Darwin to Kakadu

Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Kakadu National Park » Jabiru
October 24th 2008

Published: October 24th 2008

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J J

Aboriginal Kids

Love the way they posed.

Darwin to Kakadu
October 21, 2008

It was a long but good day. First order of business was hiring (that means renting) a 4-wheel drive vehicle over the phone. Then we went to Woolworths (in Australia that is a grocery store chain) and bought some food before Andrew arrived at the hotel with our Nissan. We are now in Kakadu National Park, the largest park in Australia and was named a World Heritage Site for both its cultural and natural resources. It is quite the place, especially when it comes to bird watching. We started out with a visit to Window to the Wetlands (not in the park) to look at the exhibits there, but I ended up spending most of the time visiting with several Aboriginal kids. They were on a field trip and were a lively bunch. We then came to our first billabong and scored some new birds and even saw water buffalo (not native) with cattle egrets on their back. Next stop in the park was the covered viewing platform at the Mamukala Wetlands, where we stayed for about 45 minutes checking out the birds and a kangaroo. Then it was on to Ubirr where there

The Dreaming Place

are some of the oldest (some believed to be as old as 20,000 years) and finest rock paintings in the world. Near the paintings is the Nardab Lookout where we scrambled up rocks to see this vast floodplain, a beautiful view.

Only one minor problem with today, it was 39 degrees C. I won’t make you do the math. It was about 104 degrees F. Again, it wasn’t humid, in fact we thought it felt very dry, and thankfully we were in shade much of the time. My biggest problem wasn’t the heat, it was that wherever we went a fly would decide he wanted to be my best friend forever and would get quite personal by exploring every one of my facial orifices. Thankfully my BFF wasn’t biting, just extremely annoying.

Now we are in the small town of Jabiru (same name of the stork we saw today) which is in the center of Kakadu. We are staying in Bush Bungalow #9 at Lakeview Lodge. No A/C, just a giant ceiling fan and screened walls. We have a little kitchen, grill and picnic table, and a nice private bathroom. We drank cold beer and ate French bread