Kakadu - Croc Country, Gorge(ous) Country!

---

This past week has seen us enter our 11th month of travelling, Paul’s and my 13th year of marriage, and Western Australia, marking the home stretch of our Aussie Odyssey. Only six weeks to go! We are now in Kununurra, recovering after a very busy week in Kakadu National Park.

Covering more than 19,000 square kilometres, Kakadu is Australia’s largest national park (second largest in the world), and it was one of the places both Paul and I were really looking forward to seeing. After the beauty of Litchfield, we had very high expectations of Kakadu, expectations that were somewhat dampened when we first drove in to the park. Coming in from the top end, one does not see the 2,000-million-year-old Arnhem Land escarpment, nor the wetlands or forests that Kakadu is famed for. Instead, the drive in is flat with a few woodlands scattered here and there. It also didn’t help that the first place we stayed in was the town of Jabiru, a small town of 1,200 which was originally set up to service the uranium mines which still operate in Kakadu (incidentally the nearby Ranger Uranium Mine provides 12% of the world’s uranium, was the first mining company in the Northern Territory to be convicted for breaching environmental guidelines, and is still frequently in the press for safety breaches - this in a world heritage listed national park??!) In Darwin, there apparently is a popular refrain “Kakadon’t, Litchfield Do” and we were starting to think that Kakadu was going to be one of our biggest disappointments of the trip.

Anyway, the following morning we decided to try and put things into perspective and took a flight over the massive park (or at least a small part of it). This helped to dispel some of our misgivings, as we were able to get a good overview of the park, we could see that the escarpment did exist, we could see the wetlands, the massive river systems and even the Ranger Mine, so there was hope for this park yet. That afternoon we went out to nearby Mumukala, one of the last billabongs to still have water after the dry season, and therefore was teeming with birdlife; hundreds of magpie geese and plumed whistling ducks and chicks, as well as the stately brolgas (always in pairs), jabirus and egrets. Magical. We convinced the boys to do the walk around the lake (even at 5pm the heat is still oppressive and we were talking a 3km walk). They rallied well, and we enjoyed a lovely sunset walk around the billabong, so very peaceful, the silence disturbed only by the honks of the magpie geese and calls of the plumed whistling ducks. We ended at the hide, where I took out some coke and chips for the boys, and two beers for Paul and I, as I had remembered it was our 12th wedding anniversary. Sundowners by ourselves in a hide in a beautiful part of the country, quite a nice way to celebrate, n’est-ce pas?

Finding ourselves alone in such beautiful settings as Mumukala is one of the advantages of travelling at the tail end of the dry and oncoming wet season, but it also means a lot of tours start closing. One of the tours in particular we had been really looking forward to doing was the Animal TracksTour, an indigenous foodies tour which people have been raving about all along our trip. Sadly, they were closed for the wet season. William in particular was most disappointed, as he is still very excited and enthralled about anything Aboriginal. We therefore decided to head out to Ubirr, which is the site of numerous Aboriginal rock art. Our visit did not disappoint, as we found some beautiful, and some very old, rock art etched into the escarpment - a very humbling experience, to realise that these art galleries were completed by people living thousands of years ago (some of the rock sites date back 25,000 years!). Many were still very clear, and were very interesting; one that gave us a chuckle was the depiction of the white man as boss, hands in pocket (and curiously with a big nose) while the Aborigines worked around him - ring any bells to South African readers? We walked to the top of this particular escarpment, and enjoyed a beautiful 360 degree view of the scenery - Kakadu was getting better minute by minute.

We also were given a tip to visit Cahill’s Crossing, the East Alligator River border between Kakadu and Arnhem Land, at high tide. Here we saw large salties waiting to catch fish as they leapt over the road which was seething with water. Quite an awesome sight, and one the boys thoroughly enjoyed as it was the first time they really got to see the famous salt water crocodile (there are numerous crocodile tours, including the jumping croc tour which is supposed to be brilliant - tour operators dangle meat a few metres over the water to encourage the crocodiles to leap in the air to grab the bait. The boys were so keen to see this, but Paul and I just could not get ourselves to do this tour, as it is encouraging behaviour in crocs which can only lead to disastrous consequences in future years; fishermen in particular will be at risk of having a crocodile leap into their boat to seize their catch of the day. On the one hand, we are bombarded with information telling us that these are one of the most dangerous hunters in the world, and that if we are to swim in any waters where a crocodile may be lurking, we will most definitely be killed, and then on the other hand, we are encouraging behaviour that can only further refine their hunting skills). Anyway, I digress. We all enjoyed watching these crocodiles, and found their hunting style for catching fish almost endearing; check out the photos, where you see them face upstream, with their legs outstretched to increase their catching area. Kakadu continues to improve in our esteem, and we have not yet seen any waterfalls…

Our first waterfall was JimJim. Access to these falls were by 4x4 only, so on the spur of the moment (we had initially intended to bypass JimJim because of the bad roads), at 4pm with the sun shining (burning) we dumped Cazza at a carpark and headed to JimJim for a night of swagging. We drove straight to the falls and quickly clambered up the 1km steep and rocky hike to the falls. JimJim was stunning. The falls itself were only a trickle, but the pool was crystal clear and beautiful. Unfortunately as it was late, we could only spend about 15 minutes there, before hiking back to the car. We arrived in the nick of time - we were walking in the dark for the last five minutes. We drove back to the campsite and set up our swags, made dinner, and then, as we were heading into bed, the heavens opened. Can you believe it - three days in Kakadu and not a drop of rain, and then the night we swag it rained all night! Dismal. We survived though, and the following morning drove out to see Twin Falls and experienced our first real deep river crossing. In the words of the boys - cool! Twin Falls was also stunning, and the first place where it was frustrating that we could not swim as we would 100% get killed if we stepped in the water (according to the ranger, that is).

Our unexpected side trip to JimJim did have a good outcome though. We had parked our caravan at Cooimba Caravan Park, and decided to spend a night there to recover from our sleepless night in the swag. It was for this reason that we found ourselves on a sunset cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong. Without a doubt, this is one of the highlights of our Odyssey. We travelled along river channels and through spectacular wetlands. Our guide Travis was a star, spotting crocodiles, birds, tree snakes, and he was full of anecdotes of how his grandmother grew up in the area; how she hunted for file snakes in the water, used the giant waterproof leaves of the lily pad as a carrying utensil, and how she scared away the crocodiles by slapping the water. The Yellow Water Cruise was a big big hit.

We still had a few more waterfalls to explore, and headed out to Maguk Gorge (one of Paul’s personal highlights, as not only was the gorge and the swimming hole perfect, but he and the older boys scrambled up the waterfall and discovered more potholes above, including a deep one which, once you are in you can’t climb out: the only exit is to dive down a couple of metres and swim through an underwater tunnel to emerge in the main stream), to Gumlom Falls, and then, just outside of the park, to Edith Falls, where we were privileged enough to be the first and only people at the top pools and were therefore able to watch two monitor lizards battling for territory rights. All the falls were beautiful, even though it was the end of the wet season, and the pools were magic to swim in. An aside, Quinton’s swimming is improving daily, but what is really amazing us is his ability to dive; he just holds his breath, puts his head under water, and kicks his mighty legs. His deepest dive so far is 1,8 metres! While Litchfield was without a doubt beautiful, they are not a patch on Kakadu; the diversity of Kakadu, the expanse of the park, the birdlife, the wetlands, the rock art, and the rocks themselves - we really felt privileged to have been able to experience this remote part of Australia, and without the throngs of tourists that come here during the tourist season.

Sadly, it was now time to head out of the Northern Territory. Just before the crossing is another national park, Keep River National Park. This turned out to be a very fitting way to end our time in the Territory. We found ourselves truly all alone, and persuaded the boys to join us on an 8km hike through stunning sandstone ridges, dry woodlands areas and tropical rainforests. At sunset we found ourselves on top of the escarpment looking out at the vast expanse of empty land - not a soul in sight, no buildings, we couldn’t even spot the dirt road. Wow. I doubt you would get this experience even in Africa. Truly magnificent.

And to really end our Northern Territory experience off in style, Paul, Oliver and Quinton managed to get a lift in a road train to Kununurra (Oliver and Quinton drove in one truck with Mick, and Paul managed to hitch a lift in another). What a buzz.

So now, here we are in Kununurra, which was to be for us the start of our Gibb River Road expedition. Unfortunately, just as with Animal Tracks, we discovered that El Questro and all the other iconic destinations of the Gibb River have closed for the wet. We are very disappointed, I in particular at not being able to see El Questro, a place I have wanted to see for many, many years. But, what is, is, and it does mean we will get to spend more time along the WA coast. And Kununurra itself has also been wonderful so far, but that is another story….

Until then, stay well.

---

Comments

[renate]

awesome!
Just love seeing all your pics and reading about your adventures! The boys are growing so fast and looking so big! Seeing how relaxed and happy you all look, i'm not sure if we're EVER going to have you back in the 'hood! :-)

[Marketosdownunder]

Yes, the boys are growing up fast! And the tickets are booked, so you will see us back - Jan 9 is our touch down date!