Kakadu

There is a lot to say about Kakadu you may want to settle back with a cup of tea.

Tony and Sue (SA) were also heading to Kakadu and Tony was particularly well researched , so we tagged along and took advantage of all his forward scouting. (Thanks Tony)

We bush camped in the National Park at Mardugal, Mark and Tony became native and entertained us and all the camp with their didgeridoos.
After the fellas went out hunting and returned with sausages , Sue and I went off gathering bread and sauce......................... then Mark and Tony made made fire.

Not so successfully at first , but the sausages were delicious when we got them, we ate very late that night, after a long day out walking, rock hopping, exploring the sites.
There are a lot of fantastic things to talk about in Kakadu, but the down side were the midgees and mozzies, we all got bitten but poor mark was eaten alive. He spent a couple of nights up scratching, his legs were covered in angry red bites.

We thought that we would see crocdiles in Kakadu but were surprised about the number of them, the day we arrived we walked down to the boat ramp , about 200mts from where we were camped and saw a large salt water croc cruising just below the water line.

These signs are at all waterways, check out the last symbol on the sign.

Just as we entered Kakadu we stopped at a lovely wetland area, with waterlilies, masses of birdlife and we saw a whistling kite swoop down and catch some type of rodent , or as another tourist called out "he got a moose" , we were all scouring the countryside for the moose ............he was a pommy and was saying mouse , he didn't see the funny side of it, I think, he thought that we were being rude and laughing at him.

We saw some amazing rock paintings, the Kakadu National Park is very well run and maintained, throughout the park there are rangers giving talks at various times of the day. The rangers also come to the campsites to do talks at night, we watched a slide show and listened to a talk on aboriginal art.

This is Nabulwinjbulwinj...............He is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.

The road to Twin Falls had just re opened after all the rain from the wet season. It was a fun 4wd into the falls area with a 750mm deep creek crossing, that was to the top of our wheels , with some water coming into the cabin , and then a rock hopping trek into the falls , it was spectacular. Jim Jim falls were next, it was hot and getting late so we didn't do the long walk into Jim Jim , but what we saw was lovely.

The next adventure our wagon master (Tony)  had in store for us was the Guluyambi Cultural Tour . This was a boat tour only the East Aligator River with an aboriginal guide who gave us an insight into his culture. We were amazed by the number of crocodiles that were in this river ...... we were warned to keep our arms inside the boat.

Next on the agenda was sunset at Ubirr, this was breathtakingly beautiful, we climbed to the top of masses of boulders........... looking at rock art along the way to reach the plateau which gave you a 360 degree view of the surrounding grass and wetlands.

There is so much more to see in Kakadu but that will have to wait for another trip.

After 6 nights without power , we are tonight in a caravan park in Camooweal, not much here apart from a pub and a couple of service stations so it's good to be able to charge everything up, do the washing etc.
Off on dirt road tomorrow for a couple of hundred klms to Lawn Hill then over to Karumba.