Mario and Pat's Australian drive holiday

Day 10   13/9/2014   Darwin, NT to Kakadu National Park (round trip 700km)

Well today we went to Kakadu. First, a little bit about Kakadu National Park.

Kakadu National Park is Australia’s largest terrestrial national park. Kakadu covers almost 20,000 square kilometres and is a place of enormous ecological and biological diversity. It extends from the coast and estuaries in the north through floodplains, billabongs and lowlands to rocky ridges and stone country in the south. These landscapes are home to a range of rare and endemic plants and animals, including more than one-third of Australia's bird species and one-quarter of its freshwater and estuarine fish species. In other words it’s big. It is also a world heritage protected park.

It was good not to drive today as the round trip was 700km, and we did it in a very comfortable AAT Kings coach.

We visited many sacred sites with Aboriginal paintings that tell their story. We also did a cruise of the Yellow Waters and South Alligator River. (Yes, interesting name since Australia does not have any Alligators, story for another time.)

On the river cruise we saw a wide range of birds and plant species. Of course there were many, many reptiles (Crocodiles, snakes, lizards, etc.) There are over 100,000 crocodiles in this area alone. The population in 1972 was just a few thousand and then they became a protected spices and the numbers just shot up. While the rivers are fresh water, mainly saltwater Crocs live here. The male crocs are on average 4 plus meters plus; the females are a little smaller. They can live up to 80- 90 years. Crocs are also the oldest species living today.  At the beginning of the tour, when the guide pointed out the first croc, everyone stood up and exclaimed, and moved around to get the best angle for photos.  The same happened for the 2^nd and 3^rd sightings.  But after about ten crocodiles, it ended up being more like, “Yep, there’s another one” and no one even bothered taking photos.

One of the things our tour guide told us is drink lots on water. On average you are supposed to drink 1 litre per hour.  I managed about 7 litre in 10 hours. The temperatures were sitting from 38 to 40 degrees Celsius. HOT.

It was a long but good day. We got back around 7.30pm, clean up and went for dinner and a walk.

Tomorrow we are again staying in Darwin, and just having a chill out day, sightseeing, shopping and maybe some pool time. 

 This is Nabulwinjbulwinj. He is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam(stick). thats the story told by elders to kids to keep them close. 

Another rock art telling a story about their group. Aborigines have small family groups living together. 2 -3 families at most. They also have very strict rules on marriage. They need to marry 2 - 3 groups away from theirs.

 1^st one we saw. A big male salt water Crocodile.  He was only a few meters away from us.

 One of the species of Sacred Lotus Lilly. The ultimate waterproof leaf.

 Another male sunning himself.

Salt water Crocs have a special glad behind their throat to filter and expel the salt when in salt water. Fresh water Crocs don't have one. This was a she, and also very close to us.

The aboriginal calendar. They don’t have months; they do have 6 seasons though.  Monsoon Season (Jan-Mar), Knockemdown Season (April), Cooler but still humid season (May & part of Jun), Cold Weather season- down to a cold 25-30 degrease (Part of Jun, Jul and part of Aug)- best time to visit, Hot Dry Season(Part Aug, Sept, part Oct), Pre Monsoon Season (part Oct, Nov, Dec) These are the anglo names, not the local language names.