17 August - Mamukala, Ubirr Rock Art, Nadab Lookout, Border Store, Cahill’s Crossing, Bardedjilidji Walk and Bowali Visitor Centre; Kakadu National Park

17 August 2016 – 182 941

Mamukala, Ubirr Rock Art, Nadab Lookout, Border Store, Cahill’s Crossing, Bardedjilidji Walk and Bowali Visitor Centre; Kakadu National Park

We all enjoyed a good sleep last night, it got down to about 12 degrees overnight (more than a 25 degree shift in one day – wow!) allwoing a deep sleep. Our first stop today was Mamukala bird hide – this is an amazing wetland, with an amazing quantity of birds and it has a lovely peaceful feeling. https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/do/walks/mamukala-wetlands-walk/ I could spend hours here, and I think Hayden found it a very calming spot.  We then headed to the East Alligator region.  First up we went to Ubirr to admire the rockart (https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/do/rock-art/ubirr/); including Grandma’s kitchen with its big menu board at the back of the cooking shelter, where we listed to a Ranger talk by Annie. The view over Arnhem Land from Nadab Lookout at the top of Ubirr has been one of my favourite places since the first time I saw it and I was not disappointed. https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/do/walks/ubirr-walk/ I cannot explain what it is I love so much about this spot, but it just touches my soul in some way. We stopped in at the Border Store which is a Thai take-away in the most unlikely spot. https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/do/eat/border-store/ We drove past Cahill’s crossing which is the main route into Arnhem land and requires fording the East Alligator River. 

Our last walk of the day was the Bardedjilidji Walk (2.5km) https://parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/do/walks/bardedjilidji-sandstone-walk/, this allowed us to spot crocodiles on the opposite bank (no doubt they were on the bank below us where we could not see them as well) as it wound past the East Alligator River, it then turned inland and wound through erodes sandstone outliers that had formed pillars, caves and other phenomenon.  This was quite picturesque.  Walking quietly and observing we were fortunate enough to find some aboriginal art that had not been signposted and set up as a tourist venue.  This was somehow more special coming across it unexpectedly than when walking to an established viewing sight.  Bowali Visitor Centre was our last stop for the day, this had great information on the different landscapes to be found within Kakadu as well as films running showing Kakadu at different times of year and from the air – views we do not have the opportunity to get ourselves, the views during the wet season looked amazing.  Tonight we packed the van up as much as we could in preparation for heading south tomorrow.  We spent some time trouble shooting the Waeco – which keeps turning itself off on 12V whether it is plugged into the car or the van.  Drew phoned Waeco and was advised who we can take it to in Kununurra.

15 August - Nourlangie Region, Kakadu National Park

15 August 2016 – 182 666

Nourlangie Region, Kakadu National Park

We all settled in for a good night’s sleep, as there were very few bugs.  Unfortunately, another caravan pulled up extremely close to us just before dark – they came in so fast and close to our van, I thought Drew and I might lose our bed end. This female couple decided to have a screaming match (one screamed and the other whined and cried) at 2:30am in the morning, that escalated into domestic violence.  Drew phoned the police about 4:30am when things became physical and they hadn’t settled in response to his bellows, however they continued until they left at 7am.  After a very tiring and stressful night (with Hayden sharing our bed for our mutual reassurance), we headed for the Bowali Visitor Centre to find out about booking a Yellow Waters sunrise cruise. They do not do bookings, however the lady gave me the phone number and we were able to make a booking for tomorrow. 

Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) Rock Art Sight was our next stop for a Ranger- guided rock art talk.  These activities are included in the Kakadu Park Pass – this particular activity was scheduled for two hours but took closer to three and was amazing!!  Our Ranger guide was “Rachel” and she did the talk in three sections, one section on the escarpment and how this related to the dreaming creation stories, one section on the skin system (which has guaranteed no more than 1/64^th common blood between couples, and maintained the genetic variance in small groups), and one section on the archaeology done at a shelter site, showing continuous occupation in that particular shelter for 20 000 years (including three major climatic changes and one ice age).  This talk was great and worth the cost of the park pass on its own. 

We had planned after this to go to a session on traditional weaving, however we were all exhausted from our very early start.  After lunch, we all had a sleep and I had a great deal of difficulty waking up.  We spent some of the afternoon chatting to a Danish family camped near us, and the boys played Lego – the universal language of boys, that needs no translation.  I cooked up some dinner to have as a picnic and we headed to Namurlandja for another Ranger guided walk with Rachel – this time talking about Anbangbang Billabaong and its connection with the escarpment country. At the billabong, we saw Jabiru, magpie geese and a crocodile. The magpie geese are very noisy. We then climbed up onto a sandstone outlier to watch the sunset change the colours of the escarpment while we ate our picnic dinner.  The view was beautiful!