Beautiful Kakadu

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DAY 225


We overslept again; it was nearly 8.00 and moving day, so we have very little time this morning. The tea was made but I went off straight away for a shower, the showers were busy this morning, but there was one last cubicle left, so in I jumped.

Expectations of a lovely hot shower to warm up from the chilly night were soon dashed when the luke warm water came out and did not get any hotter. Still it was a shower and I had no idea if there were showers at our destination so I took the opportunity. When I finished and went to the basins to clean my teeth there were a number of women standing around grumbling “I know this is the tropics, but it is winter, so hot water in the mornings would be helpful,” I agreed with them, you can bear the lukewarm water in the heat of the day but the cold mornings it just does sit well.

Despite that it is a lovely campsite and I could easily stay here for a little while longer, the atmosphere is so restful, despite watching huge waves of people come and go each morning and afternoon.

We had a quick breakfast using the facilities of the camp kitchen, however the time to pack up was ticking along and all that kept happening were the usual conversations with people we had met, we chatted to the guy with the fifth wheeler beside us, this rig was about 34 foot long and was being towed by a 5.4 litre Dodge Ram that was gorgeous.

Les and Meng were going out for the day so we said our goodbyes to them, we promised to leave them our blog site address, however in chatting to other people time escaped and we forgot to leave the blog address under their windscreen.

It was 10.15 when we pulled off site and then we needed to top up with diesel, so we drove round to the Caltex Woolworths petrol station in town, with our discount card it meant getting our diesel at $1.21 per litre, the cheapest fuel we have had in a long time, this equates to about 0.52 p per litre, However there was a queue, there was no option but to patiently wait our turn, there were a lot of 4wd and camper trailers, today is the start of the school holidays in the Northern Territories, so I imagine that this is the great big rush of the holiday getaway.

Eventually we manage to leave Katherine sometime after 11.00, only an hour late than anticipated but never mind, we are on our way to Kakadu and to hook up with the Travelin Truey’s who are now making their way south again after a short spell in Darwin. Jodie’s parents have joined them so we will be able to meet them too, Ken tempted us to come up and meet them by saying they had a piece of beef that would cook well in our camp oven.

It is another hot day, we are driving up to Pine Creek were we will turn and take the road up into Kakadu, in the meantime as Andy drives I type up the blog, this is really only possible when the roads are good to travel on, too many bumps and typing the blog is impossible.

Rumour has it that Telstra network is good in these parts so we hope to be able to keep up with the blog while in Kakadu.

Andy informs me this morning that we are booked into a river trip this afternoon, he forgot to tell me that Ken and Jodie had booked themselves I and were we interested, he agreed. It is something nice to look forward to later a gentle meander down the river, hopefully we will see some crocodiles and the local bird life.

We turn at Pine Creek and drive on, we saw smoke on the horizon coming from the park, however the sky now looks quite black in the distance, almost as if it is going to rain, we know it is probably smoke, but we cannot smell smoke.

We stop at the Wirnwirnmila Roadhouse to see about getting a bite of lunch, however after queuing at the ladies loo’s I meet up with Andy outside and we wander in to check out the menu, the sandwiches were a little pricey, we looked at each other and said “lets just go and make one.” I know that would have been the sensible option in the first place, but sometimes you just want things to be easy. So we made a ham sandwich and went on our way.

We soon came upon our turning into Mardugal campground in Kakadu National Park (Camps 5 ref. 178, Northern Territory, page 366), Ken sent us a message earlier today to advise us where they would be, so we turned in, just through the trees we saw a familiar sight, a Kimberley Camper, with Stuart and Yvonne sat next to it, then a foot or so further on we saw the familiar caravan of the Travelin Trueys.

Kakadu comes from an aboriginal floodplain language called Gadgadju, although this language is rarely spoken, the aboriginal descendents are still living in this area. The Aboriginal Traditional Owners and the Director of National Parks jointly manage Kakadu. We will need to pay camping fees, but there is no park entry fee, from what I can see at the moment that is.

As soon as we pulled up we saw lots of bobbing heads as everyone got up to come and greet us. Yvonne very kindly put the kettle on so that Andy and I could have a cup of tea ready for when our tent was up.

It was 3.30 and nearly time to go out for our boat trip on the river, Jodie has already pre booked us on the Yellow Water River Cruise for a 2-hour sunset tour.

We catch a bus from the Gadgudju Lodge at Cooinda which drops us off at the Yellow Water Billabong, there are 3 boats with passengers of a maximum of 50, the boat that we are on is the last one and not quite full so there is a bit of room to manoeuvre.

Not long into our journey we see a saltwater crocodile lounging around on the riverbank, it is sat with its mouth open, this action serves a purpose; they open their mouths to help regulate their temperature. If you want to know anything else about this amazing dinosaur then look it up on Wikepedia, it is very helpful.

The boat glides across the water, these are floodplains, there is plenty of bull grass that floats on the water, we are in the dry season now, they only refer to the wet or dry season here, however the aboriginals identify 6 seasons here which are Gunumeleng, Gudjewg, Banggerreng, Yegge, Wurrgeng, Gurrung, we are currently in the Wurrgeng season. Wurrgeng is mid June to mid August and is the cold season.

In the wet season (gudjewg) the heavy rains fill this area, the bull grass remains to float on the surface and the depth of the water here increases dramatically.

We saw plenty of birdlife, plenty of saltwater crocodiles, including one crocodile who was much paler than the rest, the ranger explained this to us saying that it had only recently come into freshwater, many of the other crocodiles here are darker because they become covered in dark green algae.

We even saw a White Bellied Sea Eagle, Darter, Jabiru, Night Heron, Black Headed Stork, Egrets, Rainbow Bee Eaters (their colouring is simply spectacular), amongst an abundance of Whistling Ducks and Magpie Geese.

With the sun going down the heat of the day was disappearing and floating on this lovely flood plain was just beautiful, we were positioned to watch the sun go down amongst the few crocodiles that were incidentally floating by.

Soon after the sun went down, the ranger said, we have to get back now as we don’t want to be out here in the dark, so she started up the engine and away we went, taking in the remainder of the day with it.

Back on the bus, then back at the lodge we picked up our trucks and drove back to camp. Stuart and Yvonne were sat by their fire enjoying the lovely evening.

As soon as we got back we all got dinner on the go, we combined dinners with the travelin Trueys, Jodie also made a quiche and I made a chocolate chip damper, I was very grateful for the use of Stuart and Yvonne’s open fire, when I put the camp oven on, Stuart was good enough to give me a few tips on cooking, I call Stuart the “Master of the Camp Oven”, soon I had a maginificent damper ready to share between eight of us.

After a hearty meal we sat around talking and enjoying the evening, the mozzies here are quite vicious (they look big too!), so I had put long trousers and shirt on to keep covered up (there is also Ross River Virus to protect yourself from), however the evening was not as cold as it had been in Katherine, the temperature here seemed just right.

It was getting late, it was 10.30 and definitely bedtime, people around the camp were gradually disappearing and it was time for us to as well.

There are dingo’s around here, but despite others telling us that they howled last night, we never heard a thing.

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Photos

Sydney Olympics
The official Torch Relay vehicle

Katherine
The sign in to Katherine

Yellow Water Billabong
In Kakadu national Park

Bull Grass
Growing on top of the water, as the water rises so does the bull grass.

Those Bl00dy Kiwi's
It was great to bump in to Stuy and Yvonne at this camp ground

Cormorant
Drying his wings

Mr Croccy
This is the real deal

have just brush my teeth
On the head of a dead tourist

Egret & Crocodile
This egret sat on the back of a Crocodile, he knows he is safe as the croc mostly eats fish