Kakadu, here we come!!

G'day Mates, lets continue our "holiday" story.....


On our way to Kakadu we started with a stop at Bark Hut Inn but before that we booked a Crocodile Jumping tour for our two guests. Maybe I can ask for some pictures from one of them to show you. And there we had a disaster again. The road to the tour had 4 k's dirt road and though the woman had told me the road was good, it was corrugated again, the result I will tell you later.

poor us leaving behind......

Anyhow the tour was a success and even we had seen some crocodiles while we were standing on the shore.

Next two pictures Patricia sent me;

Scary  isn't he.......

But I think the most frightened part was as they told us, that the captain had lost a bit concentration or was too much involved telling stories about the crocs, that he cruised the boat towards the shore, right into the scrub with spider webs and they were terrified because they were sitting in the front haha!!

The Bark Hut Inn was nice and most of us had a buffalo burger which was nice tucker! But when we came we had a laugh again. I got a voucher on which you could get a free drink when you booked a powered site in their caravan park so of course we went to the bar to collect, I got 3 beer and 1 white wine and I walked away with the drinks but the girl called me back, I still had to pay $ 19.00 because there was only 1 free drink haha.

Next day we drove into Kakadu and ended up at Ubirr, the Aboriginal art site and Sunset lookout. The camp close by, called Merl had toilets and showers but no power and costed $ 10.00 p.p.

There we discovered that unfortunately we had trouble with the car again. First the window on drivers side, which was just repaired in Broome, didn't come up again like the first time.  Secondly, when we came back from checking were we had to go the next day for a free guided aboriginal art tour, Fred saw something leaking again under the car. When he checked we saw that one of the batteries (luckily we have two) had been sliding, most probably caused by the road to the tour, and it had hit one of the belts.
Of course these belts get hot while driving and it had melted through the battery so the liquid dripped over parts of the engine. What a disaster! In the first place I was nearly in panic, thought the whole holiday of the kids would end there in the bush.

Danny is covering the window

But Fred wouldn't be Fred when he didn't fixed it. As the battery consist of compartments, he let out the rest of the liquid and closed the gap with silicon kit and threw a bucket with water over the parts where the liquid had dripped as that stuff is nasty, it eats through things.

Danny and Patricia wanted to go for a walk, Danny covered in a towel against the heat and the sun 

and they had just left when we got an extra visitor;

He had seen a chip laying around...

Sunday October the 4 th we did the tour with the aboriginal guide. He told nice stories but I couldn't understand every thing.

He also told a lot about their habits.....

I made pictures and actually, when we were in an aboriginal cultural centre a few days later, I read that they don't like you to take pictures of them and in any case you should ask. I'm sorry I didn't so I apologise. But  I think a guide like him will be used to it now as I certainly wouldn't be the only one.
The walk was very interesting and we saw a lot Aboriginal paintings, they all tell stories.....

When the tour was finished we walked back to the car park via another track and we passed some more Aboriginal art.

When we came back at the camp we had a nice easy day though it was warm and Danny decided to go for a walk on his own and came back with this picture;

All crocs!

This was just a few k's from our camp, its the Cahills crossing over the East Alligator River and there was a lookout.

Look at these guys, just fishing meters away from the crocs and when you now how fast these big animals can be and how they can jump!! Terrifying !!

The next day we decided to go to the sunset on top of the rocks but before that we went to that crossing first to see these crocs with our own eyes, unfortunately there weren't many then, just a stray one....

If you ever go to Kakadu, don't forget to go to this sunset, it's just beautiful and though it is a bit of a climb and at some stages even scary if you are scared of highs, it is really worth the effort;

Isn't he a gentleman

Its getting nicer and nicer......

I hope you enjoyed that!

From Merl we went to Jabiro and had a very nice caravan park with a great pool.

If you look good you can see our car and caravan between the bushes

The first day we had the window fixed again, actually not really fixed because the motor is broken but they put the window up and it can't come down anymore. We thought that wouldn't be a problem but when we came back on the caravan park we already faced a difficulty, Fred had to type a code into a box to open the gate aha, the first problem!

Next day we wanted to go to Nourlangi rocks and when we came to the turn off there was a sign that the road was closed due to bush fires. We did smell smoke but didn't know it was there.

From Jabiru we went to a power free spot again near Cooinda, called Mardugal Campground. At first we thought it was closed as there was a sign that it was closed so we decided to go to the caravan park Cooinda and also to book for the yellow river cruise for the visitors.

During my booking for the caravan park I found out that the other park indeed was open so we discussed it together and decided to go there. That was a good choice as it was lovely, still very hot but there were some big water tanks overflowing and the kids liked cooling off under it.

Next day they did the early morning tour and liked it very much, of course also here I will ask for some pictures. We did the same tour years ago and also were very impressed.

Patricia's pictures;

I hope you enjoyed this story again and of course we aren't finished yet, there is lots more to come so.......see ya soon!

Cheers!