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Published: November 11th 2010
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Termite Mounds
One of the Cathedral Termite Mounts on the way to Kakadu When we eventually got the car sorted we headed off to Kakadu. On the way out of Darwin we passed somewhere called Truck City. This is where I was advised to hitch from when we arrived in Darwin and were trying to find work seventeen years ago. Just by Truck City was the notorious sign that gave the 1479km distance to Alice Springs - depressing when it was where I was trying to get to on the way to Melbourne to find work (see
Back to Reality).
The Arnhem Highway to Kakadu was absolute bliss to drive on; long and straight with virtually nothing on it. Once we got used to having the road all to yourself, when we did eventually come across someone else, even in marginal proximity, we really resented it. The M25 is going to come as a shock when we get back home. Inevitably when we did need to over take something, usually an excessively long road-train, it would be when we reached the only bends in the road. We had one rather worrying instance where we were behind a road-train the back of which was swerving uncontrollably across the road, sometimes even leaving the road and kicking-up
Truck City Sign
Thankfully, I'm not hitching this time. masses of dust. We kept our distance before getting past as fast as we could.
The scariest incident however involved a clapped-out VW van. It pulled off a side road in front of us and was all over the place. We quickly caught it up and went to overtake it when it decided to take a turning to the right with no warning and obviously without looking. It was clearly loaded down with hippies, but don’t get me started on them (see
Armed Sieges, Safe Breakers and German Hippies - We Hated LA).
We stopped off to see some cathedral termite mounds and a billabong. I’m sure that these termite mounds were the same ones I saw when I previously went on a tour to Kakadu (see
Best Be Careful at Lunchtime). Now apparently they are sadly no longer ‘alive’ due to all the people walking round them over the years, despite the boarded walkways.
On several occasions we saw smoke that looked worryingly like bushfires. We found out later however that fires are a traditional Aboriginal way of managing the bush during the wet season and it is still used today. We later found out during a visit to Canada that the fires actually prevent worse fires from happening, as
they found to their cost (see
The Lake With The Rude Name).
Once we got to Kakadu we checked out the Yellow Water billabong, although we didn’t go on the boat tour - we were planning on an Aboriginal cultural boat tour. The Aboriginal cultural theme was huge in Kakadu. On the way back we stopped-off at the rock-art gallery at Nourlangie Rock. There was a great walk and of course the rock-art galley, which was the one that I had also visited last time I was here.
We spent a night in Kakadu and stayed at the famous Crocodile Hotel. This hotel is literally shaped like a crocodile, although it is best appreciated from the air. Jake and Freya absolutely loved this hotel and was talking about it for weeks afterwards, although she was a bit scared by the way that the eyes glowed red at night.
We had a bit of a dash to get back there before it got dark. The main concern was that all the animals come out at night and there is a high risk that they might wander on to the road. Of course we wouldn’t want and flat kangaroos on our conscience, but there
Wetlands Bird
A bird by the Yellow Water was also the concern that we would not be insured if we hit an animal at night.
It was very expensive to eat in the hotel, although it was an as-much-as-you-can-eat buffet and children did eat for free.
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