by Carolin and Fabian
The pressure of the previous weeks, even months, was slowly easing. An ice cold beer in our hands we gazed at the million star night sky and smelled fresh, humid, eucalypt-scented air.
We couldn't really grasp it in that moment but we made it, this was our first night on the road.
Finally out of the city and on our "longest way back home".
We camped at Mary River National Park on our route to famous and beautiful Kakadu National Park and on the way we already saw a glimpse of what to expect during the next days. Endless green wetlands interrupted by wide, murky estuary streams. Red-brownish plains as far as the eye can see, rugged outcrops and gnarled eucalyptus trees. And wildlife. Lots of it. Birds and buffaloes, wallabies by the hundreds, staring at us with confused expressions in their little faces. And we knew, of course, Mr. Omnipresent Saltwater Crocodile would wait for us somewhere in the rivers. We also saw our first snake, a small black whip snake. Fabian almost stepped on it during the first night.
Click pictures to enlarge and read captions
Mr. Croc was happy to meet us on the second day. Cahills Crossing at East Alligator River became the most eastern part of our whole trip. It is infamous for its crocodile population and famous for Barramundi. We didn't do much fishing before, in fact Fabian got his first fishing rod just before the trip. People sometime wait ages to catch Barramundi, Fabian waited 20 seconds and almost turned the handle of the reel of the first time he through the line in.
"Fishing's not that hard" you could hear him say over the next hours, days and weeks.
Turned out to be the best example of beginner's luck because we had to wait about another four weeks to catch the next one despite constant trying.
A couple of days and many stunning moments later, we found ourselves on a boat on the "Yellow Water" region with 30 tourists and an aboriginal guide because we couldn’t get enough of the Crocs apparently. The tour started and soon enough we saw crocs laying on each side of the river bank, swimming in the water and relaxing in the sun. Dozens of them. The crocs were huge, between 3-5 meters long. Each time we saw one, the boat started to rock from left to right and back again because all the tourists jumped up and ran to the respective side to get the best shot. At some point we had three Chinese ladies and their selfie sticks almost sitting on our laps. We kind of refused to move from our seats to just enjoy our surroundings. Things calmed down after a while and when a crane caught and swallowed a medium sized fish, people were hardly moving around anymore and stared at the happening with pure fascination.
Back at the campground we dedicated the rest of the day to our malfunctioning water pump, which we decided to swap a little while later, and our broken solar panel. We never found out what was wrong with them, since both were working fine back in Germany. Along the way a very wise Australian mechanic told us we would be better off knowing that sometimes things just break and you need to replace them.
It’s easier just to accept and enjoy the fun parts instead of trying to find the reason for the failure.
And he was right. Amen.
We continued our trip to Edith Falls on the western part of Nitmiluk national park. The cool bath at the bottom pool of the falls wasn’t just refreshing but also necessary... with a constant layer of sunscreen on you skin, the dust sticks to it the second you put it on, leaving you with the constant feeling of being dirty.
Lucky for us, the campground at the falls was full, which led us to find another home for the night. In Australia that never takes very long and wild camping is easy, so we ended up in a dry river bed.
We sat at the campfire and under uncountable stars and knew that was all we needed.
Makes looking forward to the rest of the trip quite easy...