Intorducing Team Kak!!!

So this morning started bright and early with the start of our 'Adventure Tour´ starting off with 3 days in Kakadu National Park way up in the Northern Territory! After abit of bus swapping, we were finally on our way!!! Our first stop was highly exciting as we got to see the buffalo from Crocodile Dundee...you remember the scene when Paul Hogan starts doing funny things with his fingers in the middle of an outback road and then the buffalo magically lays down!!! Unfortunately he´s now deceased (the buffalo not Paul Hogan) and has been carefully stuffed and has pride of place on the bar at the 'Adelaide River Resthouse'! Woweee!

Aboriginal rock art

We made it to the National Park around lunchtime and made our way to a very cute waterfall and plunge pool with fish and everything! History was made as I actually dived in and swam in there for a prolonged period of time! All this after we'd been told that there might be freshwater crocs swimming on the bottom (freshies are Ok though, it´s the salties you´ve got to look out for!) Very proud of myself, we headed to the next pool and after a sweaty climb to the top, there was literally no stopping me now, I was in again! Think Paul was shocked to say the least! This pool was amazing though and had stunning views out over the park! More exciting movie moments as the pool at the bottom was where they filmed the woman taking off her clothes in Croc Dundee! Hey it doesn´t get much better than this! After a fun filled day, taking in the sights we headed to our campsite at Jabiru for the night and set to cooking dinner! Very bizarre for us to be preparing food again after 5 months of eating out for every meal...loved it and the group started to bond while grating carrots!!!!!!!!

Another from Ubirr

Early mornings were to be the theme of the tour! So after a quick breakfast we were on the road again and heading into the bush for abit of a walk! We were lucky enough to have an absolute star of a guide called Richard who told us lots about everything...he even got us eating a green ants bottom!!! (tastes like lime!) He told us all about different grasses, plants and trees and how the aboriginies use them for food, medecine and making things! Fascinating stuff! We particularly liked the different gum trees with their peely bark! We ended up at some pretty pools which was my worst nightmare as there were mossies everywhere and I literally got about 30 bites on the back of each thigh! WHY DO THEY FIND ME SO TASTY???? We passed some beautiful sandstone rock formations (1.65 billion years old...about!) on the walk as well and got our first taste of the reddish colour that we were going to see alot more of as we headed through the centre!

Croc atlast

After our walk we headed to Ubirr to see the aboriginal art discovered all over the walls in this area! It´s truly an amazing sight and hearing the creation stories that go with some of the paintings is fascinating. Basically the stories told to white people are the equivalent to what the elders tell the young aborigines as they only trust us with the most basic knowledge of their culture which is fair enough when you see how much we've pretty much ruined their livelihoods, land and bodies with the introduction of western food, animals, etc. This is an amazing place and it was topped off with sensational views from the the tops of the rocks, we basically had a 360 view of the surrounding wetlands, Arnham Land amd the park itself! We even saw wild wallabies running across the plains below!

Pawn finally took the plunge

Sunset this evening was up by Point Stuart - we were hoping to spot some crocs on the river but made do with a huge monitor lizard in the car park and lots and lots of wallabies jumping around in the fields! Our group really bonded this evening over didgeridoo playing and aboriginal body art! And at this point, we feel it right to introduce the other members of Team Kak - Grandad, Best/est friend, Chris, Lisa, Mel, Martin & Emma!!!! Grandad ended up being Wallaby Man, I perfected the art of making the didgeridoo sound like a fart and some great dancing was done by all!!! Beer was flowing nicely as well especially as the campsite was ridden with mosquitos, flys, frogs and any other bugs you can name! The highlight being in the girl's showers when there was a huge scream, the shower curtains shot back and we saw a huge green frog jumping down from the wall of one of the showers! Aaaaaaaaa! Funnily enough we were all glad to leave that particular campsite in the morning!

Team Kak 4x4

Our last morning was spent on the river spotting crocs and a huge amount of birds including a white breasted eagle, ibis, storks and hundreds of others we can´t remember the names of! Most impressive was the Australian Darter which dives in the water to catch the fish and literally swims under water for a while until you see his head pop up! Then he just stands on the side with his wings spread, drying off! Cool eh? From the river we headed to some more stunning waterfalls, took advantage of some great photo opportunities and finished our Kakadu tour seeing some v impressive termite mounds! The Cathedral one was twice as tall as Paul!

With the first part of the tour coming to an end, Team Kak headed back to Darwin for some quick food and some much needed sleep for our 5:30 start the next morning! Told you there were lots of early starts!

The Buffalo from Crocodile Dundee, Wow (Stuffed)

The luuuuuvely wildlife

The second pool we swam in

This was the waterfall where it happened

View from Ubirr