The Top End continued

Exploring Kakadu National Park, our guide took us to Ubirr a rocky outcrop providing views of the surrounding area. The area is also well known for the Aboriginal rock paintings to be found in the rock shelters at Ubirr. This is a fascinating ancient area of our country.

 

Aboriginal rock art

Stratas of rock

Additional information about and images of Ubirr can be found on the Kakdu National Park website - Ubirr .

We spent the night at the Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn where the rooms are constructed to form the shape of a crocodile - Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Hotel - at Jabiru, a small township in Kakadu. Jabiru is named after a large water bird located in this region of Australia. It is a member of the stork family. Follow this link for additional information about the jabiru .

 

Next day at  Nourlangie Rock we viewed more Aboriginal rock art and then visited the Warradjan Cultural Centre before going on a cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong to view the birdlife and look for crocodiles. As well as the jabiru there were a variety of ibis, egrets and cormorants, rainbow bee-eaters, ducks of many varieties and  jacanas - small birds with large feet which walk upion the lily pads giving the illusion of walking on water. 



Image from Wikepedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacana





We then rejoined the coach to travel south to Katherine where we spent the night.

 



Darwin and The Top End

In May 2004 we headed north to explore parts of the Northern Territory. After flying from Melbourne to Darwin we had one day to acquaint ourselves with central Darwin before heading north to explore Kakadu and surrounding areas.

The coach picked us up from the hotel and, travelling along the Arnhem Highway, the first stop was the Adelaide River where we joined the Jumping Crocodile Cruise on the river.

The guides encourage the crocodiles to jump from the water by dangling pieces of meat in front of them

Watching these large, powerful creatures so close to the boat is an awesome sight.

 

We then continued on our journey into the Kakadu National Park.

 



A great way to have an introduction to the area is by air so we boarded a small aircraft for an overview of the sights in Kakdu.

Airstrip at Kakadu

From the air we saw the Jim Jam Falls 

and the Twin Falls

Being May the dry season was only beginning so we were able to view these waterfalls. During the wet season they would be much more dramatic and several months later there would be little or no water..

 

The ruggedness of the terrain is obvious from the air

 

 

We also flew over part of the Ranger Uranium Mine

Back on terra firma we had lunch and were then ready to further explore the national park.