Kakadu National Park....World Heritage Site....Sacred Aboriginal Sites....Crocodiles....Billabongs....South Alligator River.....Plenty of Birds.....and Barramundi. Our first visit to Kakadu and we are a bit miffed that it has been difficult to find out where to go and places to stay.  It seemed to be this way until you actually got into the National Park. Well from the Katherine side of Kakadu that has been the case, possibly different from Darwin.  But more of that later.  After leaving Katherine we travelled on the Stuart Highway and then went in on the Pine Creek town loop , for a bit of a look.  Pine Creek is about 90 kms north of Katherine, just before the turn off to 'Kakadu Highway'. Edith Falls is a place you can visit from Pine Creek.  Pine Creek is not a very big town but obviously a popular spot, as there were plenty of caravans waiting to get into the park.  It was only 9.30am. Nothing jumped out at us, begging us to stop for a coffee, so we kept travelling and found a large rest area about 30kms in on the Kakadu Highway. The National Park starts at the 'Mary River' and the 'Gaymarr Interpretive Centre' is at the 'Mary River Roadhouse'. The fuel bowsers were all out of order, food was available, but all it told us as an 'Interpretive Centre' was which roads were open and warnings on crocodiles and walking tracks. We had made a booking for two nights at the 'Gagudju Lodge Cooinda', but we are so much wiser now!  If we come to Kakadu again via Katherine, we would start by going to Gunlom. There is parking for caravans there. You do have to leave the highway and travel 35 or so kms to the spot.  There is about 20kms of gravel road that is supposed to be okay for 2WD vehicles.  'Gunlom' is at the headwaters of the 'South Alligator River', which is the river that runs through the National Park.  We have been told it is well worth a visit. You can swim nearby and there are great views from the escarpment. But you find these things out later from fellow campers. 'Maguk' is also a place to visit, but the campground is not big enough for caravans.   Milton and Sandra Harrison did squeeze in with their caravan and stayed the night. This spot is also near rocky escarpment country.Our first stop was Cooinda. The campground is quite good but you need plenty of mosquito repellent with you. This area of the National Park is 'Wetlands and Billabong Country'. Plenty of mosies! We had booked in, although they said "They don't normally take bookings". They took our credit card details when we phoned, but when we arrived said "That they had not taken the payment out".  So I gave them the credit card again. Ans 'YES' they have taken it out twice!  Makes it a pretty expensive site. $92 a night. We have had trouble contacting them, but hopefully now we have it sorted. So we will see if the money returns to our account. My tourist advice is: "If they say they normally don't take bookings, then just get there early enough to get a site"!The 'Yellow Water Sunset Cruise' was worth doing. It is obviously popular as four boats went out, each with over 30 passengers. Once again though, you do need your mosie repellent! Murray was our skipper and he was an old fella who has been coming to Kakadu since 1975. Knew his stuff, but he did waffle a bit at times! Probably something to do with his age! Told us he has had two knee replacements and a hip replacement. Used to drink like a fish, but these days is a tea totaller! We got all those bits as we slowly cruised around the wetlands, looking at birds, water lilies, brumbies and crocs. The highlight was the family of Jabiru's just after we started the cruise. Because Murray was the 'old fella' of the skippers, he let the young ones go off first!  They were in more of a hurry than he was!  A family of young Jabiru's have just arrived at the wetlands, following nesting.  The tour operators had only spotted them a few days before, so were quite excited. Mum and Dad were teaching their youngsters to fly and they flew over and around the boat a few times. When Jabiru's greet, they face each other, put their wings out and flap, so their wings touch.   We were lucky enough to witness that as well.  I hadn't thought to bring the zoom lens. Always the way, but I did get a couple of reasonable shots. We picked the right side of the boat to sit too. Gee!  Huge decisions like that can make all the difference when you are a 'tommy tourist'!  Murray told us lots about the 'South Alligator River' and what the land was like 300 million years ago. The location of the head of the river and the uses of various vegetation by the aborigines. Just before the sunset, they all took the boats to the floodplain and we quietly sat watching the sun go down.  Very peaceful and very nice.  We were on the right side of the boat again!   On Thursday we decided to do our own exploring.  We had tried to book an 'ExploreTop End' day trip, when we were in Katherine, but were told they had been booked out since March. There was nothing available until the end of the month.  We went into a couple of spots between Cooinda and Nourlangie, but they were nothing special.  You can take yourself out to 'Jim Jim Falls', but you need to allow 2 hours to travel one way over the gravel road.  When you get there it is a 1 km walk over rocks to the falls.  If you want to go to 'Twin Falls', you need a snorkel on your car, as there is still water over the road.  When you do get there, you need to have purchased a ticket from the 'Bowali Visitor Centre' for the 'Boat Shuttle Access to Twin Falls'.  One would hope that you could purchase a ticket out there, after travelling all that way.   Later we were told this is possible.  A Ranger at the 'Bowali Visitor Centre' gave us what is classed as 'The Book'.  My tourist advice is:  "Go to the 'Bowali Visitor Centre' before you travel to Jim Jim Falls.  In fact go to the 'Bowali Visitor Centre' as soon as you arrive in Kakadu National Park".Nourlangie is one of the sites of Aboriginal Art.  It is well worth the visit and if you've been to the Visitor Centre and have 'The Book', then you will know the times of all the Ranger talks in the park.  Why the 'Information Centres' in nearby towns do not have copies of this booklet we question?  The 'Anbangbang Rock Art Site' is the most spectacular.  Rock art was painted to illustrate an aspect of a story.  This may be a creation story, a hunting experience or some other aspect of life.  Some rock art stories are not for everyone to know.  Some rock art is sacred and not for everyone to see.  This site has been repainted by 'Barramundi Charlie' in 1964 and the stories of the art have been told on display boards.  After our cultural experience at Nourlangie we found a quiet spot on 'Nourlangie Creek' to have our lunch.  If Peter had brought his fishing rod, he would have been tempted to see if there was a Barra waiting to take his lure!From there we decided to go onto Jabiru.  Our campground neighbour, who has an excavation business in Darwin, had told us you can drive right alongside the 'Ranger Uranium Open Mine Pit' just out of Jabiru.   On the way we visited the 'Bowali Visitor Centre' and came away a whole lot wiser on where we should visit.  We also had ourselves a copy of 'The Book'!  As to the piece of paper that we had been given, the ranger said "I don't bother giving that to tourists".  We started to think that they don't really want you in the park unless you visit them first.  Probably to make sure you pay the $25.00 National Park entry fee.  We know of four people who spent 6 days in the park and didn't pay!  The problem is you have to go so far into the park before you get to the Visitor Centre.  We intended to stay at the 'Aurora Kakadu Hotel Campground' on Friday night.   This campground is about 200kms from Darwin on 'Arnhem Highway'.  The Ranger said there was very little to do in that area and we would be better to stay at Jabiru and go out to Ubirr.  So that is what we intend to do.Being able to see what we could of the 'Ranger Uranium Mine' was very interesting.  We saw one of the big tanker trucks taking the yellowcake to Darwin as well.   They started mining uranium at Ranger in 1980.  Further google research has revealed they had a serious spill of contaminated slurry in December last year.  The aborigines always referred to that area as "Rock that made you sick"!  Wikipedia says that there have been at least 150 leaks, spills and licence breaches between 1981 and 2009.  Over $200 million has been paid in royalties since 1980. The money is paid to the Commonwealth Government and ultimately distributed to Northern Territory-based Aboriginal groups, including the Traditional Owners, under the terms of the 'Commonwealth's Aboriginal Land Right's Act'.  This is an interesting bit of info from Wikipedia:  In 2010 an Aboriginal landowner, offered thousands of hectares of his land to the Federal Government on the condition that it be added to Kakadu National Park. The land is rich in undeveloped uranium deposits, which could be worth billions of dollars.  Our last tourist attraction for the 10th July was the 'Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre' at Cooinda.  It has been built in the shape of a pig nose turtle and the aboriginal display is excellent.  Outside of the centre there was an aboriginal doing his painting.  He says "He battles to keep up the supply".  Good for him because the paintings were not cheap!  Still haven't made our purchase of an aboriginal painting yet.  He didn't have the story on the back of his.  Otherwise I may have made a purchase.  Purchased a nice teatowel though.Another lot of sunset photos included in this blog.  I did consider doing the sunset cruise with a photographer on the Thursday.  The cost was $200 and he helped you understand getting the right colours with your camera.  When we were travelling on Friday, I purchased a couple of postcards that had been printed with that particular photographers photos of sunsets and birds.  Peter paid me a compliment by saying "My photography was as good"!  

The next blog from Kakadu is going to be special.  Very much a highlight of 'Travelling Oz'.  16 photos