Blogs from Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania - page 6

We head from Mataranka to Kakadu via Kathrine and Pine Creek. Just as we leave Mataranka we fill up with fuel, but need to push past the Brolga's milling around the bowsers. (hope they are getting cheaper fuel than me!) Much to Reuben and Matilda's pleasure we do some more hiking to lookouts, Jim Jim Falls (finally get to push the 4WD button) and check out some Billabongs. Haven't had to use the Bull-bar yet although a few Roo's have come close, found that the good thing is its the perfect height to rest a can on when sitting in a camp chair. We take a Billabong sunrise cruise and the wildlife is pretty special, birds everywhere and our guide proudly points out the first spotting of Brolga's for the season. (maybe those fellas at Mataranka ... read more

14th Novembver 2012, We woke up early this morning and could not wait to explore Kakadu National Park. After breakfast, our first stop was Gunlom Falls. We were told that in the wet season, the waterfall would be spectacular. However, the wet season has not yet fully started and the waterfall was not as big as we expected. Nonetheless, the scenery was still captivating. We wanted to visit the Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls, but the access road was closed due to flooding. The next stop was Anbangbang, which is a historic Aboriginal site with amazing rock formations and traditional Aboriginal art. We then visited Jabiru, which is the main town before entering Arnhemland. We had a scrumptious lunch in the cafe before making headway towards Darwin. On the way, we stopped at the Wetlands, ... read more

Geo: -12.8334, 132.833As soon as the sun comes up the heat returns. Even though it's technically still Wintertime. So we got up early, took a 'pointless' shower and hit the road again. Our first stop was a bushwalk called Bardedjilidji. The landscape looked like a film set from "Indiana Jones" ;) The last part of the hike runs along the East Alligator River where you should walk with caution as the Crocodile sitting at the riverbank reminded us...After a short refueling stop at Jabiru we drove south to the Nourlangie region. The most famous and impressive trail is the one leading to the Anbangbang Gallery, a huge sandstone formation used for shelter since ancient times. There we found countless Aboriginal paintings left at the walls, for thousands of years. Telling their "Dreamtime" stories. (Mythical Creation Time) ... read more

Kakadu 7th August 2012 Over the years we have, for various reasons, not visited Kakadu. There have always been bad reports about visiting here and I guess that will never change, but a lot of people must love their visit to the park, so we decided that this trip we would find out for ourselves if it was Kakadu, or, Kakadon’t. So with Tom and Barb along for the trip we set off early one morning to see the main sites, unfortunately during the dry season Jim Jim Falls does not flow, so it made the decisions of what to see that little bit easier. The Chinese, Malays and Portuguese all claim to have been the first non-Aboriginal explorers of Australia’s north coast. Abel Tasman is the next documented explorer to visit this part of the ... read more

Day 14 – Friday July 13th – Kakadu National Park Got up in the dark and drove the 10 mins to the Yellow Waters boat ramp ready for our sunrise cruise. There were a total of three boats going out on the water this morning. There was a fine layer of atmospheric fog on the water as we boarded the boat and the sky was starting to turn all shades of blue-pinks and dull orange as the sun rose out of the water. Mark and Dave were very active walking around the boat taking loads of photos... Within the first few minutes we had spotted our first croc of the cruise. A saltie. Minding her own business, returning home after a night’s hunting. The guide was at pains to point out that this cruise ... read more