Blogs from Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 12

Our final day in Kakadu started with a look around at an Aboriginal Cultural Centre. It detailed quite a bit about aboriginal lifestyle and history. Things like when an aboriginal person dies, you’re not supposed to say there name until the family has given permission to do so (due to grieving, see Daisy’s death in the movie Australia as an example). It also explained a lot of the stories about spirits who created the land, like how spirit snakes carved out the rivers allowing for water to flow through. Unfortunately we weren’t able to take any pictures, but it was still very informative. Next we went to Makuk, which was another waterfall with a swimming hole. Our walk this time took us through what looked to be a wetland. We were told this place was only ... read more

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 ... read more

The morning of Sunday, September 06, was the start of our trip to Kakadu National Park. We were up nice and early with a few other backpackers, and piled into a heavy duty looking truck. Due to the off-roading, we needed a 4 wheel drive truck, and let’s just say this thing looked like a tank. Our first stop was a crocodile cruise. I know what you’re thinking. And yes, there does seem to be a lot of these in Australia. But what can I say? Tourists like crocodiles! However, this one was not a jumping crocodile cruise. In fact, our tour guide was quite opposed to the very idea, and let’s just say he had a few choice words for one Steve Irwin (more like a rant). But he knew a good deal about the ... 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

Thrifty Car Hire Marg had organised our car hire through Thrifty, when she discovered a ‘good rate’ could be got, by mentioning her employer. On collecting the small size car we found we had a 2007 Mitsubishi Colt, 1.5L, 2-door convertible, in fluorescent bronze - it even had Marg’s initials. We hadn’t immediately realised it was a convertible until we found an instruction leaflet on how to activate the ‘conversion’. I immediately felt compelled to get to some busy people spot & flick the switch. It did feel pretty bloody special driving around with it’s top down - quite decadent really. When Marg collected me from Jabiru airstrip after my Ranger Mine tour, I caught sight of her driving past the café I was at &, by golly, she looked even hotter than usual, like some ... read more