Fai Tira blog Monday 11th October 2010

 Pete’s trip to Kakadu National Park.

 

Kakadu is a World Heritage site covering over 19,000 square kilometres.  I took a 3 day tour with Wilderness 4WD Adventures which involved camping overnight and cooking for the group of which there were 14 people and a guide called Jess.

 

Our 4x4 truck which was air conditioned.  Jess drove this flat out everywhere, even over the dirt tracks that on the second day had turned into a mud bath.

 

Our first stop was Corroborre Billabong for a boat trip to see crocs and other wildlife.  Our boat driver/guide was most informative and told us lots of information about the Saltwater Crocodile.  He made it quite clear that he disliked Steve Erwin the crocodile man. We saw lots of crocs but unfortunately not close enough to photo.

 

This is a Jabiru.  Apparently Jabiru means stork in Portuguese.

 

This is a bird with massive feet that spread the load as it walks over Lotus Lilly pads.

 

 

The Lotus Lilly in flower.  It only flowers for about 6 hours then goes to seed.

 

My first close up view of a road train. It has 62 wheels in contact with the road. 

 

 

A talking Cockatoo.  All it said to us was “ello” but apparently it swears a lot.

 

We travelled down the Old Jim Jim road which is a dirt track.

 

At the first river crossing we were lucky enough to see a couple of fresh water crocodiles.

 

A bit further on we saw a herd of water buffalo.

 

After lunch we walked a couple of kilometres to a series of waterfalls.  We had a swim which was a great relief from the heat.

 

Me looking a bit tired and this was only the first day.

 

The scenery was spectacular.

 

 

These are green ants.  For some reason we licked there bums, it tastes of lime. 

On the way to the camp we stopped to collect firewood for the campfire.

 

The campsite which was already erected.

 

 

Our luxury overnight accommodation which consisted of an umbrella with sides, and four bunk beds inside. I shared with a couple who were on the honey moon.  How crazy is that?

 

The next morning we were up at 5am and off to walk 5 kilometres to Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls. This involved an 4x4 drive of about 50 kilometres over very rough terrain.

 

A deep river crossing.  A 4x4 hire car broke down in this river a couple of days before.

 

One of the spectacular escarpments of Kakadu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Words can’t describe how beautiful the landscape is. We ended up swimming in this creek at the top of the falls.  No crocs here!!!

 

We then walked back to the bottom and took a short boat ride along the river to the bottom of the falls.

 

Not a lot of water but beautiful all the same. 

 

A croc trap.  Nothing had been caught for a while but it is NOT the place to go swimming.

 

The park warden explained that they cover these buoys in meat essence and wait for the crocs to bite into them.  They can then determine the size of the croc by the size of the tooth holes.

 

It was then off to Jim Jim Falls for another swim.

 

The site is massive with a huge pool at the bottom of a 200ft drop. There was only a trickle coming over the falls.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately we saw Cain Frogs here.  They are a pest and have no natural enemies as they are extremely poisonous if touched.

 

We headed back to camp in the pouring rain.  We had chicken stir fry for dinner and then another early night as we were all knackered.

 

The next and last day was Aboriginal Rock Art day.

 

 

 

 

Rock Art

 

Jess explaining the meaning of the paintings above.

 

View from the lookout over the wet lands.

 

Lunch and XXXX.

 

A termite mound.  It takes ten years to build a metre of height. 

 

The campers.  We had a great time together. 

 

Thanks Jess.