On the set of Crocodile Dundee
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2008
1
12
52
Trip End
Apr 02, 2009
Where I stayed
Kakadu National Park,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
But other than the start, the trip was great! We spent the first day in Litchfield National Park, just south of Darwin. Saw some termite mounds, which are huge and all over the place. Some of them build giant semi-round towers. Others, magnetic termites, build their mounds along the north/south axis. There are fields of them that look like cemeteries.
Gunlom Falls
After a bit of time seeing the termite mounds, we headed over to a couple waterfalls and waterholes, for some swimming and relaxation. There were 16 people in the tour. And other than me, they were all from Europe. Mostly around my age, with the exception of 2 older German couples. The vehicle we were in was sort of a combination of a bus and a truck. Big wheels, 4WD, kinda cramped bus style seats. Our driver/guide, Stu, was an Aussie who spends about half the year living in L.A.
We had a couple hours of swimming and relaxing, then we had some lunch and drove over to the Mary River. Here we took a Croc Cruise. All this really meant was that we went out on the river, motored up and down, and occasionally saw some crocodiles on the banks. But it was ok. I was hoping we'd feed them or something, to see them really move, but that wasn't a part of the trip. But we did see some freshwater and saltwater crocs, and some cool birds.
From the river, we headed for our first nights camp, with a quick stop along the way to get a few beers for the night. I was travelling with Adventure Tours Australia, and they expect everyone to help with cooking the meals, cleaning up, and loading/unloading the bus. So its not like we just got to camp and then were able to lay around. Dinner was kangaroo steaks and buffalo sausages. Fantastic! After that we spent the night playing some cards and having a couple beers.
Our camp was just outside Kakadu National Park, which is where they filmed Crocodile Dundee. So if you havent seen that movie in a while, check it out and you'll see some of the places we went while there
Termite Mounds
.The next morning we were up at 5 and out of camp by 6. We had a long drive down a dirt track, the Old Jim Jim road. We took this to Barramundi Gorge, where we climbed up above the main waterfall, where there are a series of little waterholes and lots of places to jump off the cliffs. The water in some spots is 60 meters deep, so its not like you're going to hit the bottom. We spent most of the morning up there. It was a really hot day, and there wasnt anywhere anyone wanted to be but in the water.
For the afternoon, we drove up to the northern part of the park to a place called Ubirr. Theres a bunch of Aboriginal rock art here. We walked around to see most of it, then climbed up to the top of a big rock outcropping where you had a 360 degree view of the surrounding area. It was an incredible view! You could see flood plains and hills in the distance. And you could see into Arnhelm Land, which is a giant portion of land that is owned by the Aboriginal people and where they still live. We were hoping to see the sunset from plateau, but there were too many clouds in the area, so we didnt get much.
The second night was pretty similar to the first, except we had chicken curry for dinner
View at Ubirr
.Day three, we headed for a place called Gunlom Falls. Normally, a trip to Kakadu would include a visit to Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls, but Twin was closed because the wet season is nearly here, and Jim Jim had no water going over it because the wet season isn't quite here. So we changed up the itinerary a bit so we could actually see some nice stuff. Gunlom was cool. Lots of waterholes up top, and a huge one at the bottom. The only real problem in Kakadu was the flies. They were insane! And the more you tried to wave them away, the more showed up and landed on you. And not just on arms and stuff, these flies try to get into your nose, ears, and eyes as well. They were awful.
After Gunlom, we pretty much had to head straight back to Darwin since we were in the far reaches of the park. The rest of the drive was uneventful, and we got back in the evening.
