Day 23-26 Kakadu
Day 23
Per Andy (Guest Writer) we drove to Kakadu today from Darwin and it was very, very hot. It felt like the air conditioner wasn’t working at all. It was a longer drive than we expected because although Kakadu is only 2 hours from Darwin it is an enormous park and you can drive for hours and not leave the park perimeter. We stopped at the Tourist information centre which is also the Bowali cultural centre. This was great as it was well designed so fairly cool and certain areas were air-conditioned! We spent quite a long time in the air-conditioned library reading some great books aimed at all ages. Matt read about Dingoes, Madi the Aboriginal legend regarding Bats, Nick read lots of cultural books and Chris even managed to read some culture without too much complaining. They also had an air-conditioned cultural area which showed the 6 seasons of Kakadu according to the Traditional owners. It was really well set out and more interesting than the one at Uluru. From there it was on to Cooinda to set up and hit the camp pool.
Day 24
The main road through Kakadu is the Arnhem Highway and it runs through what makes up 80% of Kakadu - Paperbark trees. Now these are not as tall as the ones at home or in my opinion as pretty. Per Traditional landowners custom, to encourage new growth and to limit damage done by bushfires (the CFA and DES could learn a thing or two from them) spot burning is done throughout the year. This leaves blackened tree trunks with green canopies and limited undergrowth at this time. So from the road all you see for miles and miles are tree trunks and dry undergrowth. For someone who grew up in a very pretty bush setting in Gippsland the question has to be asked “Why would you travel extraordinary distances to see this?” I will admit that as we drove through yesterday I was somewhat dismayed (spoilt Princess In me) however this morning we did the Yellow River Cruise which has shown us some of the other 20% and that is very pretty. The Yellow River Cruise runs on the South Alligator River through the wetlands. The East, West and South Alligator rivers all start and finish within Kakadu and were named by an early European explorer (King?) who mistook the Crocs for Alligators and now his ignorance is noted by everyone. Anyway back to the Wetlands, these are green all year round, home to a diverse range of bird life, copious amounts of barramundi and of course CROCODILES. Bubba loved the cruise as he loves all animals and delighted in spotting them all. Nick was in charge of photography and hence I will have to sort through the 1,000 photos he took in 90 minutes before I select 50 max to upload, Chris loved seeing the crocs and scaring his mother by leaning out to look at them and Madi enjoyed the first 15 minutes, the first croc and then spent the rest of the cruise getting cold drinks for people (have I mentioned the heat?)
After the cruise we headed for Cahill’s Crossing, gateway to Arnhem Land, to see the tide come in and watch the Crocs feed on all of the fish that the incoming tide brings with it! Crocodiles are nothing if not energy efficient – least output for greatest return – don’t mistake their patience for laziness! This was meant to be great viewing and free so I rallied the troupes but alas I failed to factor in the hour drive in the heat to get there with 4 children who would prefer to swim in water rather than be constantly told to stay away from it! By the time we got there the tide was high, one croc was floating around on the surface playing in the currents and the rest were down below feeding but you can’t see them as the water is quite muddy coloured so as Chris declared loudly to all others patiently watching “This is boring, what idiot would drive an hour to see this?” Then he and Matthew started arguing and we left. Still living in La La Land I insisted that given we were here now we may as well go to Ubirr and see the Aboriginal rock art. Now generally I don’t consider myself slow, I usually pick things up quickly so it would be fair to say that seeing the rock art was all about me and I chose to ignore the kid’s lack of enthusiasm and particularly Chris’ track record on all things Cultural. However, ignoring things doesn’t make them magically disappear. The omens were bad when we pulled into the car park and found they were doing spot checks on park passes and I had left ours in the caravan –oops. We had to fill in a form and commit to taking the form and our passes to the Bowali centre within 4 days – my fault I’ll do that. Then we started what is a very short walk (around 1 km return if you don’t climb to the lookout) but is recommended to take around 60 – 90 mins once you view all the art and take in the view. We were back in the car in 15 minutes and that was with one photo opportunity! I did see the artwork and speed read all of the information but was not allowed to climb to the lookout. That will have to be a grey nomad adventure without kids! Anyway we got back in the car and headed to Jabiru for some supplies. I don’t care what they say I think the drive was worth it – on the road to Ubirr you can see some of the West Alligator wetlands and you also see the Escarpments of rock that border the edges of the park. The patterns on the rock made from erosion create great colours and make it look like God was playing with building blocks and just stacking them randomly to create fantastic formations and shapes. This would be another part of the 20% of the park that makes Kakadu famous.
We had a look around Jabiru. A small township with great facilities according to Andy (Golf Club, 2 Footy Ovals, a Rugby oval, Cricket Nets and a large public swimming pool). They also have a medical centre, café, supermarket, bank, etc but they didn’t receive the same admiration. This is where the majority of Bandali (white people) live in Kakadu. Most people work in tourism, as rangers or at the Uranium Mine. Seems strange to have a Uranium mine in the middle of a National Park but traditionally the land it is on was known as the “Sickness” land and the traditional landowners would not go near it. It also sells to overseas customers for a small fortune (I think around $50K for a ¾ full barrel) so can’t see it closing up before the end of the lease which I think is around 2020.
Once we got back to camp it was back in the pool. Suddenly the kids were all happy and excited.
Day 25
Today I wanted to drive to the Twin Falls via the Jim Jim Falls. This is a 4WD track and takes around 2 hours minimum each way. The Jim Jim Falls are not flowing at this time of year but the Twin falls still are and look very pretty in the photos. They do however not recommend swimming at either place (maybe at Twin falls in plunge pools as you climb the falls as crocodiles don’t climb –neither does Madi!) and have I mentioned the heat. Kids staged a sit in and refused to budge. Apparently just because you are somewhere doesn’t mean you have to see everything. They actually chose to sit in the air-conditioned van and do school work all morning and then go to the pool around 3 rather than do the drive. Hard to argue with that so that’s what we did. Except for me who had to do a 110km round trip to hand in our form and show the park passes (that 15 minutes really was worth it?).
Around 5 their friends from the road turned up and that made them very happy. A family conference was held and we decided to stay an extra night so they would have time to play with them.
That night the Rangers gave a slide show about crocodiles. The kids and I went and it was very informative and enjoyable apart from the distractions provided by the resident ADHD kid. He has a very sad background and the kids are under strict instructions to be patient with him, polite to him, etc. Chris calls him our “crazy bad-arse stalker” as he lies in wait for the kids or constantly knocks on the door asking them to play with him but according to Bubba he doesn’t know how to play (the scratching and attempted drowning in the pool were a good indication of this). At the show he a) hit Chris across the head with the crocodile skull the ranger had given him to keep him quiet and them complained that Chris had hit him after Chris retaliated with a very fast and impressive right hand jab (if only his block had been up to defend his head), God knows what Chris and Bubba would have done to him had I not had vice like grips on both of them and b) kept interrupting by telling grown overseas tourists to sit down, asking questions and being noisy. Andy found Madi storming back via the toilet block and when he asked her what she was doing she replied “I am going to get X’s Poppy to take him home – he is ruining everything!” Andy sent her back to the show and she returned indignant marched up to X and whispered loudly “X you must be quiet and sit still!” It was actually very funny, almost like a comedy skit but the kids saw no humour in any of it. X is another reason for the extra night he leaves in the morning for Katherine and the kids would prefer an X free day and not to run the risk of being in the same campground 4 nights in a row!
Day 26
Now that we have an extra day we can see another waterhole– right? No way, they voted for another day of math, writing and swimming. Madi and I spent most of the day in the pool and yes Mum we used sunscreen and didn’t burn (much).
I am sure that Kakadu is a lovely park but its sheer size makes it difficult to see especially at this end of the season when it is so hot. The distance from one scenic attraction to the next is enormous so it would probably be a better alternative to come with a camper trailer or tents and be prepared to set up camp in a new place every day. The only issue I have with this though is the crocs. Since they became protected and can only be hunted by the native landowners their numbers have grown enormously. While this isn’t such an issue with the fresh water crocs it is with Estuarine (Saltwater) ones as they can live in salt and freshwater and are very territorial. As their numbers increase the younger crocs have to move further inland to find their own territory. There are waterholes throughout the park that are crocodile managed, that is the crocodiles that enter there are trapped and passed to the traditional landowners for bush tucker or used for research as they will only return if set free but there is no guarantee that all are caught or that more don’t move in overnight so the attraction of swimming and cooling off in these beautiful waterholes is gone (its more of a guts test now for Backpackers). I think this is one of the reasons Litchfield National Park gets such great reviews – its smaller so easier to get around, the Crocs are not there in such great numbers yet (5 were pulled out of Wangi Falls at the start of this season but don’t tell Bubba that) and there is less paper bark flats and more natural ranges and gorges so it is very scenic throughout. With the spread of the Cane Toad to Kakadu the crocodile situation will only worsen as its natural predators are those that threaten it at its egg stage or when it is very young and the numbers of these are falling due to the cane toad being poisonous to them. While the cane toad also seems to have some effect on very young crocs it has no effect on adult crocs so their numbers will continue to grow. While I am not a politician or a psychic I predict a croc culling in the next 20 years. It could just be the country in me coming through – what after all is their purpose? You don’t need 100’s of 1,000’s of them for tourism so I think their numbers should be managed – just my opinion though.
Tomorrow we are off to Katherine via Edith Falls.
