A Visit To Kakadu

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We were up early as the bus came to pick us up outside our hotel at 6.30am for the long drive to Kakadu National Park.

First stop was at the Bark Hut Hotel for breakfast. This was fairly rugged with several cattle skulls and a buffalo head peering down from the walls, very 'outback'. Then back on the bus.

There was a lot of driving .. we stopped at last in a pretty spot with nice gums where people were led to view aboriginal rock paintings. Some of these are 1500 years old, some a lot less. It involved some climbing so I stayed behind to feed the midgies. Once more they discovered and love me .. I'm covered in bites that are unbelievably itchy. We did buy insect spray at the next stop, very annoyed at ourselves for not thinking of it earlier.

More driving - across the Alligator River (wrongly named by early explorers .. no alligators, just crocs) - either the South Alligator, East Alligator or North Alligator River, I cant remember - and lunch at Cooinda Lodge after which we were shuttled to the Yellow Water Billabong for a boat trip. There were some lovely birds, mostly egrets, herons, different ducks, eagles, etc. and of course, many crocodiles. We've seen so many crocs on our travels north, we're a bit over them, they are such big dangerous creatures. We continued on to Jabiru and the Crocodile Hotel, the croc shaped building where we were to stay overnight if the Ghan trip had gone to plan. However, we felt we'd seen all we wanted, so were pleased we'd be continuing back to Darwin.

It was a long trip back, a lot of it towards a beautiful sunset and with the added worry of nocturnal animals crossing out path .. two wallabies and a dingo ran across the front of the bus but somehow the driver avoided them. It was about 7.30pm when we were finally dropped back at our hotel in Darwin, tired, itchy (me), but we've finally done Kakadu, if only a small part of it.

Next morning we had a wander around the mall near our hotel before catching a taxi to the airport. We were so sorry to be leaving - Darwin is a great place and at this time of year, the weather is perfect. Maybe we'll get back next year.

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