Those mango daiquiris were out of this world and then we had some frangelico and prosecco - also quite yummy.  Next we had a variety of  home made pizzas including a delicious seafood marinara one made by Janice.  Need to get that on the rotation.

Up and organised the next morning said auf wiedersehen to Janice and Garry and Davie and Cheryl who sent us on our way with a good sized fresh crab.  That made some awesome sandwiches for lunch I can tell you! First stop was a self service car wash which had a high bay for caravans.  We had a hose control at either end so we both got stuck in, spent about $20 but managed to get a lot of the red dust off the van. I think some of it will live with us for ever - but hey thats why we got an off road van.  We then tootled down the road about 20km to Coolalinga CP where we caught up with Susie and Ken and friends of their's - Maria and Lynton.  The original plan to meet at the Purple Mango got scrapped when Ken and Susie reached there to discover the brewery only opened on the weekends and there was no one else camping there so Coolalinga was their plan B.  We just parked in the big rig section as we were only there for the one night.  So we had a nice little happy hour catch up.

Friday was also a bit of a celebration for us.  I've had a long standing travel insurance claim which has been going on for over a year dating back to when we had to cancel our cruise and head back to Scotland when Mum passed away.  It was knocked back and I was told that I could go through the dispute process.  With help and encouragement from Mark I lodged a dispute which was also knocked back so I progressed to the next stage where they stalled me for 6 months, finally knocking it back in January.  By this time I was ready to give up as the last stage was to raise it with AFCA which meant redoing all the online forms etc.  However I decided that I'd persevered this far and so might as well jump over that last hurdle.  I spoke with AFCA early last week who said that they'd contacted the insurance company asking them to consider an ex gratia goodwill payment and AFCA also talked me through the chances of a successful outcome if I pursued it further should they not come to the party.  And they weren't good.  So I was hoping for a little something as an exgratia.  Imagine my surprise and utter delight when the case officer for the insurance company called me on Friday to say they'd decided to make me a one off ex gratia payment for the full amount of my claim less the standard excess. What a win!  The AFCA case officer rang me this morning and said she was amazed too as she thought I might have got about 25% of my claim if I was lucky and its the first time she's ever heard of someone getting their entire claim as an ex gratia.  So the morale of the story is keep on politely persevering - you never know where it could get you.

We packed up Saturday morning and drove to Jabiru in the Kakadu national park.  We've been staying at Kakadu Lodge CP for the last two nights and have one more night to go.  On Saturday afternoon we drove out to Cahills Crossing which is a river crossing into Arnhem land which is noted for becoming quite perilous at high tide (apparently at low tide you can see the abandoned cars which got stuck going over.  But at high tide its famed for being a spot to see crocodiles chasing the fish which wash over the crossing.  There was only one that we saw and he didn't poke his nose out for very long.  Then we headed back to the van for tea and a couple of drinks - seemed strange not to be having happy hour with friends.

Yesterday we headed out to explore a bit of the park.  Quite a few spots are closed and some require fairly rigorous climbing and clambering so that's not an option for Craig between his dodgy knee and his broken wing.  However we checked out a pretty billabong and climbed up to Nowurlandja Lookout which gave us some great views.  I'd pre booked us a Yellow Water sunset cruise which got really good reviews.  So we headed to Cooinda which is the starting point and had a pre lunch drink then drove out to a nearby picnic spot to eat our lunch which I'd packed for us. We bummed around the resort at Cooinda till it was time to be picked up for our cruise.

What a wonderful experience that was.  Ela was a great boat skipper and guide and we just very gently cruised around the Yellow Water and surrounding wetlands which still had lots of water due to a great wet season this year.  She was so knowledgeable about the bird and animal life and knew all the good spots to look for crocodiles.  We had some great sightings and if you enlarge one of my pics you can see I fluked it and caught one guy popping up and helping himself to a fish.  The sunset and colours in the sky were outstanding and its a shame I'm not a good enough photographer to do them justice but there's a few not too bad. Though we have decided we need better phones with a decent camera - our little Oppos just don't have a very good camera.  

 It was almost 7pm when we got back to the car and then had a 50km drive. We were lucky enough to follow a couple of cars most of the way back who were travelling at a good speed - we probably wouldn't have been game as there's always the chance of wildlife at that time of night and in fact the guy in front of us braked and swerved at one point and there was a huge wild pig at the side of the road.  He'd have tested our new bullbar!

Today we decided we'd have an easy day.  To be honest we've found Kakadu quite underwhelming - and part of that may be because some areas are closed or because we can't access them with Craig's shoulder.  But many people have said that Litchfield is much prettier so we're looking forward to going there in the next few days.  So I got a load of washing done, did a colour refresher treatment on my hair, made arrangements to get the car serviced and of course updating on here.  The car service has been a challenge.  We'd thought that after Litchfield we'd gradually make our way back to Katherine then across to Kununurra and get it done there - the mileage would be about right by then.  But when I rung Toyota there this morning they're booked out until 27 July!  Then I tried Katherine - they're full till 21 July.  So then I tried Darwin and I can get in there on 6 July.  I feel like theres a rubber band keeps taking us there - the place we hadn't intended visiting!!  Anyway I've drafted a bit of an itinerary till then and called Kylie at Robbie Robbins to see if she could fit us in for a couple of night while we get the service done - and legend that she is - she can.   We haven't been to the bar here for happy hour yet so might drift over there later. And that's my lot for today.