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…

Day 95 – 22nd August – Kakadu (almost)

We finally got ourselves organised enough to move camp.  We packed up and inched our way closer to Kakadu.  Our first stop was a place called “Window to the Wetlands”.  It’s an interactive information centre aimed at teaching the kids about the wetlands.  The view from the balcony was pretty good… this is our first glimpse of some water buffalo (much easier glimpsing them through binoculars than through my camera).  We spent ages on the balcony which was at tree height so we managed to add a few more birds to our birdwatching list…  

Next, we headed to Corroboree Billabong where we had booked in for a wetland cruise on the billabong.  We were a little disappointed with our cruise, we expected to see loads of wildlife and birds, but to be honest, there was hardly any.  We did manage to spot a couple of new birds bringing our total to 20 new birds in two days, which is pretty good in my opinion…  

The banks were lined with a billion water lilies.  There is more evidence here of how dry the last wet season was.  These water lilies are standing way above the water.  What should happen is during the wet season, they should have been submerged under the rising flood waters.  The submerged lilies then die off leaving the new season lilies to regenerate and sit on top of the water as they should… 

Love these Jabirus, otherwise known as black-necked storks… their black necks are actually a beautiful shimmering green…. 

Of course, there were crocs.  Check out this monster… someone shot a water buffalo a few weeks back.  Since then there has been a load of crocs hanging around that area.  They had their feast until the carcass started to rot.  Apparently the crocs are a bit fussy about their meat being fresh so they won’t eat it anymore… instead they lie there waiting for the less fussy feral pigs to come along, attracted by the smell. 

After our cruise we set up camp at the Corroboree Tavern Caravan Park.  It wasn’t a bad place, it was just chock full of cane toads.  I have mentioned before my completely irrational fear of frogs… multiply that by a billion to know how I feel about cane toads…. eeeewwww!  You know your husband really loves you when, at 1am in the morning, he willingly treks across the caravan park with you and then chases all the cane toads out of the girls toilets… 

Day 94 – 21st August – Darwin

Today was supposed to be pack up day… oops… we were having too much fun we forgot to do a whole bunch of stuff like washing and shopping… So we delayed our departure by a day and started the day with chores… But never fear, we still had enough time in the afternoon to go exploring.  We drove out of Darwin for about 40 minutes to the Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve.  This is our first taste of the wetlands of Kakadu… and we loved them.  We managed to find a whopping 12 new birds on our birdwatching list…  The favourites were a Rainbow Pitta and a pair of male Cicadabirds strutting their stuff at each other…

Here’s a Comb-Crested Jacana… they have the most incredibly over-sized feet I have ever seen… 

Beautiful water lilies everywhere… 

There may have been one or two Pied Herons… 

From the dam we headed back into town via Howard Springs.  Time for a quick look and a quick play on the playground… 

This photo was taken about 2 seconds before his bum ended up dragging on the ground… they just don’t make the play equipment for 6 foot blokes…  

Day 93 – 20th August – Darwin

Today was one of those monster days again… chock full of fun!  It started with a visit to the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery.  There was an awesome collection of animals and artifacts in the natural part of the museum and a fabulous display on Cyclone Tracy.  I love how an hour or so in a museum has taught our kids a whole lot of stuff they wouldn’t have gotten in a classroom…

This is “Sweetheart”, he’s 5.1 metres long and yes, he was a real crocodile once…  

After lunch we hit the Leanyer Recreation Park.  How cool is the NT Government?  They have provided this waterpark to the public free of charge… yep, we didn’t have to pay a cent… The kids (and Dave) had a ball on the three massive waterslides. We must have spent at least 3 hours there and the kids were up and down those slides the whole time… 

Ordinarily, that would be a pretty full day… but wait, there’s more… We had to drag the kids away from the waterpark to make our way to the Mindil Beach Markets.  These markets are quite famous around here so a trip to Darwin would not be complete without seeing them.  There were people everywhere but not so many that you couldn’t move.  We got into the spirit of the markets and actually had quite a bit of fun.  There was whip-cracking, fancy food, henna tattoos, air-brushed tattoos, dinner, a fire show and a ride on a segue… all  this amongst all the other activities going on around us… 

Day 92 – 19th August – Darwin

I can’t believe we’re back in a big city…

Today was our first chance to explore around Darwin.  Of course, being in the bush for so long we had a few things to catch up on so our first stop was a shopping centre.  Haircut done and purchases made we had a quick look around the Darwin CBD and waterfront area before we headed to the Botanical Gardens.  There is something special about a garden in a tropical climate.  We managed to spot a couple of new birds and loads of weird and wonderful flowers.  The gardens got a thumbs up from us…

After the gardens we drove back to our caravan park for a special treat… meeting up with some friends from home.  It is surprising how nice it is to see a familiar face after so long… We had a nice drink and a chat with Geraldine and Terry and swapped travels stories while we sat by the pool.  It turned out to be a really pleasant evening…

Day 91 – 18th August – Litchfield National Park

Guess what we did today?  We went to a waterhole where we jumped in and did bombies… then we drove to another waterhole where we jumped in and did bombies…

Another day, another waterhole (or two)… today was pack up day so we headed out early for Florence Falls.  The falls themselves were stunning… there is so much more water here in the NT than back on the Gibb River Road.  Here’s the view from the top… 

135 stairs get you down to the bottom where you can swim in the plunge pool 

It was a bit early in the morning and a bit chilly for me so I wandered about with my binoculars… to find our 100^th bird on our list.  The coveted spot goes to… the Rose Crowned Fruit Dove…

From the falls we walked through a monsoonal rainforest along a creek to get back to the carpark.  Geez I love that kind of environment… so pretty and so lush and green…

We drove back to camp where we packed up then went for one last dip in the Buley Rockhole.  When I say dip, I mean we jumped in like crazies over and over again… 

Proof that Dave and the kids are not the only crazies…  me and Spidey got into the action too…