Wetlands, Kakadu National Park, NT

As part of our visit to Kakadu National Park last year, our tour group did a Wetlands Cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong.  This was my favourite part of the entire trip - the scenery and wildlife were just breathtakingly beautiful, and it is what I imagined when I thought of Kakadu National Park.

The tour started with a road trip from Darwin.  At our first rest stop, we saw this albino buffalo:

It was feeding time, so this buffalo was very pre-occupied with his breakfast.

We also saw this massive crocodile, which some of our tour group thought was not real, but believe me, I think this dude was alive and just waiting for someone to come in and test their theory:

After a visit to the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre, we headed out to our wetlands cruise by Yellow Water Cruises on these boats:

It was a stunning day, with sunshine, blue skies, and dark blue water:

There was a diverse range of birdlife at the billabong.  First up was a magpie goose:

Next up, we saw an egret:

This sharp looking guy is a white bellied sea eagle:

There was not only birds to admire.  Here is a gorgeous lotus flower in full bloom that we floated past:

We also saw a number of darters.  Here is one displaying its glorious wingspan as it dries its feathers in the hot sun:

There were many flocks of birds that flew past as we sailed down the billabong. I am not really sure what these are, but from their white colouring, I am guessing them to be either cockatoos or egrets:

Here is another magpie goose that we passed:

And here is another cormorant:

In places, the billabong was a sea of gorgeous flowers:

Now we come to my favourite bird, the jacana or Jesus bird.  These birds are tiny with very long, spindly toes, so that they can "walk on water" via the lily pads.  The male jacana looks after the chicks, which is the opposite to many species in the bird world. In this first photo, the daddy jacana is flapping his wings to ward away a lizard that is intent on harming his young:

Here he is again, a little more visible now that his wings are at rest, with the lizard crisis averted:

And here is another jacana bird which is carrying chicks  under his wings (not visible in this photo)  - these little guys are just adorable:

These I believe are darters in the tree:

Don't look now, but here is a saltwater crocodile, blending splendidly into the  landscape:

Those guys give me the shivers - I was glad to be on the boat and not in the water.

I highly recommend doing a Yellow Water Cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong at Kakadu National Park - it is absolutely magnificent.