Ubirr to Cooinda

Not too much driving today thankfully, so we took our leave of Merl Campground and its persistent insects. First stop today was Burrunggui Rock (formerly Nourlangie Rock), where some of the best rock art is to be found. Here there are four or five galleries scattered over a wide area, so we wandered around and checked it out.

Some of the more detailed paintings reminded me of the Valley of The Kings in Egypt - the iconography and the detailing in the finishes seemed quite similar. Eerily beautiful. One area was underneath an enormous boulder probably 30-40 metres square, hanging probably 10 metres above our heads, and protected on all sides by other large boulders. Elevated slightly from the wetlands and with a few canyon-type gaps to let the breeze through, it was just an enchanting place. The sign said local Aboriginal mobs have used the space for probably 20,000 years, and it's pretty easy to see why.

There was also a good hike here up another rocky outcrop, so of course indulged and drank in the view. This spot is much closer to the Arnhem escarpment, so there were large frowning sandstone cliffs on several sides. There's a walk you can do right to the top of those, but supposedly it takes 6-8 hours and requires departure before at least 10am, which we'd missed by several hours.

Nearby we also stopped in at the Cultural Centre to check out displays of culture, history and so on. Very informative as usual.

From here we drove to the Cooinda Campground, a large indigenous-run campground/caravan park/small village, our destination for the night. We discovered on checking in that although we thought we'd only lined up a complimentary sunrise cruise on the nearby Yellow River, it was actually a sunset cruise one night and a sunrise cruise another morning! And that the sunset cruise was leaving in about 90 minutes.

We had a quick dip in the pool to cool off and relax - although it's cooler here a bit further south from Ubirr/Jabiru area, it's still reaching low/mid-30s every day. After our swim we hopped on the Yellow River shuttle and boarded a boat without incident.

Our guide/driver was a local man named Reuben who was very knowledgeable about the fish, the plants, the birds, the river and the ecosystem. Saw a bunch of crocodiles, lots of wading birds including a jabiru, some songbirds like the azure kingfish, and a glimpse of a wallaby. No sign of the local buffalo who are an introduced species - they were brought in to help pastoralists in the mid-1800s but of course their farms failed and the buffalo were left to their own devices.

Another gorgeous sunset over the wetlands (this time from the boat), and then it was back to our trusty motorhome for another bbq dinner in the dark. Still getting used to this camping thing, but it's working out okay so far.Read more