Kakadu National Park

Do not despair, this week’s blog is much shorter than last week’s.

We have spent a lovely week on Kakadu National Park; after doing all the boring unmentionable things like washing the car, cleaning the van inside and out, stocking up on groceries after 3 weeks away, etc. We set off for Jabiru on Sunday and enjoyed the park there.  Darwin was hot and Kakadu no cooler so no surprise we have been in a pool every day. The walk out to Ubirr Rock was interesting and the view over the floodplain including the sunset was good.  A Ranger gave a good talk at the Aboriginal Art Site and again at the top of the Rock.  The art is really interesting and very different from the stuff at Carnarvon Gorge and Blackdown Tablelands in CQ.  The ranger described the ages of the artwork and pointed out several figures we saw repeated throughout the park including Lightning Man.  It was interesting to see several pictures of Dutch Trading sail ships which were painted a good while before Capt James Cook arrived on the scene.  The Rangers do a great job as the next night we watched a slide show and explanation of the crocodiles in the NT. 

Magpie Goose

Sunset on Ubirr Rock

Looking at Nourlangie Rock 

Aboriginal Art at Nourlangie Rock

The early morning Yellow Waters cruise was clearly the highlight with a misty sunrise over the waters of the billabong and the South Alligator River and its flood plain was spectacular.  The crocs were plentiful and sunning themselves along the banks on a cool morning, the birds were everywhere and the fish were so easy to see in the clear water of the first cruise of the day.  There was big male croc longer than 5m and heaps of smaller females sunning and swimming themselves.  The birdlife was amazing with jabiru, brolga, whistling kites, whistling ducks, magpie geese, white heron, and heaps of others whose names I cannot remember but the highlight was the 2 Kingfishers we saw. One was an Azure Kingfisher and the other a common Kingfisher with very uncommon bright blue feathers. Both beautiful birds that where very patient with the boat as we moved in very close for photos.  The fish we saw were of all sizes from tiny tropical fish to catfish, and plenty of barramundi up to a good size (50cm+).  They all looked so peaceful given there were all sorts of creatures waiting to eat them.

Sunrise on Yellow Water Billabong

White Heron

Waiting for Brekky to arrive

Azure Kingfisher

Common Kingfisher

from the rear

The other cruise boat further up the river

Spoonbill & his mate?

Sunset over Yellow Water Billabong

A walk around a couple of waterholes let us see a lot more birds especially huge numbers of magpie geese and whistling ducks but the end of the dry season is approaching and the water levels are low.  The waterlillys are still very pretty.

We spent 2 nights at Jabiru and the next 2 nights at Cooinda.  After the Yellow Waters cruise and a few more photos at sunset, we got some more exercise with a walk to a lookout atop a large rock near Nourlangie Rock and Billabong.  The view was good and the walk around Nourlangie Rock and its Art Sites was special.  There was an impressive aboriginal shelter formed among the large slabs of sandstone at the foot of the cliffs.  Very clear paintings were on the walls and roof in 5 locations and the hollows where the ochre was ground were evident in the rocks on the floor.

The last place we needed to visit was the waterfall and pool that Garry visited when he went on a Scout trip with Brendan and Fabian 20 years ago.  All of the places have reverted to their aboriginal names in that time  but we noticed on one map a place called Gunlom (Waterfall Creek).  This was the place and it was on our way back to Pine Creek so we decided to trek in and spend the night even though it was 39kms of dirt road.  Garry figured that if a Nissan bus full of Scouts could get in there 20 years ago then we should get in with our van on today.  Mistake!!  It was the worst piece of road we have driven on in that 20 years, rough, deep corrugations, and large rocky road base to drive across.  20 years ago it was a sandy corrugated bush track.  The bad road serves a good purpose in keeping most tourists away with big coach tours unwilling to venture in.  We got in and out with a little swearing, a lot of slow careful driving, and no damage apart from a few books and groceries spread around the van and one bottle of beer that got so shaken up that it popped its lid.  The pool at the bottom of the falls is beautiful with fish swimming around our feet and is exactly as Garry remembered it.  After a hot afternoon during which a swim helped cool us off, we decided to hike up to the top of the falls to take in the sunset.  It was a steep difficult climb on a hot afternoon but we made it and the views and pools at the top made it worthwhile.  Carol had a few doubts about her fitness but with a couple of spells and most of the water we carried, she did a great job and made it easily.  Who needs gyms and saunas when you can climb mountains in 38 deg heat? 

Gunlom (Waterfall Creek) swimming hole

At the top of the Falls

Approaching Sunset

Sunset at the Lookout

Birds across the setting sun

 It was a great visit and for the record, the camp facilities are good with large new toilet and shower blocks and a good area of green grass with bbq’s.  We think it is a place only visited once though.  When speaking with the Campground Manager he says that despite the road in they had heaps of tourists during the dry season this year with the maximum of 412 campers on over 250 sites on his busiest night.  At $10/head/night they should have covered his wages.  Having ticked Waterfall Creek off our list we headed for lunch in Pine Creek and made it to Katherine for fresh food and to watch the Footy.  Tomorrow we hope to make it into Western Australia with an early start.