Day 96 – 23rd August – Kakadu

Today we finally made it into Kakadu National Park. 

We made a quick stop at the Mamukala Wetlands on our way through to Jabiru.  Only one new bird for our list here… the funkiest looking Hoary-Headed Grebe  

Check out the hair on this dude...

We got to Jabiru about lunch time and it was hot!  We were setting up the camper in a  cloying, high humidity, unescapable heat…. It wasn’t until later in the day that Dave was looking at the weather and discovered it was 37 degrees.  Apparently we have several more days of  36 and 37 degrees… aren’t we supposed to be in winter?  Even though we were on a tight time schedule we found the time for a quick dip in the pool before finding the local bakery for lunch. 

After lunch we headed up to Ubirr.  Originally, I hadn’t identified Ubirr as a place to visit, however, in the past week we have had four separate people tell us that Ubirr is their favourite place in Kakadu.  We didn’t need much more convincing… On the way to Ubirr we stopped at Cahill’s Crossing.  This is a popular spot for croc-watching.  

As the water flows over the crossing at high tide it is common for crocs to actually have a go at biting the tyres of the cars travelling over.  Another draw card is an apparent feeding frenzy when the fish are carried across the road at high tide.  We got there about an hour before high tide, which is when this feeding frenzy is supposed to happen.  We saw crocs, we saw one guy catch a barramundi so we know they were there… but we never saw a croc catch a fish…

Check out these idiots…  yep, there are crocs literally metres away.  Check out the super-idiot who is carrying a baby on his back… They did provide us with entertainment when one of them caught a barramundi.  I bet it was nerve-wracking for him though… as soon as the fish started thrashing the croc that was just up from the crossing became instantly interested and started heading that way… 

From the crossing we headed for Ubirr.  Ubirr is well known for two reasons.  Firstly, for some Aboriginal rock art and secondly, for the view from the top of one of the escarpments.  Apparently in the Crocodile Dundee movie, when he sweeps his arm around and says, “This is my country”, the camera shot was taken from this spot…

Here’s some rock art with a moral lesson…  This is a picture of a man who had caught some fish.  Someone came along and cut his line to steal the fish he had caught.  His revenge was to move a large boulder over the cave mouth of the criminals’ cave, killing not only the guilty party but the entire village… let that be a lesson about stealing a fish!  

This painting is of a Thylacine, otherwise known as a Tasmanian Tiger.  Pretty cool to think it was painted at a time before these guys were extinct.  

Two more girls with crazy boobs… these girls were sisters who turned themselves into crocodiles so they could kill everyone… Ever get the feeling the ancient aborigines have an anger management problem? 

Finally, here is the view from the lookout.  The panorama included floodplains, monsoonal forest, escarpments and Arnhem Land… 

Check out this willy willy.  We have seen a phenomenal number of them, and some of them have been absolutely huge!  There has been so much burnt land up here and we have noticed that anywhere there is a blackened landscape there are sure to be willy willies.  We even had one form right in front of our car and pass over our bonnet… of course, we had the windows open so the car was full of dust and grass afterwards…

Ubirr is officially the furthest away from home we will be on this trip.  It is located just north of Jabiru, so, in a straight line, it is the longest distance from here to home… from here on in, everything we do will bring us a little bit closer to home…