Kakadu National Park

On Monday we drove to Kakadu National Park which is 3 hours east of Darwin. All along the road to Kakadu there are these huge termite mounds. This was one of the biggest that we saw, there are bigger ones further east.

Kakadu has a good collection of aboriginal rock art and drawings. We toured two different places that both had several art sites. The amazing thing about these sites is that the art is done on sandstone and the aborigines used crushed rocks and other materials to paint the drawings. We saw drawings that were done 1,000 to 20,000 years ago. It is amazing that they are still preserved so well! We hiked up to a lookout for sunset and were able to see the wetlands and one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen, which ended w/ a spectacular lightening show. It is the start of summer here and the end of the dry season so we didn’t go to any of the waterfalls as they have no water this time of year.

There are only 3 hotels in Kakadu and only one was available when we booked. Ironically, it was our most expensive hotel night so far on this trip and sadly the worst. The room was old and rundown and my "favorite" part was the two cockroaches that greeted us as we turned on the light. James promptly squished them as I ran out of the room (one was at least an inch and a half long!). It was a long night for me…I don’t really like cockroaches.

Tuesday morning we did a river cruise. This one was guided by an aboriginal clansman and he talked to us about their culture. He showed us different plants and tools they use and how to throw a spear. It was a very informational tour and I liked learning about the indigenous people of Australia who have been here for 40,000 years. As we cruised down the river we also saw birds, crocodiles and more crocodiles. There were crocs on the bank at least every 50 feet.
Kakadu was a very hot, but fascinating place and worth the drive out there to see the incredible art sites.

M