Kakadu National Park

Carmen Friend
May 3, 2019
2 min read

We have just spent a few days exploring our new neighbourhood - Kakadu National Park. A cost of $25 per person for anyone who is not an NT resident to visit the park plus any costs for camping grounds - ranging from $15 per adult to $20 per adult unpowered is how much you will be up for when you drive into the park.

As we were coming from Darwin, we headed to the Bowali Visitor Information centre where we were greeted by a lovely Aboriginal lady ranger who knew her stuff! Armed with maps and guide we headed towards Ubirr - home to Cahills Crossing or for many the crossing where silly people stand or fish close to the water watching all the crocodiles who might just pop up and take you! Here we stayed at Meri camping ground and did the Ubirr artwork and lookout walk - amazing views across the wetland!! Great place to watch the sunset from here we were told. Truly this was a stunning vista which was totally unexpected after the drive in as you can only see trees and also large sandstone cliffs. We also walked the Bardedjilidji walk through sandstone rock formations walking between many of the rocks through natural arches.

After a sleepless night in the swag listening to the billions of mosquitoes and rain through the night, we were up early and headed towards Cooinda. We stopped on our way to complete a large number of walks - Nourlangie where lots of Aboriginal art work and an Aboriginal shelter can be experienced. Here the view of the Kakadu escarpment and savannah woodlands can be experienced. Nawurlandja Lookout which was a moderate climb up the sandstone rocks to see the escarpment looking out towards Arnhem land was breathtaking. It was a view uninterrupted and all you could see was green treetops and a few billabongs. We also did the 6km round trip to Gubara Pools - very disappointing as the pools were only a pool and no swimming due to recent croc sighting.

We arrived into Cooinda and setup camp again with the billion mosquitoes and more rain overnight! Up early for a 6:45am cruise on the Yellow Boats for 2 hours followed by breakfast. What a cruise it was! Rueben was a great guide (talked a lot but was very informative). We saw many birds - sea eagle, whistling ducks, cormorant, rare great billed heron, jesus bird (he walks on water) real name comb-crested jacana, egret, nankeen night heron, magpie goose the list goes on! Of course we were also lucky enough to spot some lady and gentleman crocs too! One was guarding her next while the others were just hanging out in the water. The smallest about 1 1/2 metres the largest about 4.5 metres - so yes just some small ones!!

Kakadu is well worth the visit especially given this is one of Australia's major sites for how the Aboriginal people lived and where life and the first exchanges of trade with Asian countries started and where many European men first sighted land and also the local people. A major wetland for Australia that needs protection and also a large amount of money spent to upgrade facilities.