After 2 weeks of a holiday from our holiday in Darwin (Vaughn would call it respite), we hit the road again. We headed through Kakadu, before building on experiences in Edith Falls and Nitmiluk Gorge, canoeing through Nitmiluk in one of the absolute highlights of our trip.
Joy
A sunrise boat cruise through Yellow Water at Kakadu. It was a chilly start, which meant that the wetlands slowly revealed themselves as the sun rose and the fog lifted. The amount of birdlife was stunning, and we spotted kingfishers and grey billed heron while listening to the brolgas. We also saw some saltwater crocs, which would have been impressive had we not spent the previous day at the…
Jumping crocodiles on Adelaide River. There’s nothing quite like have a 5 metre crocodile jump out of the water less than a metre away from you. I was busily lining up my phone, thinking about what angle to get, when the crocodile became everything I could see beyond the phone and I physically jumped. As well as jumping out of our skin, we also got to learn about intriguing Kite birds. These birds have learnt to tip cane toads over to eat them, but more shockingly will pick up live embers from a fire and drop them to start a new fire. This is all done to scare the insects and small animals out of the scrub for easy hunting. Each time we passed a small fire we saw them, circling and diving like drunkards for their dinner.
Seeing the best aboriginal rock art we have seen yet at Kakadu. A lot of the rock art we had seen before this was recorded for information. It might tell visitors what sort of food was in the area, and what to watch out for. At Kakadu, we saw very impressive art, and were invited by the local indigenous population to share in some of their meanings. We also learnt how the landscape is a part of life, and looked across the Kakadu Wetlands to the home of the same lightning spirit painted on the rock next to us. This was a place where the land and spiritual connection was very strong.
Canoeing through Nitmiluk gorges. Walking from the second to the third gorge. Admiring the And then canoeing some more. There was nothing around us but sheer cliff faces bearing the marks of wet seasons and the erosion of millions of years, and the only sounds were birdlife and the splash of our paddles. Nothing, except fo a freshwater crocodile that slid into the water 10m from the starboard side of the canoe. You don’t get to experiencing something like that very often.
A little piece of text in Kakadu, clearly indicating that it was Aboriginal land that they were choosing to share with us. Thank you.
The less glamorous
We kept hearing stories about how Kakadu was too wet, or too dry to really appreciate properly. What we didn’t hear was how much you really need a 4WD to see much of the waterfalls beyond the wetlands. As a result we missed a fair bit of Kakadu, though having visited many of the Northern National Parks we weren’t too distressed.
Reading a seemingly bland sign indicating that the Warramal clan Land we were standing on was being looked after by the neighbouring tribes, as the Warragul clan had all passed away. Further information onsite or online was scarce, however the history learnt from northern Western Australia suggests that these ‘passings’ generally occur after white settlement and involve slaughter.
Our ‘tough’ underwater camera deciding to crap out on us when we went on our canoe through Nitmuluk. No photos, folks!
Mataranka thermal pools were interesting, yet absolutely packed with people to the extent you couldn’t do much more than stay afloat and doge arms and flotation noodles. It was kind of a weird sensation to get into a 32 degree pool to cool off from the outside air though!
Karlu Karlu (The Devil’s Marbles). We drove two hours in a completely different direction to see these and then realised they were very similar granite formations to Murphy’s Haystacks. They have a very important place in Aboriginal society, and brought four tribes together for a month every year, but as a geological feature they were less impressive.
School holidays starting. The roads are about to get very busy again!
This week we don’t have any new Inspiring street names for our list, but we did learn that up to 50% of Kakadu burns every year in the dry season. This was an important discovery, and one that helped us understand why we were the only ones calling in to the emergency services every time we passed a bushfire. Oops.
Hi Vaughn & Ewan. I have finally read your blogs(great writting) & it made you feel you were there whilst reading. We visited Darwin & Kakadu last Aug/Sept & loved it. Continue to enjoy & travel safe.🦘🐊🦎🦜🐾