September 1, 2007

After spending the night in a roadside rest stop, we headed off to the town of Katherine, the largest town in these here parts.  Along the way, we came across another Mitsubishi camper with a flat tire.  We recognized the vehicle as one from the previous night's stop, driven by an older man.  We turned around and headed back to see if we could help.  Turned out that the fellow, John, was having a difficult time getting the lug nuts off the wheels.  We've had that problem before, because the manufacturer and the tire dealers use air guns to tighten the nuts.  How is the average Joe supposed to get them off?  Truth is, he can't, and neither could John and Don working together, they even bent his bar trying!  So we gave John a ride into town to a mechanic, who sent out one of his men with an impact wrench to remove the lug nuts.

After dropping John off, we headed to the grocery store, ran errands and then left for Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge).  We arrived mid afternoon and after visiting the visitor's center, we made plans to kayak the gorge tomorrow. 

September 2, 2007

We got up bright and early and got ready to kayak.  The "gorge" is actually 13 gorges separated from each other by rapids and carved out by the Katherine River.  The difference in water levels between the wet and the dry is phenomenal.  During the dry, the river is calm and can be kayaked up and down.  During the wet it is a raging torrent and we saw pictures at the visitors center with the water up to the buildings, some 14 meters (45 feet)above its current level.

Only the first three gorges can be easily kayaked as it is necessary to portage around the rapids.  The first gorge is pretty, and ends at a very large overhang with aboriginal art scattered across its face.  The portage is long but not terribly difficult.  The kayak company makes it easy for its customers by providing kayaks on both sides, but we had to carry our kayak about 150m across sand and some rocks.

September 3, 2007

September 4, 2007

In the morning we headed off into Kakadu National Park and drove down another terribly corrugated road to Gunlom Falls.  This is the site of another beautiful plunge pool below a falls that is a raging torrent in the wet, but at this time of year it was little more than a dribble.  There is always the possibility of crocodiles in the plunge pools, but they are checked regularly and we felt pretty safe taking a swim (keeping our eyes open for any movement).

In the evening, we watched a slide show and listened to an interesting talk from an Aboriginal Ranger about bush tucker, wild food.  Kakadu is Aboriginal-owned land that is leased to the National Park service.  Aboriginal people (Traditional Owners) sit on the board and others participate in the running of the park hoping to educate others about their culture. 

September 5, 2007

We did a hike to a billabong, a water hold, in the early morning when it was still cool, then drove back out to the main road.  We visited the Warradjian Aboriginal Center to learn about the local culture.  The Center is in a building shaped like a pig nosed turtle, one of the Aboriginal's main food sources - but you can only see the shape from the air.  The displays were wonderful and very descriptive, with many stories told by the local elders.  We then spent some time at Yellow Waters Billabong, but it was so hot that we decided to come back in the morning when it would be cooler to explore.  We spent the night at a bush camp along the Jim Jim Billabong.

September 6, 2007

We went to Yellow Waters early and went out on the walkway and finally saw our first crocodiles, yeah!  We also saw a Coucal Pheasant and Little Corellas (white cockatoos).  Reviewing our bird book, we got a surprise in that we have actually been able to identify over 100 different types of birds. 

Kakadu is world renowned for its rock art and has been rewarded with World Heritage Site listing, based on it natural and cultural significance.  The park protects one of the most extensive collections of rock art in the world.  Naturally, Kakadu contains examples of nearly all of Australia's Top End habitats, savanna woodlands, monsoon forests, southern hills and ridges, stone country, floodplains and billabongs as well as tidal flats and coast.

We went to the Anbangbang Gallery and saw some really nice rock art.  The designs here were actually repainted by an Aboriginal artist in 1964.  They believe that it is acceptable to redo the art, but not to modify it.  It is also acceptable to cover the old art and paint new designs in their place.  Several areas showed evidence of multiple paintings and archeologists have concluded that the shelters have been occupied and painted for as long as 20,000 years. 

In the afternoon we drove up to Ubirr at the base of the Arnhem escarpment.  Here the land is full of rock mounds and a terrific number of great rock art.  Much of the land is fenced off as some of the art have a very high spiritual meaning and is not meant to be viewed by everyone.  We climbed to the top of the area and had a beautiful view for sunset.  Then we joined all the other people there for the drive back to the campground.

September 7, 2007

We enjoyed what we saw at Ubirr last night so much, that we decided to come back and have another look.  Aboriginal rock art is naturalistic art, depicting the physical, social and cultural environment, and is a tradition that has continued in Kakadu for thousands of years.  Aboriginal people have a close personal relationship with the land and their spiritual heritage and this is expressed not only in their art but in their music, song, dance, ceremonial body painting, craft and story-telling.  We found the art and its location at Ubirr to be outstanding.

Heading back south, we stopped at a water crossing and saw another crocodile.  We then stopped at a bird observatory and along the way saw our first dingo!  It was just jogging alongside the road and we got a good view of it.  We decided on an early stop at an East Alligator River campground where they had a pool as the day's activities in the heat had really tired us out.  We saw our first cane toad, a poisonous, introduced variety that has been decimating the natural animal population in Australia.  We reported it to the reception and they said someone would take care of it.  We also saw two more wild dogs roaming around the edge of the campground.  One of them didn't look like a regular dingo, so it could have been a cross breed.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at the pool, which made the heat much more tolerable.  That evening however, we had the worst mosquitoes we've encountered, so we weren't able to enjoy the cool of the evening outside for too long.

September 8, 2007

We used the cool of the morning, however, to do some work on the truck and then headed off out of the park.  We stopped at the Adelaide River and did the very touristy, but very fun, Famous Jumping Crocodile tour.  This company is licensed to feed the crocodiles and they do so by making them work for it by jumping out of the water.  Our experience didn't completely look like the advertisements where huge crocs jump completely out of the water, but, as our guide explained because we were in a small boat, not their double decker, we were much closer to the animals when they were in the water.  Also, if she made the large crocs jump, they could very easily jump right into the boat.  We did get to see one baby croc jump completely out of the water.  Considering the strength necessary to jump, even the small crocs are so powerful than you'd best keep away.  Very awe inspiring. 

Our tour was fascinating, but it only lasted an hour, so we once again hit the road and found another bird watching area at Fogg Dam.  Fogg Dam was created when it was built as a retention area for what turned out to be a failed rice growing project and was then turned into a fabulous migratory bird area.  We saw lots of birds, (some of which we couldn't identify), beautiful water lilies and a water lizard that was unafraid of us and allowed us to get a good, close up view as he wandered across the road.

We ended the day at a campground on the outskirts of Darwin.