Kakadu - Yellow Waters, Nourlangie Rock

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Mon 21st July

We have a very early start; awake 5:45, pickup 6:15. We plan to get some sleep
on the coach, but the driver / guide has other plans. He talks pretty much
constantly over the microphone for the whole journey, covering a plethora of
subjects from Aborigine culture to Australian history to plant biology to cow
herding techniques to geography. Most of it is interesting stuff, but it is
hard to take a lot of it in. We have about 4 hours of this, with a brief
comfort stop, and the scenery itself was quite monotonous - mile after mile of
savannah woodland. It's possible we may have had somewhere between 39 and 41
winks at some point. But the time passes pretty quickly and we reach our first
real stop in Kakadu, where we visit an Aborigine Cultural Centre. Inside, we
find a lot of information regarding the beliefs, cultures, language and
experiences of the Aboriginal people in the area. It's interesting stuff, but
this is just a brief stop off, so we have to fly through in about half an hour.

Next, not too far way, we are dropped off for a river cruise at Yellow Waters.
The cruise is about an hour and a half, and it is very hot by now, approaching
mid-day. Our guide is half Swedish (which she looks), half Aborgine (which she
sounds), very informative, and extremely funny. She takes great relish in
describing the wonderful wildlife in the area before going into great depth
about how best to cook it! On the way, we see numerous birds (egrets, whistling
ducks, sea eagles, jabirus, Jesus birds (which seem to walk on water), brolgas,
ibises, spoonbills, darters and more), and 4 or 5 crocodiles. Also a scary
looking wasp :-S, and hordes of dragonflies.

After this, we go off for a buffet lunch, where we are joined by to friendly
American sisters. I should mention, actually, that pretty much everyone else on
the tour is rather on the elderly side. Apart from a sole English girl, we
appear to be the youngsters! Anyway, after lunch, we depart again for
Nourlangie rock, which is a site featuring much ancient Aborigine art, ranging
from 10s of thousands of years old up to a couple of decades old. We're
surprised at how vivid much of it remains, despite millenia exposed to the
elements. It is really quite awesome. However, the real highlight of the day is
provided by climbing part of the rock, whereupon we were afforded fantastic
views over the savannah woodland we had passed through all day, and the
escarpment in the distance, not to mention the heights of the rock itself. It
really was both awesome and humbling.

When we get home, we read for a bit before going out for dinner at the resort's
restaurant. When I ask if the restaurant is licensed to sell beer - seemingly
quite a reasonable question, seeing as many restaurants in Australia are either
unlicensed or 'Bring your own' - she laughs! 'You'd have to be around here
mate', she explains, and when she wanders off I think I hear her chuckling to
herself... Surprisingly, it appears to have been raining when we were eating,
and there are frogs everywhere! Some huge, others tiny... all happy as frogs in
the rain.

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