Day 57: Kakadu National Park

Today I went on a day tour to Kakadu National Park .  It's a long drive from Darwin to Kakadu -- so that's why I decided to go on a bus tour rather than renting a car myself (the park is about 171km SE of Darwin -- plus you can't seem to rent a car here with unlimited miles).

Kakadu is Australia's largest national park (20,000 sq. km).  Aboriginal people have lived in this area continuously for at least 40,000 years.  There are more than 5,000 recorded art sites in the park illustrating Aboriginal culture over thousands of years.  The park is also home to more than 10,000 salt-water crocodiles (salties).  The park has quite a varied landscape:

• Coastal and tidal flats
• Stone country (aka the escarpment)
• Savannah woodlands / lowlands
• Wetlands
• Southern hills and ridges

Our first stop was at Nourlangie to view some of the Aboriginal rock art.  It's amazing how some of the art has survived (the red color (ochre) lasts the longest).  Tour guide gave us a good / in-depth explanation of the paintings.

Next up was lunch and then a 2hr. boat ride out on the Yellow Water wetlands.  The boat tour was fantastic.  With the end of the wet season -- the lotus flowers and water lilies were blooming all over the place -- just beautiful.  And lots of wildlife -- we saw 3 salties and tons of birds.

I am glad I didn't do the drive -- but wasn't totally thrilled with the tour.  The tour was great until 3pm -- and then it seemed to fall apart a bit -- a lot of waiting around.  There was an optional 50 min. prop plane tour ($$$$) over the park to see the escarpment, etc. -- in hindsight, I should have done that.

Random Notes:

• Road Trains -- another reason why I didn't want to drive myself.  We encountered at least 4 of them during the drive.  Australia has the largest and heaviest road-legal vehicles in the world, with drivers called conductors and with some configurations topping out at close to 200 tonnes (a tonne is 1,000 kilograms or 2,205 pounds).  All the ones that I saw were hauling 4 trailers like this one.  And here's a video.  I can't imagine how you would ever pass one of these things (fortunately the roads are pretty flat in the NT) nor can I imagine looking in you rear-view mirror and seeing one of these things barreling down at you.
• There are a lot of uranium mines in the NT --- one of the big mines is surrounded by Kakadu NP.  Some of the rock art shown in the cultural center depicts what the Aboriginal people called "the sick area" -- so they learned early on to stay away from uranium. 
• Favorite town name:  Humpty Doo
• I did see 2 dingoes today (1st time) -- but they ran into the woods before I could take their pic.  We also saw a flock (?) of Magpie Geese in the wetlands.
• We also saw lots of mango plantations on the drive to the park -- one of the biggest crops in the NT (unfortunately it's not mango season).

Weather:  partly cloudy, 75 - 93F
Miles Walked:  2.25 (way too much time sitting in a bus!)

Pic Notes:

• 2 - 8:  Aboriginal rock art.
• 14:  brumbies - free-roaming feral horses
• 15:  the park is very careful to make sure we don't get attacked by crocs.  A shuttle bus took us from the restaurant to the boat dock (only about 100m -- we could have easily walked) -- and then a gated walkway from the bus to the boat.
• 16:  Black-necked stork 
• 17:  one of many pics of the water lilies and lotus flowers.  click here for an overview of the park flora.  It was amazing (and gorgeous) to see so many water lilies -- my pics don't do it justice.
• 21:  Croc #1 (a male)
• 24:  Green Pygmy Geese (they are really ducks)
• 27:  Jacana #1 -- huge feet/claws - allows them to walk on floating vegetation like lily pads.  weird looking when they fly -- looks like they are dragging around twigs -- but just their feet.
• 29:  Jacana #2 -- interesting fact:  the fathers are responsible for rearing the chicks.  they typically have 4 chicks at a time -- and we were lucky to see all 4 of them jumping around on the lily pads.
• 30:  Jacana chick #1
• 31:  Jacana chick #2 (look in the upper right corner)
• 34:  Great Egret
• 37 - 39:  Croc #2 (a male)
• 40:  Croc #3 (a female)
• 41:  White-bellied Sea Eagles (females can have a wingspan of 7 feet!)
• 46:  depiction of the six seasons in the Northern Territories (according to the Aboriginal people)
• 47:  bad pic through a bus window of a gorgeous sunset