24 - Kakadu part 2

24– August 2016 - 13/8/16 – Kakadu part 2 

Our next stopover was at another national park managed bush setting at Mardugal campground also with great hot showers located a few kilometres from the commercialised Cooinda Lodge area with the acclaimed Yellow Water Cruises. 

We were happy with our choice of location at the national park campground after viewing the Cooinda camping area where the caravans were packed in so tight; some caravans didn’t have enough space to roll out their awnings. At Cooinda reception we had to queue up for about 40 minutes to book a cruise, even with three people operating three computers at reception. It was like peak hour traffic with congested people all over the place.

We participated in a sunset and sunrise Yellow Water Cruise, (the first cruise had a price tag of $90 per person and if you participated in a second cruise you could get an option of a $25 per person price which we did). It was certainly a commercialised operation with 4 boats operating at the same time, each with a capacity of about 50 people. It was a professionally run operation, which it needed to be with the high volume of people being funnelled into a narrow loading dock.

Whistling Ducks

2 X Jabiru and Water Buffalo

Wild horse

Darter

Azure Kingfisher

Azure Kingfisher

Comb Crested Jacanas

Sunset with Jabiru

Nankeen Night-Heron

Paperbark Flycatcher

Green Tree Snake

Forest Kingfisher

Little Kingfisher

Jabiru

Look at all my legs

And when I lift a leg

3 X Kingfishers

Crocodile & ducks foreground, Cruise boat background

White bellied Sea Eagles

For us the morning cruise was superior with a larger volume of bird life sighted. It seemed no matter which cruise you participated in they took you to exactly the same locations to view exactly the same sights due to the crocodiles having their own territory as do the birds have their own viewing trees. It was luck of the draw, if the wildlife was present at your time of arrival.

The Yellow Water Cruise was different again to the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise on the East Alligator River and different to the Mary River Wetland Cruise departing from Rockhole Billabong. 

For us the Mary River Wetland Cruise would be the most memorable, possibly due to being our first cruise experience in this region, possibly due to being a much smaller vessel enabling some closer viewing and the Mary River Cruise didn’t seem to be a staged event. 

Our next target was to view Maguk Plunge Pool. We had repeatedly been advised by people the plunge pool was magnificent but they also all said the 12 kilometre stretch of road was very rough. 

We initially drove a couple of kilometres past the turnoff for Maguk and unhitched the caravan at Gungurul bush camp. The tow tug tyres were deflated to a softer pressure in anticipation of a rough road into Maguk. 

Entering onto Maguk road it appeared that the road had just been graded and half a kilometre down the road we came across the grader attending to the final bits of grading the road. It was one of the better dirt roads that we had travelled along. There was also a campground located 10 kilometres along the road in a delightful bush setting which was predominately shaded by large trees. We found a couple of locations with reasonable sunshine and without viewing the plunge pool we returned to Gungurul bush camp collected our caravan returning to Maguk campground setting camp in a much nicer setting. 

Unfortunately when we stopped to back into our camp spot we discovered that we had a flat rear tyre on the tow tug. It looked like a sharp rock had gone into the middle of the tread leaving a big hole and we hadn’t noticed. It may have happened about a kilometre back when we had an approaching vehicle and there just happened to be a low tree limb on our side of the road where we met the other vehicle and we locked up our wheels stopping to allow the other vehicle to go by so that we could deviate around the low tree limb? The tyre was just 4 months old with 7000 kilometres travelled.

We were hot and dusty by the time we set camp and completed our original journey to the plunge pool for a welcomed cool down and wash. The water was beautiful without any chill factor but that could have been due to do the current climatic conditions with daily weather forecasts of 35C temperatures.

On our walk along the trail back from the pool we managed to get a couple of photographs of an unknown bird and when we got back to the caravan out came the bird book to identify our new bird a Rainbow Pitta.

Rainbow Pitta

Maguk campground was a very nice setting amongst beautiful large green trees with spread out individual camp sites. By evening it was full of other campers, mostly of overseas origin and they all had to have large fires. This did concern us as there was no water at the campground and the undergrowth was thick with dry grass over a metre in height between the campsites. We could have easily stayed at this location for a few days but concerns for our safety if a fire did occur was too frightening and we decided to move on. 

Our next destination was Gunlom campground the location of the highly promoted, “Gunlom Natural Infinity Pool,” along with a clear plunge pool at the base of a waterfall. The 37 kilometre gravel road to this location had also been the subject of many complaints about being in poor condition. Once again our time of arrival was impeccable as the road had obviously been graded within the last few days. Grinners are winners!

Day time temperatures had increased by about 5 degrees in the last week, possibly signalling the approach of the next season with high temperatures followed by the onset of humid conditions not far away. It felt every bit of the predicted 36 C degree temperatures forecast by the bureau of meteorology (inside temperatures were now regularly showing 37 - 38 C with it feeling cooler in the caravan with the fans operating than outside) and every time we set or packed up camp we were left feeling a bit tired. Our daily walking activities were now prioritised for early morning or late afternoon. 

The Gunlom Natural Infinity Pool walking track, a distance of 2 kilometre return was classified as difficult, steep and strenuous. We completed this walk late afternoon and our leg muscles did feel the day’s effort. The water was very pleasant and we were very glad we had made the effort as it was a magnificent setting. We must have been having a good day as a large mob left on our arrival and just as we were leaving another tour bus group was arriving.

Gunlom Natural Infinity Pool

Gunlom Natural Infinity Pool

Gunlom Natural Infinity Pool looking down towards lower pool

Hot days with a mix of exercise = good night sleeping. 

We also returned to the lifestyle of immersing our bodies into the Gunlom plunge pool waters at the base of the waterfalls a few times during the day, cooling our bodies throughout the hot day. These waterfalls were the highest we had seen where you were permitted to swim once they had been checked for the presence of crocodiles. It was an impressive setting.

Part of the enjoyment of travelling also includes some delightful food with some of our Kakadu meals.

Thai meal

Fresh campfire cooked damper

Kakadu for us was simply awesome. We spent just shy of two weeks exploring Kakadu and there were quite a few locations we missed that we would have liked the opportunity to experience.