23 - Kakadu part 1

23 – August 2016 - Kakadu part 1

We were delighted with our Mary River National Park experience, departing on a high note at the completion of the Rockhole Billabong boat cruise.

We made our way into Kakadu National Park where the country side looked dry and decided not to stop and explore the first few billabongs located within the area of our entry, as we had heard they were nearly dry and we would have been rather disappointed with the scenery after coming off the billabong boat cruise.

We set camp at Jabiru for our first couple of nights, assessing our options for our Kakadu experience.

The Bowali Visitor Centre at Jabiru had an impressive display area and a theatre room showing some great footage and commentary about Kakadu. We spent a couple of enjoyable hours at the visitor centre.

 

A different view

About 20 kilometres south of Jabiru we viewed an assortment of very interesting Aboriginal rock art at Nourlangie and we enjoyed the afternoon views from the Nawurlandja lookout.

While at this location we viewed a receding billabong in the throes of drying out. It was interesting watching the various groups of birds frantically digging their heads deep into the muddy surface searching for those last remnants of bird tucker. The whole scene panning out before our eyes was reminiscent of those African nature documentaries of the drying plains that are regularly shown on the TV. It was all part of the nature cycle, 2/3 into the dry season with the landscape drying out and thoughts turning to the anticipated arrival of the big monsoon wet in the not too distant future.

1.30 am One morning we were awoken by the very loud wailing of nearby Bush Stone-curlews, ‘weeloo, will-aroo, will-aroo,’ not stopping until we were wide awake with our fingers in our ears.

Who us? You must have been dreaming!

From Jabiru we travelled north about 40 kilometres relocating camp at the national park managed, beautiful bush setting of Merl campground with lovely hot showers.

There was a nice flat walking trail snaking through some lovely scenic country side from the campground to East Alligator River near “Cahills Crossing,” the only road entry point into Arnhem Land across the East Alligator River.

1 crocodile to the right in the water

There is a viewing platform over the river at Cahills Crossing where you can view plenty of crocodiles trolling along the edge of the barrage of Cahills Crossing at the approach of high tide. The water rushes over the crossing with the crocodiles holding themselves stationary in the fast rushing waters near the barrage with their mouths open in anticipation of capturing some of the many fish travelling over the barrage in the fast moving water.

Plenty of crocodiles

They held position with jaws wide open waiting for the fish

Raised paws for extra floatation

We experienced the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise on the East Alligator River provided by Aboriginal guides. This cruise was set in a tree lined river setting, quite different to our previous cruise in the billabong setting on the Mary River. It was quite enjoyable but didn’t provide the enthralling impact of the constant changing variety in fauna and flora that we so enjoyed on the Mary River.

We enjoyed viewing plenty of remarkable rock art at Ubirr and admired the views of the Nadab floodplain from the top of a rocky lookout at the rock art location, reputed to be the best lookout views in Kakadu. We were going to observe the sunset view from this lookout but were scared away by the arrival of mobs of people, mostly from tour groups swamping our position who were predominately quite rude and inconsiderate. As a consolation we had tea at the nearby “Border Store” specialising in Thai food. We were the first to arrive for tea and were provided with instant service and the Thai food was beautiful. Content with our meal we left just as the lookout mobs were starting to arrive.

From Merl campground we walked all the available walking trails bar one which was closed due to safety reasons.

Most people seemed to be utilizing one locality as a base to explore the highlights of Kakadu. We are not fans of travelling many kilometres each day to the different viewing areas which are plentiful, spread over hundreds of kilometres in Kakadu. What we did like about Kakadu was the many different camping options located near many of the highlighted attractions. For us relocating camp was a minor imposition and we preferred to move to a camping location nearby or at areas we deemed sounded attractive to us enabling exploration of these areas at our pace over a timeframe of as many days as suited us.