Kakadu

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Our next stop was Kakadu National Park; a 19,804 square Km world heritage site. The park is internationally known as one of Australia's cultural and ecological treasures. More than a third of the Top Ends plant life is in Kakadu, 1600 species of plants, 275 species of birds, 75 species of reptiles, 25 species of frogs and 10,000 species of insect all live in Kakadu.

Kakadu comes from the Gagudju language spoken by the Aboriginal people who live in the North of the park. The rock shelters, stone tools, grindstones and ochre quarries show us that Aboriginal's have lived in that area for over 50,000 years.

Our first stop in Kakadu was Jabiru, the main but small town which is a central gateway to all parts of the park. Jabiru had a music festival on that night so we decided to stay there to see some of it. We camped at Kakadu Lodge and Caravan Park and after using their swimming pool we had dinner.

I was really tired and after seeing a programme for the festival there was one act Laurent wanted to see so he went while I stayed behind.

The next day we started to explore Kakadu. The first place we went to was Ubirr. Ubirr had many examples of Aboriginal rock art and explanations about the traditional Aboriginal laws. We climbed to the top of the rocks and had the opportunity to witness the most amazing views. The land just went on and on. That night after dinner we got in to the van only to find that we had somehow attracted thousands of mosquitoes. After what can only be described as a battle to the death we finally got rid of them all and were able to sleep.

The next morning we went to Yellow river. Here you can take a boat trip to see crocodiles. We didn't do a trip but there's part of the river you can walk along. We did this and met a family who had spotted a crocodile. We stayed at the river for about an hour and saw two crocodiles. Unfortunately they were too far away for a decent picture.

After Yellow river we went to Maguk which was a Falls and swimming pool. The pool was massive and we did a 2km walk to get the Falls following alongside the river which was stunning. The water was clear and we could see the fish swimming.

We stayed at Maguk campsite and the next day after stopping at Bukbukluk view point went to Gunlom.

We had been told to go to Gunlom and all the information we had been given said the road was suitable and not just a 4x4 road. The road was dreadful! 36km of bumpy, dusty, holey road. We had only planned to go for the day but the road was so bad we ended up camping at Gunlom that night. Which was a good thing as we spent too long at the top pool, which, as it was right at the top of the waterfall, was like an infinity pool so we didn't get to go to the bottom pool.

The next day we did go to the bottom pool and after a few hours of reading and swimming we decided it was time to face THAT road again!

Kakadu was beautiful but considering we had to pay to enter and the campsites were noticeable worse than Litchfield's, personally Litchfield is my favourite of the two parks.

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