My camera has been on that kind of mode the past 12 hours or so. It's like the plane where all engines fail (too many episodes of Air Crash Investigation) and the pilots go through the restart drills again and again. My ears badly clogged after leaping off that rock last night I woke up in my tent early, but no early enough to beat the flies. The campsite is rather luxurious with showers, large sinks, and solar lighting. The three of us had some muesli for breakfast before we packed up and journeyed on. Before anything we needed petrol. Stuart nor Andrew realized how low we were and it seemed inevitable that we were going to run out. The meter read "empty" and we hit the turnoff toward Yellow Water (to the left) and Jabiru (to the right). The guidebook was almost seven years old and it said there was fuel in Jabiru, about 40 km away. I explained to turn right but Stuart said "it says here left." Using my head I thought "the guidebook is old, another petrol station could have been built." Toward the end of the section for Yellow Water is said there's a servo (though not well detailed). Still 10 km away we weren't sure if we were going to make it! This isn't a deep corner of the Outback so I suppose there are worse sections of Australia to run out of petrol or blow a tyre, but still it wouldn't be fun with three men waving their arms. As we pulled into the petrol station, we made it! And my camera started working again for the time being. Thankful that we weren't on the side of the road in the blistering North Australian sun, we stretched and filled the tank. The petrol station sells opal petrol. Opal petrol was produced since it doesn't produce the high caused by sniffing normal petrol (a chronic problem among Indigenous Australians). When visitors hear about the Indigenous Australians it seems they hear everything negative, so let me share something positive. As I promised I'm going to talk about the six-season cycle. Gunmeleng is the "build-up to the Wet. Humidity and temperatures both increase. Billabongs are replenished and thunderstorms start during gunmeleng. The Wet is known as gudjuek, continuing from January though March with violent thunderstorms and an abundance of plant life. Most of the rain falls during gudjuek. In April, banggereng is the end of the Wet and when storms flatten spear grass. Yekke is the season of mists. The air starts to dry out and waterfalls still have most of their water. Wurrgeng is the "cold" season and gurrung is hot and dry. The final two seasons are when Kakadu is at its busiest. I learned all this at the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre. Unlike the cultural centre at Uluru there is no big pile of returned rocks and no "sorry book." It's still ill-advised to take rocks from Kakadu. No photos are allowed in the cultural centre but I learned a fair bit about the local languages and the six seasons. As I shot photos of a crocodile in a nearby river my camera gave out again. This time it wouldn't work all day! I wasn't even sure if it was the battery or the camera itself. Having burned up a lot of time at Cooinda we drove north toward Jabiru. Stuart does all the driving and his foot is nearly always hard on the gas pedal. It's so dissapointing not having a camera! Jabiru is where we reached next and we stopped for ice and provisions. Though I love the outdoors I'm often reluctant to plan long camping trips for fear that I'll run out of food but why fear? After helping a pretty blonde lady lift her parcel into her car I got a can of lamb stew for only $4. I asked Andrew and Stuart if I should get something and we could cook a meal together but they said they only had two steaks. Canned food is pretty icky to me but sometimes I have to put my health on the back burner; I can't expect haute cuisine in the bush. Jabiru has a fair bit for a town within a national park: two supermarkets, a takeaway, a couple of banks, a bakery, and so forth. I got some chips at the bakery but the guy was a real idiot. I wanted to fill my water bottle he said "can't you use the tap outside?" when it was round the corner and I couldn't see it. The manager at the gift shop earlier recommended visiting Gunbalanya in Arnhem Land but we needed a permit ($16.50 per person). Easily sorted we made our way toward Ubirr. We'll be in Arnhem Land tomorrow. Stuart is acting as my de facto photographer, which is especially helpful since he has both a video camera and an iPhone. The lesson learned here is to always have an extra camera battery and and preferably a secondary photography source such as an iPhone or Smartphone. Bloody hell! I should know better! I've only been travelling for this long! Why do I need to remind myself!!!! As much as I give advice, I need to follow my own. I'm also thankful the guys didn't listen to me and turn toward Jabiru; otherwise we'd be stuck without petrol. Stuart nor Andrew have ever left Australia, and Stuart has been to and along some far-flung places in the Lucky Country including the Gunbarrel Hwy and the "Trip to the Tip" (Cape York). Toward Ubirr we drove and stopped at the East Alligator River for some crocodile viewing. There are many places in Kakadu named after alligators but there are no alligators. Philip Parker King (born on Norfolk Island, the son of Phlip Gidley King) spotted crocs in 1820 and thought they were alligators. There are only two species of known alligator compared to 14 species of crocodile. We spotted several crocodiles straight away including several basking in the late-day sun. Stuart stands with his fishing rod rather close to the edge but crocs can leap out of the water with much ferocity and grab a human. On land they're very slow. Climbing on a fallen tree I was only about seven or eight metres away from a basking crocodile. Bloody hell, I'm on a fearless journey! Stuart continued to fish and I continued to admire the crocs. Years ago I showed a photo to a friend of me ATVing in New Zealand and they asked "are there crocodiles in there?" Australia and New Zealand couldn't be more different in terms of dangerous and poisonous creatures. Australia has all manner of carnivorous reptiles, venomous snakes, poisonous spiders, and flesh-eating mammals whereas NZ has none of the above. It was getting late and I wanted to see the sunset at Ubirr like Chris suggested. We saw a series of Indigenous rock art. This photo is courtesy of Stuart.
No camera frustrates me, and I feel like I would come back to Kakadu to get photos. Up some spectacular rocks we climbed and we watched the sunset. The smoke made it one of the less spectacular sunsets I've seen but it was still remarkable. Another traveller had the same camera battery as myself, so I was able to check and was relieved that it was only the battery and not the camera. He was nice enough to let me snap a few photos and get a shot of me gazing off into the plain.
The green plain looks like something out of the African savanna. The rocks were more spectacular than the sunset night but we descended since the gate is locked at 7 PM. Not far from Ubirr we had one more spectacular set of rocks to stop and have a look at (and climb). This photo is also courtesy of Stuart.
We set up camp at the nearby Merl campground. The guys cooked up their steaks and I heated up my canned lamb stew. The supermarket was out of camping fuel so I couldn't buy my own. My billy acts as an all-in-one dish: I cooked my lamb stew, ate that, and then boiled water for tea and then drank out of that even though I have to let it cool awhile. Mozzies are a lot worse here than by Jim Jim Falls. Andrew and Stuart are heading back to Tassie tomorrow night so I'm going to catch a lift with them back to Darwin. Tentatively I was planning on a third night in Kakadu but no camera isn't much fun. Tomorrow we're going for our short jaunt into Arnhem Land and then it's back to civilization.
