Kakadu - Darwin - Litchfield National Park

Hi, its time for another update, before we begin the long slow drive home.

Kakadu

We moved out from Katherine heading for Kakudu. We planned to stay at Cooinda for 2 nights as it seemed like a good place to make base. Unfortunately the mosquitoes moved in as soon as the sun started going down and made a real meal of all the kids, which included Elouise and Renee, cousins to Bianca and Caitlyn. Even now, 1 week later they are suffering the effects of their bites


Anyways, the park we stayed at was good, including the pool. As mentioned we used this as a base to explore the area so on our first day we traveled to Jabiru to have a look around. The kids went to a cultural center that discussed the history of the region and its flora, fauna and indigenous culture.

We then traveled back towards camp stopping at the Nourlangie rock art site. We climbed into the rocks to witness some great aboriginal rock art. The kids were really interested which made the walk (climb) worthwhile.



In the Afternoon some of us went on a tour of the yellow water lagoon, which was a water based tour out into the Kakadu wetlands. Wet season has passed and the water levels are dropping but there is still an amazing amount of water around here. There was heaps of fauna around and we were lucky to see Sea Eagles, Whistling Ducks, Whistling Kites, Bee eaters and King Fishers. There were Crocodiles and Wild Brumbies also around.

On the Second day we left the camp site, continuing our trip to Darwin. We stopped first however at the Ubirr rock art site and spent another couple of hours climbing rocks and admiring both rock art and scenery

Darwin
Not much happened in Darwin this time. We have been here before so had done all the touristy type things. We were joined here by Rebecca and Rachel and the rest of their children. A big family get away. The accommodation, Transit housing on the joint services base in Darwin, was nice and comfy and we had some long nights out under the stars whilst the kids slept.

We did do the Mindell Markets and the fish feeding at Doctors Gully, as wells as myself and Dad visiting the Aviation Museum. This museumm houses a full B52 bommer which is an amazingly large machine when you are standing under it.


Litchfield National Park

On the homeward leg we stopped at Batchelor using it as a gateway to Litchfield National Park. Mum and Dad stayed in town as we had family live here about 35 years ago and they wanted to look around. We went out to find some of the waterfalls and swimming holes that Litchfield has to offer.
As is shown in the photos, we managed to look at the Magnetic Termite mounds, which were not as large as we thought, however the Cathedral mounds were. We then stopped in at Florence Falls for a swim. The swimming hole was at the bottom of 135 steps. No probs with going down but coming up was a bit of a slog. Also here, Bianca opened a sore in here foot and was bleeding into the water when an Eel decided to have a taste testing and bit her :-)


We then continued on to Wangai Falls which is another great waterfall and swimming hole. All in all it was a great day and the kids loved it.

To top of the trip up this way the kids got to see some wild emus cross the road in front of the car on the way out of the park, and the following morning we found that some Tawny Frog mouthed Owls had camped out in the tree above the camper.