September 2021
We could have stayed in Darwin another week at Lee Point Caravan Park, with its coastal breeze and shady sites. However, it was time to leave the City behind and head east along the Arnhem Highway towards Kakadu National Park, a place I have wanted to visit since I was a teenager.
We stopped in at Fogg Dam Conservation reserve which is an amazing haven for the Top End’s wildlife. We drove along a narrow causeway separating the upper dam from the floodplain below and were ever so tempted to get out of the car and observe the scenery. There were 2 small shelters on the dam side of the causeway with lovely bench seats, shade and interpretive signs. In addition, each shelter displayed a large sign strongly advising visitors to remain in their vehicles as saltwater crocodiles inhabit the area. I could not help wondering why they tempted us with the viewing platforms but then strongly advised against getting out of the vehicle – quite the quandary. The bird hide at the end of the road was a welcoming surprise. Mali, once again, decided to stay in the vehicle and miss out – she has been doing this regularly in the heat of the Top End. Fogg Dam was a stunning introduction to the wetlands and billabongs to come.
We based ourselves at the Purple Mango Farm and Brewery – a small mango farm which hosts campsites with showers and toilets and a little café selling meals and mango beer – allowing us to explore Mary River National Park (west of Kakadu). The NP is small but features floodplains, billabongs, woodlands, paperbark and monsoon forest providing excellent opportunities for observing wildlife. We booked ourselves onto a Corroboree Billabong Wetland Cruise for sunset and were astounded at the diversity of wildlife that we encountered.
Apparently, the Mary River system has the largest concentration of saltwater crocodiles in the world and given we lost count of how many we saw on this cruise I would believe it (but I have nothing else to compare it to so this is not an expert opinion). We saw plenty of freshwater crocodiles, jabirus, jacanas, darters, heron, egrets, white-bellied sea eagles, kites, and kingfishers. At $75 per adult/$50 per kid it was really good value for the 2 hours.
Kakadu was magical and we loved it so much we are coming back at the end of the wet season next year to see it in all its splendour. There is an energy here much like that we experienced at Uluru many years ago. You can sense a spirituality to the land and an ancient history. Kakadu is Australia’s largest National Park and is home to 1,000 plant species, ¼ of all Australian freshwater fish and 1/3 of all Australian bird species. Kakadu was granted World Heritage status (1981-91) for both cultural and natural outstanding universal values and if you have ever visited you will understand why. It contains a vast array of landscapes and habitats including stone country, savanna woodlands, monsoon vine forests, southern hills and ridges, tidal flat, mangroves, coastline, floodplains, rivers and billabongs and an incredible richness of indigenous culture.
The Bowali Visitor Centre in Jabiru is a great place to get familiar with Kakadu. The interpretive displays were fantastic, taking you through all the six main landforms and the six seasons of Kakadu. We also booked ourselves in to the traditional painting and weaving workshops, which are offered free for all visitors. Unfortunately, we discovered that Maguk and Twin Falls were closed so we wouldn’t be able to visit two of the most magnificent waterfalls in the park (another reason to visit again next year).
We spent the afternoon in the caravan completing Mali’s schooling in air-conditioned comfort (the mercury sits at about 38°C here at the moment) and swimming in the shaded pool with a few glasses of sparkling – so bloody refreshing in this heat. This became our afternoon routine for the next few days.
The next morning, we hit Cahill’s Crossing on the high tide. During the dry this crossing (which takes you into West Arnhem Land) is a popular place to watch crocodiles in action. At the turn of the tide (over 6m tides here) the water gushes back upstream, over a causeway, bringing mullet and barramundi for the crocodiles to feed on. Prior to the turn of the tide we observed about 12 crocodiles getting into position on the eastern side of the causeway in anticipation of the feeding frenzy. Dozens of people were also waiting in anticipation. The largest crocodile placed himself at an opening on the causeway, mouth wide open, waiting for a fish to place itself on its lower palate. Despite ‘the show’ (as Mali called it) never occurring, we did find the whole process fascinating. What was also interesting was watching how close some tourists got to the large crocodiles in order to take an Instagram shot. If I were a Crocodile I know where I would be positioning myself for a large meal, although the cameras and beer cans would be a little hard to digest.
That afternoon we returned to the nearby Ubirr (also photos above) – one of Kakadu’s two most famous rock art galleries. This place was magnificent. An easy 1km circular walking track takes you to some wonderful rock art – my favourites were the fish and turtles. A steep climb to a rocky outlook with views across the Nadab floodplains brought us to a magnificent sunset. The photos tell the story so I will not attempt to use inadequate words to describe it. Craig and I mused about how different the site would look after the wet season. Before it got dark we descended the rocks and headed home with a snoozing child in the back.
I continued to enjoy my early morning walks ambling along the Bowali track through the bush from Jabiru to the Bowali Visitor Centre (~4km) and also convinced Mali to ride her bike along the path with me to our weaving workshop. I explored the Bubba Billabong circuit (~3.5km) one morning at 6:30am, to beat the heat, but it got to 35°C degrees before I had even finished.
We explored the 2nd of the two most famous Rock art sites Burrungkuy (Nourlangie). The walls of this art site have served as a shelter and canvas for thousands of years. One particular painting, Namarrgon (the Lightning Man), was one of my favourites. I walked up to Kunwarddewardde Lookout (about 600m away) and was rewarded with some amazing views of the escarpment.
The painting and weaving workshops were a great way to absorb ourselves into the culture. The artist leading the painting workshop was using a piece of her own hair to paint the thin stripes on her lily painting. Mali was fascinated with this and is learning so much about indigenous culture. She also learnt how to strip the surface layer of a Salt Palm leaf off and roll it into twine to be used for weaving. We never got to weave anything as it takes hours and hours to strip the leaves, dye them and prepare them into threads before even weaving. I now understand why a small weaved basket costs $100s and fully appreciate the process.
We packed up after 4 nights at Aurora Kakadu Lodge Caravan Park (great park) and headed SW along Kakadu Highway to Cooinda. We had heard this place charges $90 a night for a caravan site so we parked up at the Mardugal NP campground (well-maintained showers and toilets but at $38 per night for three of us it was a little pricy compared to other NP campgrounds) and decided to tough it out without air-con (yep! we are becoming precious in this heat). After a sneaky dip in the Cooinda caravan park pool we found out one family had paid $38 and another $60 for a site. Clearly, they are charging whatever they like at the end of the season and we could have bargained a good price. Never mind, we were super impressed by the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Cooinda.
I learnt so much about the local traditions including hunting, fishing, bush foods, culture and kinship laws. It was one of the best museums I have been to so far (on par with the Military Museum in Darwin). Members of local clans developed this centre to share their culture with visitors and styled it in the shape of a pig nosed turtle, Warradjan. Go there for some education about indigenous traditions that we never received in school. Oh, and skip the giftshop if you don’t want to empty your wallet – we bought way too many books.
Yellow water Billabong, near Cooinda Lodge is another popular location for wetland cruises and we walked along the boardwalk. The billabong floods to join other waterways during the Tropical Summer, attracting millions of birds each year including jacana, jabiru, egrets, sea eagles, kites, magpie geese. Paperbark forests, pandanus and freshwater mangroves line the banks, and the water is dotted with beautiful pink and white waterlilies. We saw two large ‘salties’ and heaps of other bird life.
Maguk was the only plunge pool/waterfall we visited in Kakadu. We dropped the van at the main road before driving the 10km corrugated road in. It is a 1km bushwalk along Barramundi Creek, over some tricky rocks and through shady monsoon forest to the base of Maguk with its beautiful plunge pool and small waterfall. It was a scenic and tranquil place for a swim before we headed back for the 120km drive to Pine Creek on the Stuart Highway, our rest stop for the night before we head back south to Katherine.
We spent 3 lovely nights at Leliyn (Edith) Falls (46km north of Katherine) with no other than the Coopers. If this blog had gone viral these guys would be famous by now. We swum in the plunge pool several times a day to escape the heat and explored some of the upper pools early one morning. We jumped on a Nitmiluk Tour (3 Gorges Tour), which we missed out on during the lockdown in August. The Jawoyn people own the land – ‘the place of the Cicada Dreaming’ – which is managed under a 99-year lease to the Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife Service. It consists of 13 natural gorges carved through sandstone by the Katherine River and it was spectacular. Rocks and boulders separate each gorge so we hopped on and off several boats in order to get to the each one. The dreamtime stories that the guide shared with us were wonderful – especially the one about Nabilil.
Nabilil was a dragon-like figure who was travelling through country that was very dry. As he passed through the Blue Tongue Lizard dreaming places all the birds tried to catch him to get the water he carried. He then came and camped at the entrance to the Katherine Gorge where he heard the song of the cicada: “Nit! Nit! Nitnit!” and called this place Nitmiluk. Eventually, the dilly bag was pierced and the water that spilled out filled what we know as Katherine Gorge today. I love that story.
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