Up before daylight to the sounds of Brian stoking the fire. I finally made a damper and cooked it in the ashes before we headed off to Cooinda Resort.

As always the ride back out along the rubbish dirt road was faster than the ride in. Funny how that works.

There was lots of burn offs active and recent on the road to Cooinda. The fires are set to burn at low intensity to reduce the amount of fuel to drive subsequent wildfires and reduce fixed carbon loss in those wildfires. The burnoffs also thin out the eucalyptus trees to let a wide range of herbs and shrubs grow develop to maintain a diverse vegetation and the animals that live there.

The aborigines also like the cooler fires to get rid of the Death Adder snakes that they might step on when going ‘walkabout’.

An easy ride over the Jim Jim Creek (see the 3.5 m crocodile!!! All the noise and he/she quietly sank under the water to reappear 50 m further from the bridge) to the Cooinda Resort. The resort is very nice. Go there.

We booked in, paid Kakadu Park fees, Christine and I booked a wetlands boat tour for the next day then set up camp and clean up before dinner. Chris O’B decided that he would go on a tour on the South Alligator River further north so he would head off the next day.