Water crossing to Twin Falls
Well........ Kakadu National Park - what can I say. We were told by so many people that its Kakadont but we felt we had to see it for ourselves. I'm glad I've seen it but wouldn't bother again. Much preferred Litchfield but here are some photos for you.
We were quite disappointed driving into Kakadu (and we had to pay $25 per person fee - what a rip off!!) as there was a lot of burnt off vegetation, we were surprised that there wasn't a lot of wildlife to be seen but were told that was because of the big wet - mmm maybe!!. There was quite a variation in vegetation, from savannah to pandanus lined roadways and then the typical national park vegetation, wetlands and stone country. We set up camp for a couple of nights at Merl campground which was great except for the B52 bomber mozzies there!! From there we explored the East Alligator River area which is in the shadow of the magnificent Arnhem Land and the Cahills crossing which leads into Arnhem land but you have to have a permit to go into there. If you get to Cahills crossing at high tide you can see crocs waiting for the barra to cross the crossing and they then pounce. We saw a few big ones when we were there and Charlie and David actually saw a croc with a dead croc hanging out of its mouth taking it downstream belly up by the head but it got chased by the resident big croc by the crossing. He came back and told me but did he take a photo - NO - I'm sorry but its just so hard to get good help these days.
We had a look at the Info centre which was great. Very informative with great displays but I can't understand why more indigenous people aren't employed, either in the Visitor info centre or as Rangers. We hear all the time about how the aboriginals want us to learn about their land - what better way to tell us? We learnt all about the Rainbow Serpent which is linked to water and places where she travelled across country leaving behind the features in the landscape such as the gorges.
We also went and had a look at the Ubirr rock art which apparently dates back 25,000 years. It was amazing and the best rock art I've seen. We then hiked up to the escarpment and yes once again watched a spectacular sunset.
We then moved on to the Mardagul campground which was on the South Alligator river - this was another great bush camp but there was a lovely resort at Cooinda just 2 km round the corner and Charlie and I used to sneak in every afternoon and have a swim in the pool there - Sssssh don't tell anyone!! However we had a Crown lager and a coffee one afternoon and it cost us $14 so we figure we paid for the swims anyway!! We always had to be aware of crocs and were told by the Ranger that if we wanted to go fishing in the river we had to be careful of the crocs - how do you be careful of the crocs?????? I practiced my zig zag running but that's about all I did!!
We had a day trip out to Jim Jim Falls which is a majestic waterfall set in the red ochre of the Arnhem Land escarpent. There are white sandy beaches there and crystal clear water where you can have a lovely swim. However, it is quite challenging to get there as we had to scramble over some quite large boulders for about a kilometre. However it was worth it in the end.
We only spent 4 days in Kakadu but that was enough - been there, done that, got the T-shirt but it was worth it. We left Kakadu and headed south towards Katherine and then turned west to start our next adventure in Western Australia. I'm very excited because I've never been to WA before so that's all for now. Adieu from the Wandering 2s. Next blog will be from WA. | 
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