Setting off for Kakadu national park on the thursday morning was an exilerating experience. We had been stuck in darwin for a week, and although we didn't feel like we had wasted any time, it was good to be getting underway.
At the wheel of my own rented vehicle i felt as free as i had the day i left home two and a half months ago. Yet on arriving at our accomodation in the evening of the same day, i felt ready to break down and cry, i didn't fully understand it then, and i dont now. But Jabiru, a township in the middle of the massive national park is like a ghost town in the wet season, for the majority of our stay in the park felt like we were the only tourists inside the park we were for the most part very much alone with the nature around us.
While darwin had been empty of the flies we had taken for granted in australia, Kakadu was FULL of them, over 1,000 species of them live in the park apparently, and we think we met most of them. Them there are the other species of insect, the ones you can see flying infront of your car at night they are that big.... it was an enlightening experience to how few we get in the UK.
Due to the insect population, the lizard and skink population was just as huge, we were treated to skink hunting on the ceiling of the toilet block and the ceiling of our own accomodation, with them charging with lightning speed across the room (to which they stuck and moved just as fast as they did on any other surface).
Speaking of lightning, after experiencing tropical thunderstorms i don't think ill be interested in our tame european ones ever again. Lightning the likes of which i've never seen, moving in directions i'd never known it could go. varying in colour from bright white, purple and orange. Accompanied with rolls of thunder that shook the ground.
While in the park (we spent three days there) we were able to take in alot of walks and scenery, all of which was magnificent, we took the tourist advice and did the most of our walking in the early morning, staying out of the way in the hottest part of the day, and coming out again at night.
The two most memorable moments for me happened on the last day, the climb upto a lookout over "Anbangbang billabong" was the hardest 250 metres of my life, we had left it a bit late and it was hella hot, the sun was directly above our heads and for 250 metres up this slope it was just me, the sun and the rocks under my feet. I felt when i got to the top that there would be a hole burned in the back of my t-shirt, and that there wasn't going to be enough water in my bottle to unstick my dry lips from each other...
Then i turned round, and the view took all thoughts out of my mind of anything but reaching for my camera.
If i thought that view blew my mind, the view from Ubirr another rock climb (and art site) was even better, the guidebook had said that the sights from the top of the rock were incredible at sunset, but they didn't tell the half of it.
I told raúl that it felt like i was looking back in time, to some prehistoric or primordial scene which had been left unspoilt all that time. The colours and scenery only improved as the sun went down, and for once i didn't even try capture everything with my camera, i think i'd still be there if i tried.
