5 - 7 Dec 2017
We arrived in Darwin at 11pm and stepped off the plane into a hairdryer! Short cab ride to Palm City Resort for sleep and somewhere to leave our luggage.d
Wednesday 6 Dec
Up early to meet our tour company Territory Expeditions who we had been transferred to 24 hours ago as the outfit we booked with had to cancel - probably lack of customers as it‘s now the wet season and most tours have wound up.
We were driven an hour out of Darwin to hook up with our tour bus, who had already done a day out in Lichfield. A total of 13 of us in a 16- seater aircon(ish) Mitsibushi outback truck with 800,000 km on the clock, so well used!
First stop was a boat trip for an hour on the Adelaide river to see jumping crocodiles. Of course they only jump because they are fed buffalo steaks on the end of a fishing rod! Interesting to see big crocs close up, but all felt a little bit fabricated for us tourists. However it was helpful to reinforce the very real threat of killer crocs; Adam our guide took great pleasure in recounting numerous croc attack stories!
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| Kites buzzing our boat |
We then proceeded to drive for hours.... Kakadu is huge (almost 20,000 km2) but we felt the loo and lunch breaks we’re unnecessarily long. Luckily there was some wildlife to break up the journey.
Note: bird identification not verified. Hoping that Barnaby will read this tomorrow and help me out :)
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| Water buffalo: introduced in 1800’s for farming, but feral buffalo became a problem and caused huge damage until an eradication programme 1979-90. This one was in an enclosure at a truck-stop! |
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| ? |
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| Wallaby |
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| White-bellied sea-eagle |
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| Jabiru |
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| Brolga |
We finally reached our destination of Anbangbang, originally home of the Warramal clan. Although still piping hot at 4pm, this was a lovely walk admiring Aboriginal art and then a stunning vista of the Arnhamland escarpment and the verdant forest.
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| Nabulwinjbufwinj |
We then drove 30 minutes fora short walk up to an amazing rock formation at Nourlangie for another awesome view across Ambangbang Billabong to the escarpment
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| Anbangbang, with Arnhamland escarpment on horizon, and billabong indentation foreground right |
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| Sunset in the Jim Jim river |
We were sleeping in 4-man canvas huts - with good bug netting but no TV (to watch England lose the Ashes 2nd match) or aircon! Adam our industrious guide BBQ’d kangeroo, snags (sausages) and steak in the sweltering food tent. Even the chilled case of Fat Yak Ales we had bought at the bottle-shop didn’t help the heat! Another shower was required before bed. The excellent shower block was 400m away, negotiating one small snake and some huge toads in the dark!
Relatively early to bed and up at 0630 for breakfast and camp clean-up. Of course Jess and I felt some people could be a bit quicker.... but hey, they’re on holiday too. Back in the battle-bus.
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| Termite mounds |
An hour’s drive to Yurmkmik where we went on a very hot 7km return walk along a well made path beneath an escarpment to a beautiful waterfall and dark, deep, cool pool which we all leapt in. Unusually, the flies on the walk appeared to be biting - and Jess was getting many more on her legs than me. It wasn’t until we returned to Darwin that we realised quite how many bit her and the reaction it would have.
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| Jess at the bottom of the waterfall! |
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| Mertens’ water monitor |
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| Australasian fig bird |
We then had a long 3-hour haul back to Darwin. As we neared our hotel, the tired truck made a terminal sounding mechanical crunch as it turned sharp right; I think we were lucky not to be stranded in Kakadu!
We walked to Mitchell Street in the heat and enjoyed a very good spicy meal outdoors at Thailicious. The trip had been fascinating, and Kakadu is incredible; we just touched part of it. But we wouldn’t recommend the company we used. If you have time, a guided small-group 4WD tour in the dry season is probably the best way to see this huge national park.
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