravan until we had to depart for the evening cruise. So, repeating the steps taken in the morning, we were ferried to the jetty by shuttle and loaded onto one of the four boats doing the sunset tour. Our boat had a problem so we had to transfer to another vessel. We left several minutes late.
We were told that we were likely to see more crocodiles in the afternoon when they come ashore to bake in the sun. Everyone on the boat was tasked to look for them.
After entering the South Alligator River, “He” spotted the first crocodile. Over the next couple of hours we managed to see more crocodiles than we had during the morning.
There was one crocodile we stopped close to that had its mouth open. The animal was very aware of our presence and made a very quick rotation in the water so it could change its location to watch the boat. This movement was captured in the form of several rapid photographs. For him, that five or so seconds was the highlight of both trips.
During the evening cruise we were taken to places we had not seen during the morning. We saw more bird life, wallaby in the distance and also wild pigs far off in the distance.
Sunset was a let-down due to cloud but was offset with us continuing to see crocodiles.
We were the last vessel to return. It had been a good afternoon and overall a great day.
Once back at the resort we headed to the bar and enjoyed several drinks. We left there round 8:00pm and returned to our caravan for a meal comprising steak and salad. We tested the meat before cooking it and our tester confirmed that the meat was fresh and safe to eat. It must have been marginal due to our fridge running a little higher in temperature than we like.
For the second night, we left the air-conditioning running all night. It was still hot when we headed to bed.