IT FINALLY HAPPENED!!!!

 It was hard to leave Cobourg, but our permit had expired and we were out of beer so it was time to go. After an overnight stay in a donga, and some good pub grub at Iron Bark Hut, we were once again setting up our camp at Jim Jim Billabong in Kakadu National Park with Dave and Janna.

We spent a day visiting Jim Jim and Twin Falls which was pretty spectacular, and enjoyed a quick swim at Jim Jim Falls. As luck would have it our gas hot shower had stopped working the day before and we were both starting to look and smell a bit like homeless bums - we certainly appreciated a croc free swimming hole that day.

Twin Falls

Another creek crossing

We decided that we had done enough sight seeing and decided to get back to what we do best - FISHING! We launched the boat at Jim Jim Billabong and spent a few days fishing there. We were only catching Saratoga and Long Toms and the Yowie was getting very agitated because he still had not landed a legal barra - let's just say that his mood was not very pleasant......

Belle and Saratoga

Did you know that Ned Kelly was a fisherman???

As we weren't having much luck at Jim Jim, we decided to launch the boat at Yellow Waters instead. It's a beautiful wetland area with an abundance of lilies, birdlife, crocodiles and fish. After navigating through the shallow weedy water we found a perfect fishing spot - we could even see the schools of barra swimming through the clear water. Belle was the first to hook a barra (it was a monster), but after a 'netting incident' the fish was swimming back to his mates to taunt us a little more.

Belle was enjoying the scenery and wasn't paying too much attention to fishing until she heard those three familiar words screamed by an excited Waz "GET THE NET, GET THE NET, GET THE NET". We did not want a repeat of the Daly River Incident, so Belle had the net in the water ready to capture the bloody fish. It was a perfect fish landing and Waz finally caught a legal Barra (all 63cm of it, which is bigger than Belle's Daly River Barra - not that it matters of course). But the important thing is that we can now call him Wazamundi.

Wazamundi finally strikes

Isamundi prefers Z-man snagless soft plastics

Yellow Waters

 Never smile at a crocodile

More Yellow Waters

Wazamundi celebrating his victory

Huntsman on our camper.............

We both managed to catch a few more Barras and really enjoyed exploring Yellow Waters - it really is a beautiful spot. We had arranged to meet our friend Rob (or Mr MacFlip as he is known by his students) for a weekend of fishing at Shady Camp. We packed up and made our way out of Kakadu. As we were passing through some roadworks on the Arnhem Highway we were stopped by the traffic controllers because there was smoke coming from the back wheel on the camper trailer. We couldn't believe that we had done another flaming bearing. We were unable to drive any further, and could not change it on the side of the road because it had welded itself together. Belle drove 50kms up the road and called RACQ (no phone reception) while Waz waited with the trailer. A few hours later we were towed back to Jabiru and the blokes at the BP temporarily repaired it there (we would have to get the brake shues replaced in Darwin).
We didn't make it to Shady Camp and instead returned to Darwin where we got the car serviced, trailer fixed and spent way too much money at BCF. We also did a bit of sightseeing and enjoyed some beautiful Darwin sunsets over a cold beer with Lori.

Lifestyle and Easy Topper getting towed back to Jabiru...

A typical NT numberplate

Waz enjoying some oysters at the Mindil Markets

Nightcliffe sunset

Darwin Harbour

 A Darwin Council worker hard at work....

We packed up on Thursday and made our way towards Dundee Beach where we will stay for 4 nights with Dave and Jana. We also picked up our permit for Channel Point which will be our next destination