Kakadu

KAKADU (17/7 - 25/7)
Today we arrived in Kakadu. The first thing we did was stop at Mary River Roadhouse. We got some info on where to camp and continued on. We stopped at the ranger station but there was no one there. We camped at Gunlom. We had a swim at the bottom of the waterfall and the water was quite murky. We walked up to the top of the waterfall and swam there. We went for a bit of an explore and found a little gorge to swim up. At the end there was a little waterfall that was warm.
That night I made butter chicken for tea.
Today we drove to Jim Jim Billabong. On the way we stopped at Maguk. The walk in wasn't very long, but the rocks were very slippery with sand. The water there was very clear and quite warm. We swam around a bit then swam out to the waterfall. We had lunch there then walked out. When we arrived at Jim Jim Billabong we set up, it was the first time we set every thing.
The next morning we got up fairly early to go on a ranger guided activity at Nourlangie Rock. It took us up to a lookout where the ranger told us all about a rock on a rock ledge that was said to be a feather from one of the spirits headdress. We went down the stairs and came out at a rock art site. There was there was two main spirit people and lots of other people. There were some pigs in the park and they really enjoy having a good scratch on the rock art so all the peoples legs were gone. At the end of the walk we came to a shelter that the aborigines used thousands of years ago. They did an archeological dig there and found a bag, a spear tip, some grind stones and lots of other interesting artefacts. If you looked down into the cave you could see some grind stone holes. After that walk finished we drove to Nanguluwur Gallery. The walk into the gallery was hot and 3.5 km long, but was worth it. There was lots of different artworks of different things. There was a really cool one of a early European ship towing an aboriginal dinghy. We had lunch there. We were all hot after the walk so we went into Angbangbang Billabong and sat in the shade. We did a bit of a walk round the billabong and saw a crocodile and lots of birds. We went back to Nourlangie and did some school work. That evening we went back to Angbangbang and did a ranger activity and watched the sunset.
Today we are going to Yellow Waters, the Cultural Centre and Cooinda.
We first went to Yellow Waters. There we were planning to the board walk then continue on the 1 km walking trail then turn around and then come back. We started the board walk and saw lots of birds like egrets, sea eagles, rainbow bee eaters and jabirus. We came to the end of the board walk and saw where the path was supposed to be. It was all over grown and there was a gate blocking the way. We stayed at the end of the board walk for a while then saw a crocodile and followed it all the way back to the start of the board walk.
We decided to go to the Cultural Centre for lunch and a look round. There were some cool displays and I bought a neck cooler.
Next we went to Cooinda. Some other people at camp had told us that everyone just goes to the resort and has a swim, and the staff are completely fine with it. We went and had a swim got an ice cream and petrol.
Today we are going into Jim Jim Falls. Everyone had been saying that the walk was very hard. When we got there we discovered that it was only 500 metres. It turned out that it wasn't that hard, and the hardest thing was a bit of rock scrambling. On the way Dad dropped his camera cap and mum quickly put her hand in the pool the cap fell in to get it. In doing so dad's phone fell into the pool. Also mum's binoculars fell in too. We got the phone and the binoculars out. We came to the base of the waterfall soon after that. Near the end we came to a junction, one person we met said to take the right hand path and that will take you to a little beach you could access the water easily from. We had to swim through a little freezing cold pool to get to the pool with the waterfall. We thought we would swim out to the waterfall, but we got half way and we were freezing because it was colder then the other pool, so we turned around. We went back to camp had tea and went to bed.
Today we drove from Jim Jim to Merl. We went to the visitor centre and had a look round there. Again there was lots of interesting displays. We arrived at the campsite and quickly set up. After setting up we drove to the East Alligator River. At the Visitor Centre we had booked a tour on the East Alligator River. We boarded the boat and our aboriginal tour guide told us all about the landscape and how they used it. He told us how to make an oven using paperbark and stuff like that. At one point in the tour we got off the boat onto Arnhem Land and the guide gave us a spear throwing demonstration. All in all we saw about 30 crocs.
After the tour we went up to Cahills Crossing where some people were standing on the crossing and we could see big crocs 20m upstream. Cahills Crossing is the only way to cross between Kakadu and Arnhem Land.
Next we went to some of the rock art sites and a lookout to watch the sunset.
At the campsite there were heaps of mozzies so we had to eat tea in the tent.
Today we got up, packed up and started off. We decided to go to 4 Mile Hole, just inside Kakadu. Before we went there we went to Mamaluka Wetlands. We did one walk around the edge of the wetlands then went and got our school work and lunch to go and do in the bird hide there. We watched the birds saw a couple of lizards and relaxed in the shade. We walked out and drove to 4 Mile.
After we set up Ben and I built a shelter which was very hard because it was so windy. We built the shelter because there was no shade whatsoever. Again we had to eat in the tent because of mozzies.
In the morning the boys went fishing. They came back and told us that they had caught lots of little barramundi (rats), run over a crocodile and saw the worlds fattest crocodile.
We didn't do much for the rest of the day, just relaxed and did school work. Just before tea we made signs for Nan and Pa to welcome them to Darwin the next day off the Ghan.Read more