Blogs from Cooinda, Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Sunday 3rd October - Kakadoo. Well, the much anticipated Kakadoo was a major disappointment after Litchfield and Katherine National Parks. Granted it is the dry season so the waterfalls, wetlands and rivers are not at their best, but in our opinion it is majorly overrated. We first visited an Aboriginal Rock Art site at Nourlangie. I tried to convince Dave of the cultural and historical significance of the paintings, but he's adamant that a couple of infantile crayon doodles do not a Rock Art site make. Indeed, Elle's artwork should solicit far more oohs and aahs than this rubbish (It did provide the comic opportunity for me to call them Kakadoo-dles, though). Next stop was the Mamukala wetlands and Bird Hide. Bill Oddie would probably be impressed as there were thousands of egrets, pygmy geese, herons,etc. ... read more

Day 135 - Welcome to Country Here’s a very special Happy Birthday wish to a young man back home in Bristol! Can you guess who it is? That’s right, Ben Gosling! Happy Birthday Ben, we hope you have a great day! We woke bright and early this morning after another very hot, sticky night even though it rained throughout most of it! We had the luxury of power so the cold fan blew away but it wasn’t until about 3am again that the temperature dropped to somewhere near comfortable! As the clock struck all the fives, 5:55, the alarm went off as we needed to be out at the bus stop to get to the early morning Yellow Water cruise. These world famous wetlands have a reputation that suggests they are not to be missed! There ... read more

Let's head North. Day 12.Left Adelaide after visiting BCF and picking up my new rod and reel courtesy of the Staff of the Rehab Ward at Newcastle Private Hospital. It was nice to leave the rainy, windy cold weather behind and head north through Port Awful (Port Augusta). Bush camp south of Coober Pedy after a day of head-winds. Bush-camp again this time near a bore off the Stuart Highway close to the Woomera Prohibited Area. The new OziExplorer software and Hema maps are helping to find these great isolated camp spots. Passed through Stuarts Well to take a photo. Then called into Rainbow Valley for a look see, worth the 24km of corrugated and dusty road (see photo). Into Alice Springs to have the mighty Toyota serviced, 60,000km = $363. Leonie ran into an old ... read more

DAY 229 I awoke in the night to the sound of some birdsong, although I have not idea what bird it was or what the call signified and blowed if I can remember what the sound was, so I cannot even describe it or look it up in my little book of Australian birds. All I remember thinking was how amazingly different the Australian wildlife can be. We both awoke at 7.00 feeling shattered, this heat really seems to be taking the energy from us. Andy brought me a cup of tea and I lay in bed drinking it and reading my book for a while, well I am on holiday. Even though we are moving today we are in no rush, we are not travelling far as we are remaining in Kakadu just to a ... read more

DAY 227 I had the most terrible nights sleep, I awoke at some ungodly hour because it was too hot, it seems that the temperature must have gone up in the night, it had been a bit cloudy yesterday so maybe it was understandable. Last night the mozzies were well and truly on a mission, they feasted well, so the next thing that kept me awake was the constant itch from a few of bites, a few campers seemed to be having some jollities over the way, though it had not been too bad but the sound of someone getting in a car at 2.45 this morning also made me wake up. I heard Ken and Josh leave at 5.30 this morning; they are off fishing this morning in Yellow Water with the aim of catching ... read more