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Published: October 25th 2009
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Day 4 - Mary River to Jabiru (Kakadu National Park)
Awoke to a glorious sunrise and a visit from some friendly kangaroos. This was our first test to see how quickly we could pack up the car and get going ... definitely room for some improvement there! The temperature climbs very quickly up here, by 8.00am we were working up a sweat so it was good to jump in the airconditioned car and head off. We decided to visit Couzen's Lagoon which was about a 20km detour off the main highway, mostly dirt but not really four wheel drive stuff either. Whilst there we saw a couple of people on a hovercraft zoom up the river - that looked like a lot of fun.
Actually, I've noticed that almost every attraction in Kakadu is at least 20km off the main highway. In between it's pretty ordinary. I have to keep reminding myself that just because it has been world heritage listed doesn't necessarily mean that it's beautiful in the classical sense - it just means that it's unique and therefore beautiful in it's own way. There's definitely a diversity of wildlife here but what really surprised me is how dry
it is. There are large sections where it looks like it was back-burnt a couple of months ago and now there is new green growth but apart from that, everything is brown and tinder-dry.
The next stop was Marmuluk. This is one place they recommend you see at the end of September as that is when the magpie geese are breeding and they flock there in droves - evidently it's the bird equivalent of a dating service! There is a hide that you walk to where you can watch the birds but they don't know you're there. Once again we saw some beautiful jabiru's and jacana's and of course lots of magpie geese. There were a few people there who looked like they were settled in for some serious birdwatching but we sort of wandered in and out of the hide relatively quickly. Maybe we're a product of our generation who have grown up with the fast pace of TV and movies but watching birds stand around scooping up mud with their bills or preening themselves doesn't hold a great deal of attraction for us. Now if only there'd been a croc around who decided to have goose for
lunch .....😱
Anyway, it was so hot we were happy to be back in the car again. We drove onto Jabiru and paid for our campsite at the Aurora Resort campground - what a disappointment. All the unpowered campsites were rockhard dirt - not a blade of grass in sight. We drove around until we found one small little area right behind the office where there was a very small patch of grass. As it was away from the designated unpowered campsites, Kevin went and checked with them first before we set up and they said that we could only stay there the one night as the ranger would be doing a talk and showing a film the next night and that was why the area had grass! It was a bit of a come down after the lush green campsite we'd had last night 😞 The pool was great - absolutely freezing cold but you couldn't feel it after a while! The amenities were quite good too. We needed to stock up on some food so we decided to visit the local supermarket. It's quite well stocked and has a reasonable camping section too. At one stage while
Pool at campground at Jabiru
The water in the pool was freezing! we were shopping, the lights went out briefly and I thought they must have had a problem with the electricity or something. I found out later that they close at 1pm on a Sunday and they turn the lights out to signal that it's close up time - sorry, but the message was completely lost on me. I think an announcement over the public address system would be far better as none of the other shoppers seemed to get the message either.
Late in the afternoon we headed off to Ubirr to watch the sunset. Ubirr is absolutely awesome, even in the dry. There are walks around the site where there is aboriginal art but unfortunately we got there a bit late to do any of these. There is a bit of a climb up to the viewing area but it's not difficult. Well worth doing and I think the pictures speak for themselves. After sunset, we joined the long line of tourist cars heading back to Jabiru. Even in the dry, this place is packed with tourists so I can't imagine what it's like in the peak times.
My niece and her family moved to Jabiru a
few months ago and I had her contact details but I couldn't get hold of her. We tried calling my sister but she was out of range too so I thought I'd missed out on seeing them. We finally got a phone call from her just after we got back from Ubirr - she hadn't noticed that her phone had gone flat - so we popped around to see them. It was the first time I'd seen my grand nieces, so that was a nice ending to our day.
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