Kakadu - a definate must do!

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Day 134 - Katherine to Kakadu

The day started with Tropic Lesson Two - don’t leave chairs out all night and then be surprised when you find a tiny frog sleeping soundly in one of them in the morning! Lynne the photo is the very last one in the sequence so just avoid that but look at the others cos they’re gorgeous! Crikey they get everywhere! Hope he had a better nights sleep than us! It was rather warm again through the night despite the cool air from the fan blowing nicely it didn’t bring the temperature much below the mid 20’s!

We got all the outstanding blogs uploaded this morning which was great, no more back log - yippee! We’re a bit later leaving than usual because of it but no matter, we’re not travelling that far although we haven’t actually decided on our destination 100%!a(MISSING)s yet!

We’re heading into Kakadu, the national park at the top of the Northern Territory which will take us in a triangular sort of way across to Darwin. We’ve heard varying opinions expressed by other travellers about this place, some say “Kak-a-don’t” whilst others say “Kak-a-do”! It was always part of our plans so we’re doing it anyway for the experience, in for a cent in for a dollar as the old Aus saying goes!

We get on the Kakadu Highway and then call in at the Gaymarr Interpretive Centre at the Mary River Roadhouse for some more details. We’ve already got the excellent Visitor Guide but we would like to visit Gunlom which is along a 36km dirt road and wonder the best way to go about it. We guess it’s corrugated and therefore not ‘Sweetie’ friendly but it’s always worth checking just in case the grader has visited recently! I found my way to the bright orange interpretive centre and was welcomed by the chap behind the desk. I asked about the access road and got the expected answer, corrugated and quite badly in places. In that case we had thought to camp further along the road and then return by 4WD and he showed me some interesting photographs when the area was flooded but it included shots of the campsite we were thinking of staying at! With the added confirmation that the pool at Gunlom is safe for swimming I’m happy and armed with that little bit more information return to Darryl who was taking a breather in the shade outside the café. I told him the scenario with the road but that the campsite looked ok. We’d only just left the roadhouse when I noticed a Ranger Station on the map just before the turn off for Gunlom and wondered if we could park the caravan there and pick it up later in the day. I should really have asked the chap at the centre but I hadn’t thought of it then! Doh!

When we got to the Ranger Station we found it was off the road and that there were parking bays big enough for caravans but nothing had been left here today. Luckily the Ranger returned while we were pondering what to do and said that lots of people leave vehicles here so we did just that, parked up Sweetie and headed off to Gunlom.

The 36km road was a mixture of gravel with bouts of fairly rough corrugation, others might disagree and say they floated over the top of it and hardly noticed the little bumps but we did!

We arrive at Gunlom to find a huge plunge pool that looked so inviting we just had to get straight in, bliss! The water temperature was lovely, warm in parts and very cool in others!

Refreshed we decided to make the 1km ‘difficult climb’ up the marked track to the Gunlom lookout. We were now in the heat of the day which is not the best time to start walking but it’s not far and we had plenty of water with us. Our reward was yet again a magnificent view but this time we had the added bonus of rock pools and they also had a view! What a beautiful place this is and the water was divine, even the lizard sunning himself on the rock when we arrived thought it was too good to stay out of for long!

We had the place to ourselves for a very short while which was lovely. A group of ten young travellers joined us and we took some photos of them, they took some photos of us and we all thoroughly enjoyed the view! Thanks very much to Kerry who got out of the water to take our photos, we’re really grateful for that and they’re great! We’ve got lots more photos of you guys so give us a shout and we’ll email them across! Have fun on your travels.

Needless to say we were very glad that we found somewhere to leave the caravan so we could come up here and even more chuffed when we’d completed the walk back down to find the kiosk open so we could indulge, again, in an ice cream! Now that’s got to be a good find, a National Park with an ice cream kiosk! Result!

Back down the track we went, overtaking the Britz campervan that was slowing to a halt, their rental agreement will probably say they shouldn’t travel on unsealed roads but they obviously couldn’t resist and who would blame them!

‘Sweetie’ was parked up safe and sound just where we left her although the inside temperature had risen to something ridiculous, it was 42 degrees! Well that sorted the next decision out then, where to camp! We’d intended to stay at the non-powered Mardugal site which is $20 a night but there is an alternative albeit double the price! The resort at Cooinda has a pool and powered sites which means we could at least have the cold fan on tonight and take a dip in the pool this afternoon. We know we should rough it but we really want to wake up married in the morning and if I fidget much more at night because I’m hot I don’t see that happening! In order to save our sanity we book into the resort! Even though Mardugal has showers, they’re solar powered and if the inside of the caravan is 42 you can imagine what the temperature of the water is going to be!! Not very cooling!! Have we convinced you yet?!

So we sold our soul (!) and booked into the resort plus we secured two spots on the early morning Yellow Water cruise which comes with a buffet breakfast so Darryl is all happy again because that’s how he’ll make our money back!!

We have a chat to the nice couple camped next door, they’re from Nunawading in Melbourne which is where Grant is stationed at the moment in the force. They’ve enjoyed their time in Kakadu and did the cruise this morning and say it’s excellent so we’re looking forward to tomorrow even more now!

There’s a walk that we can do from here which goes along the river but the sun is starting to fade away and it’s probably not the best thing to do with all those crocs so close by, the river is brimming with them apparently! We walk down to the jetty and watch a couple of chaps fishing from their Tinnie. They’ve managed to catch a Barramundi big enough for them to keep (they need to be over a certain size or you have to return them to the water) and cook up for dinner. It’s interesting to watch them bringing the boat back in as you would normally see people wading into the water to pull it up onto the trailer but not here! They’ve seen some big crocs on their fishing trip so they pull the boat in with a rope!

Dinner was beautifully cooked as ever by Mr Howells, sausages ala BBQ accompanied by salad and the faithful potato and pumpkin! Yum! He also found time to share the secret of his BBQ cleaning with a couple of unsuspecting Danes. We’re not sure they understood but the instruction to get some Wire Wool from Woolworths was clear and with the added practical demonstration I thought he was getting ready for a ‘Wire Wool & You’ power point show (only funny if you worked on the WMS team at Tradeteam!)

And that was today, all we found to entertain ourselves with tonight was the fact that we’ve got internet access in Kakadu, it started to rain and the temperature has dropped to a mere 30 degrees with all the windows open and the fan on full blast! The only other droplets of knowledge we can offer were found on the back of the XXXX Gold tinnies Darryl is drinking tonight and they are:

- Gardening with a mate is only acceptable if it involves a sledgehammer, skip and heavy machinery.

- Never buy a mate a drink that requires a straw unless his head is stuck in a helmet.

And with that we bid you a very good night!

Dar and Sar

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Comments

[Lynne Coulsell]

If they were all that big I could handle it!
Chick Thanks for the warning but I got Lady P to check out the little mite first and he said he thought I should be ok. Good job you didn't use a big lense on this one! Lady P CLEARLY shouldn't be here as Dr. P is now 8 days overdue - oh dear! Will look forward to the Wire Wool & You presentation when your back home - lol. Lots & lots of love Me xxxx