Kakadu NP Day 2

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Nourlangie Rock and Yellow Water Cruise
October 22, 2008

We hated to leave our Bush Bungalow. We both slept well, the weather cooled considerably after dark and we even pulled up a blanket during the night.
It was hot again today so we did our hiking around Nourlangie Rock (more amazing rock paintings) early in the morning.

We did some bird watching at the Sandy Billabong off a short 4WD road. Ooh, it’s so much more fun to write “billabong” than “water hole.”

We’ve been getting a kick out of all the frilled lizards running around on their hind legs with that “frill” on their head. We see them a lot of the road and there are road signs that say, “Drive Carefully, we liked our lizards frilled not grilled.”

In the heat of the day we learned and saw a lot at the very well done indoor Warradjan Aboriginal Center in the Yellow Water area of Kakadu. One of the things we learned was that the Aboriginal people wish others would use their names for things, but if I were to use their name for Yellow Water it would be Ngurrungurrudijba, so my apologies to all the Aboriginal people… I just can’t do it.

We checked in to the Gagudju Cooinda Lodge, also in the Yellow Water area. It’s an expensive place, but here there isn’t much choice. After settling in, it was still hot so we spent the next hour in the pool, it’s a nice one with waterfalls and pretty landscaping.

We signed up for the 4:30 two hour Yellow Water Cruise and it was the perfect time to do this. We saw many crocodiles and birds galore, including the very rare Little Kingfisher. The guide hadn’t seen one in two years and another guide on the boat had never seen one. Oddly enough, we also saw several very large feral pigs. An added bonus was being on the river for the sunset…simply beautiful. We think Kakadu is a pretty special place.

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Photos

Paintings at Nourlangie
Sometimes I think they got a little carried away...there were several layers of paintings. The signs said that it wasn't the paintings that were important, rather the process.

The Yam Dude
I guess the women needed to watch out for projectile yams.

Nourlangie Painting
This was just beautiful.

Cultural Exhibit
This sculpture was in the Visitor Center at Jabiru. Looks fragile to me.

Yellow River Cruise
I didn't even realize there was a crocodile in this photo until I saw it on the computer. We saw dozens of them.

Croc #2 Photo
This guy thinks he's camouflaged. Pretty cool fellow.

Another One
When you look into their throats it looks like there is no opening into an esophagus, just solid. But we know better. I was glad the boat had tall sides.

Yellow River Cruise
This is the South Alligator River although there are no alligators here (only crocs). The guy who discovered it mistook the crocs for gators. You'd think they would have changed the name of the river by now.