Kakadu National Park

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I booked my 3 day 4WD Wilderness Tour via a very nice agent called Ben, who assured me that this was the best tour of its type and persuaded me to part with my $460 dollars (i got a slight discount by squirming about the price!). I was slightly nrevous, based on the brochure, that at 22 i would already be a bit over-the-hill and past-it as all the photos were of body-beautiful 18 year olds! But i was pleasantly surprised to find myself the youngest in the group by 9 years! There was Nicolla and Peter, from Brisbane, Duncan from all-over-the-world but most recently Canada, John from Ireland and Herwig from Germany, and our guide Sean (an Aussie). The tour can take up to 14 people so i was very lucky to have a group of just 6 and we got to know each other pretty well. THe tour involves riding across the park on the benchseats of a landy with a large trailer behind containing our gear, swags, food, water etc. Sean is a wildlife ecologist most of the time so was amazingly knowledgeable on all the flora and fauna, and quite funny and random too! Despite having been to the Blue Mountains a few days ago, the scenery in Kakadu National Park was still amazing. There are no words, or even photos, that accurately describe the place, the sheer vastness of it. You can sit and look at the landscape for ages and still constantly see something new. There are many Aborigine tribes still living here and taking care of the land, and lots of places with rock art and dreaming sites, and being aware of this helps you to see images and faces and animals in the rockfaces and features around you.

On the first day we drove from Darwin (at 6.30 am!) along the highway, stopping first for a nature cruise. Our guide was Byron, a slightly eccentric, weatherbeaten type in old jeans and no shoes, but he was an excellent guide with just the right mix of interesting facts and explanations. The main aim of the cruise is to see crocodiles, but there are also lots of bird species and even fish to be seen. A lot of companies run "croc jumping" cruises where they lure the crocs into leaping high out of the water to get a piece of meat on the end of a long hook. This one was a little more "natural" - the crocs still got fed but they didnt have to jump and they got quite a lot closer! Crocs have a territory of only a few hundred metres on average so there were plenty to be seen. The two biggest were both males, Agro and Hannibal. They were huge - around 14 feet long, and Agro only has 1 leg left! It takes time to get your eye in but eventually we got the knack of spotting the telltale bubbles in the water, the nose and eyes just sticking out or the silent slide off the bank and into the water. the males slowly siddled up the the boat, the long waves as their takes beat side to side and the persistent stare as they got closer. The first time Agro went for the meat we all jumped back, even though we were safe inside the boat. He was only about a metre away from us and despite his age and size he moved incredibly fast to get the meat. The females were smaller on average, but still very quick and agile. One younger one did jump, getting her body full out of the water up to her hind legs! There were also whistler kites that swooped down for meat thrown into the air or fat thrown onto the surface of the water. They are quite big birds of prey and it was pretty impressive, until one missed the meat, then missed again, then got himself tangled up in a tree! When we returned to the jetty Byron showed us a yellow (croc's favourite colour) lifejacket that had been tied to the rails of the boat, where we rested our arms, that had a chunk missing where a croc had taken a fancy to it and just jumped straight out of the water and bitten it!

After that we headed on into the park, stopping for the obligatory posed photo by the sign before moving on to Bowali Visitor Centre, via the last reasonably priced supermarket (for beer and mozzy repellent). We only had about 20 minutes there, which doesnt sound long, but it makes you really focus and concentrate and look at the displays you are really interested in and not dawdle aimlessly. They had some great photos form a flood a few years back. The Northern Territory and the top parts of WA and Queensland only have 2 seasons -The Wet and The Dry. The Wet runs from December to April and is characterised by soaring temperatures of up to 55 degrees, loads of thunderstorms and monsoon rains. Obviously The Dry is when it stops raining, the temperature gradually drops to around 22 degrees and all the vegetation dries up and dies. We were touring at the end of the wet, which is perfect for scenery as everything is still green and lush and the wetlands are full and all the animals are still around (not miles away searching for food) but its still pretty hot at mid 30s and a bit humid and there are LOADS of mosquitoes. After the visitor centre we went on to Nourlangie Rocks to admire the rock art. There was a granny-tour ahead of us, shose information talk we hijacked and then laughed at as all the facts were wrong! Sean has actually lived among various Aborigine tribes so really knows his stuff. There are lots of different phases of art, with the well-known x-ray style where you can see the animal's internal organs, to more detailed later styles, and lots of gods and spirits and stuff. Some tell stories or even about cultural rules, including marriage and incest and war and so on. My favourite was of the corroborree (dance/party) where they dance like animals and so each person is painted half human and half like the animal they are portraying. In the same painting was a woman giving birth and another expecting twins, as seen by the two babies painted inside her belly in x-ray style. At first the paintings look like they are only 5 minutes old and could have been done by anyone but the more you look the more you see the age and the detail. Aborigines think of art differently to the western world - we finish a painting and then want to preserve it, whereas they tell a story or use it as a symbol etc and then happily paint right over it next time they use that site, so some areas have layers of paintings. We skipped the regular tourist lookout and headed 10 minutes down the road to climb another hill, made of rock made out of pebbles, if you get what i mean - i think its called conglomorite or something. It was steep and a bit tricky, like trying to walk uphill on cobblestones, but worth it or the view. To the left was the other lookout, with the face of a gorilla in the rocks, then stretching as far as you could see and well beyond was the park, almost all trees, a universal sea of green, with Lightning Dreaming and other Aborigine sacred places in the cliffs and hills on the far side. One of those places you just stare and stare and stare.

It was pretty hot, so after we climbed down and refreshed outselves on fruit and ice water we drove on to the campsite, stopping for an hour at a swimming hole. A few years ago, during a particularly high or low wet season, i forget which, a crocodile had been spotted here, so the car park displayed the usual warning sign, but Sean insisted that there hadn't been on there before or since and now that it was the end of the wet season the water was too low in the river for the crocs to get this far upstream, so it was safe to swim. Not that we weren't nervous, especially Nic and I, who insisted that the boys swim first so that they could get eaten, being much "meatier" than us! It was beautiful though, the water was cool and almost completely clear with a waterfall at the far end. John and Duncan decided that they were "body doubles", John comparing his physique to Duncan's gym-and-karate muscles, and insisted that they must be brothers separated at birth! I had brought my waterproof camera (the film for which i am still yet to develop) and I hope i got at least a few good photos from that and the other waterfalls we visited. Eventually it got cold and started to get dark so we reluctantly climbed out, did a bit of posing for photos i our swimmers by the croc sign then headed on to camp. Hoorah for hot showers, mosquito fly tents and swags! Not so hoorah for mosquitoes, crickets, bugs in general and massive ugly cane toads that are everywhere. After stting up the tents we enjoyed an excellent dinner and a lot of good conversation, until a snake decided to gatecrash, sliding up Peter's leg and causing everyone (except him, who hadnt felt or seen it!) to jump up from the table! Remarkably Peter still didn't react but in seconds Sean had identified it as a harmless baby Children's Python and gradually the blood pressure decreased and everyone sat back down. Sean rescued it from Peter's lap and i got to spend a good hour with it wrapped around my hand, quiet as you like. We named him Pedro, as it had climbed Peter's leg. After the initial reaction the boys were acting a little over-macho to compensate, until i dropped Pedro back onto the table and they all shot backwards again! After dinner we went "eye-shinning" - carrying a torch around at head height to shine off the eyes of animals, birds and spiders all around us. It was amazing how many living things were around us that we couldnt see!! I slept well that night, although seeing the array of stars through the top of the tent was really distracting. I could have gazed at them all night.

We were up at 6 am the next morning for breakfast and to pack up the camp before a day of hiking and swimming. Kakadu is famous for its beautiful waterfalls and the tour company we were with has licenses and permits to visit quite a number not permitted by general tourists. We visited 3 waterfalls, including Motorcar, where someone once tried to drive out to and got stranded. The hiking wasnt too hard, except for the heat, and that the boys walked much faster and had longer legs so i kept getting left behind in the 7 foot spear grass! We were glad of the swim at each one to cool off. The first was my favourite, where you could swim across the main pool and climb up the rocks to one side to another pool. It was a bit tricky but you could then stand under the waterfall, which thundered down on top of you and felt like the most amazing massage. I had my waterproof camera with me and i hope i got some good shots (still havent had time to get the film developed!). We did a touch of rock climbing/scrambling at the last one to get to the top pool which was ice cold and deceptively deep. There were butterflies and moths everywhere in so many colours. Everyone dozed off in the truck on the way to the next campsite, but woke abruptly as Sean decided to play around, slamming the brakes on and whacking the outside of the door with his hand to simulate a crash! No-one's response was better than John's, who bolted uprightand out of his seat and windmilled his arms! Despite spending several hours swimming that day we took to the campsite pool, complete with strange rockery thing and trees, for a last dip before a BBQ tea. We then played cards until quite late, confusing everyone who didn't already know how to play S'head!

Up early once again, having slept better despite being a bit too close to the river where the saltie crocs live, we spent the morning on Culture Camp, learning about gods with giant penises, spear throwing ( not for women apparently) bush tucker, weaving and ground ovens. the camp was run by a couple, he and Aussie, she an Aborigine, her brother Douglas and their 5 year old daughter Katharine, who knew all the items and information off by heart and kept interupting to tell her mum she was getting it wrong! Nobody won a boomerang or stubby holder for spear throwing, most of us were inaccurate and Duncan simply threw too far! The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon was in the Garden of Eden. First up was another waterfall for a quick refresher before the highlight of the trip for me, a scramble/rock climb up the hill to some hidden rock art and a stunning view of the valley from the top. the climb wasn't too hard, a bit of struggle for me having legs a good few inches shorter than everyone else! But i made it, ignoring all the proffered hands up and advice like "just stick your foot a bit higher!". The rock art was beautiful but we had to be really careful climbing through as there were paintings everywhere, a bit like modern-day graffiti underneath bridges, so you couldn't touch the sides or edges of the rocks or use them as hand or footholds. We climbed up through a narrow crevasse where i earned the nickname Lara Croft (complete with cleavage apparently! thanks guys!). We has a lot of fun at the top posing and mucking around for "dangling off the cliff" photos and the view was awesome and this time so varied. i love the fact that places like that cant be accessed by the public so you know you are one of the very privileged few to see it. after a swim and picnic lunch we continued exploring, meandering through rivers and stopping to admire the goanas and water monitors, some mahooosive spiders and a few more waterfalls and therefore a bit more swimming. Kakadu is one of those places yo could explore forever and still find new and amazing places. we did a lot of swimming but you needed it with the heat and all the hiking. Sadly we eventually had to head back to Darwin, but not before stopping to admire the cathedral termite mounds. Sean used my hadn to demonstrate the fact that if you stick it in a termite hole they spray you with termite sent! nice! turns out is smells quite nice really, a bit like sandalwood. the termites assume you are an ant trying to invade the mound, so they make you smell like a termite so that when the "ant" returns to the nest to tell the other ants, they think its a termite and kill it! smart!

Back in Darwin i had about 20 minutes to check back into the hostel, shower and change before heading out again as we had arranged an end-of-tour dinner in town that evening. Peter and Nicola chose an Turkish (i think) tapas restaurant. The food was awesome, we ordered almost everything on the menu in the end i think. i had my first taste of barramundi, a fish native to the area, and kangaroo, cooked very rare with chutney. we had a lot of laughs and it seemed the tour had ended all too soon. after dinner we went clubbing but it was school days night or something so we were the only ones not in uniform! music wasnt bad though. i was shattered from the tour and due on the bus to Kununurra the next morning so Peter, Nicola and I turned in around 1 am. I arranged with them to go see them in Brisbane on my East Coast leg, to see Australia Zoo (before Terri Irwin ruins it!) and the better, non-touristy bits! They are such a lovely couple and so well travelled with so many stories, i cant wait to go and see them again.

Almost broke but very happy, i board the greyhound bus for the 10 hour ride to Kununurra to(finally!) start the working phase of my stay...

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