Friday, July 8, 2011
Great Aussie Adventure - Day 30
Happy Father’s Day, Dad!! And Happy Birthday Monica!!
Alrighty, today I left Darwin to go to Kakadu National Park (just 200Kms away). On the way, I drove through Humpty Doo and saw the Big Thing - The Boxing Crocodile. I was hoping this was going to be the only croc that I’d see today.
Anyway, this park is on Aboriginal land and they have let it be used as a national park. There are some areas you can only visit during the daylight hours. In this national park, there are so many crocodiles!! There are signs everywhere saying not to go near the water "Don't risk your life!"
I first stopped at the Mamukala wetlands. This place is cool. I thought that I was here in the wet season (in Litchfield because of the crocs) but I'm actually here in the dry season!! Anyway, these wetlands are a good spot for bird watching. I was here in the "Wurrgeng season (from June to August) when temperatures become cooler and waterways begin to dry up. There can be mists in the morning. Rats and pythons return to the plains." I didn't see any crocs, thank goodness, or rats or pythons for that matter, but I did see a kangaroo hopping away.
I then drove towards Ubirr. According to the paper I got from the visitors center, there was water on the road, but I thought I'd see how it went. But there was no water on the road today!! The rivers and creeks all have water in them I've noticed in NT. On the way, there was a lot of back burning and smoke all over the road! Kind of cool to see though.
Ubirr is a sacred place to the aboriginal people. It is a kind of library as there are cave paintings all over! It was very interesting.
"Aboriginal people believe Mimi spirits painted these sorcery figures. Mimi spirits are so tall and thin they can put paintings in unlikely places. They simply lift the rocks down, paint them, then put them back into place. Although Mimi spirits are invisible to most people, they taught Aboriginal people to paint many of their traditional designs." (I had been wondering how some of the paintings were so high!)
There are many paintings of fish, crocodiles, and long neck turtles, even Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger - in the the Northern Territory!)
There was a story warning others about crocodiles. "When Aboriginal children are told about the Namarrgarn sisters, they learn about saltwater crocodiles and their dangers. They Namarrgarn sisters used to play games near the mouth of the East Alligator River, when they would hide from each other by changing into crocodiles. One day, one sister said: 'Come on sister, we'll turn into crocodiles so we can kill anybody, no matter what tribe, no matter which Aborigine, we'll kill 'im.' The Namarrgarn sisters travelled to a salt water spring near Point Farwell called gungarnd'derdi where they changed their bodies into saltwater crocodiles. The palms which grow around the spring grew from the teeth which the sisters pulled from their mouths and planted in the earth." Even back then, they were worried about the crocs!!
And the view from on top of the caves!! The wetlands running into the bush. Just beautiful!! I passed a swamp on the way to the hotel and just had to stop and get a few photos. And a few more fires.
Then I checked into the hotel. It's a crocodile shaped like a hotel!!! I'm sleeping under the right front arm! And they have crocktails at the hotel restaurant/bar rather than cocktails. And since I am a preferred member - I got one for free! I put my bags in the room and went out to find the last things on my list. Unfortunately, we're not in the middle of the dry season, just the start and all the other things I wanted to see were down roads that were closed because of the deep, deep water over the roads. One of the booklets says that in order to get to Jim Jim Falls, you need to have a snorkel on your 4WD (it's just what it sounds like!) even in the middle of the dry season! There is always water on this track and in order to make it through, your engined needs to still breathe and the snorkel lets this happen! Twin Falls is further down the road to Jim Jim Falls, so that was out too! The Yellow Water Wetlands road was closed too, the paper said it would open late June, so I thought I might be ok, but no such luck!! I was going to do a couple of these walks to see the sigths, but no. Next month, I guess is the time to do it!!
So I went back to theCrocodile Hotel (it's called Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn, so I should have known!) I'm just worried what may be in my shower tonight!!! I'm staying in the Heart of Kakadu after all!!!
Alrighty, today I left Darwin to go to Kakadu National Park (just 200Kms away). On the way, I drove through Humpty Doo and saw the Big Thing - The Boxing Crocodile. I was hoping this was going to be the only croc that I’d see today.
Anyway, this park is on Aboriginal land and they have let it be used as a national park. There are some areas you can only visit during the daylight hours. In this national park, there are so many crocodiles!! There are signs everywhere saying not to go near the water "Don't risk your life!"
I first stopped at the Mamukala wetlands. This place is cool. I thought that I was here in the wet season (in Litchfield because of the crocs) but I'm actually here in the dry season!! Anyway, these wetlands are a good spot for bird watching. I was here in the "Wurrgeng season (from June to August) when temperatures become cooler and waterways begin to dry up. There can be mists in the morning. Rats and pythons return to the plains." I didn't see any crocs, thank goodness, or rats or pythons for that matter, but I did see a kangaroo hopping away.
I then drove towards Ubirr. According to the paper I got from the visitors center, there was water on the road, but I thought I'd see how it went. But there was no water on the road today!! The rivers and creeks all have water in them I've noticed in NT. On the way, there was a lot of back burning and smoke all over the road! Kind of cool to see though.
Ubirr is a sacred place to the aboriginal people. It is a kind of library as there are cave paintings all over! It was very interesting.
"Aboriginal people believe Mimi spirits painted these sorcery figures. Mimi spirits are so tall and thin they can put paintings in unlikely places. They simply lift the rocks down, paint them, then put them back into place. Although Mimi spirits are invisible to most people, they taught Aboriginal people to paint many of their traditional designs." (I had been wondering how some of the paintings were so high!)
There are many paintings of fish, crocodiles, and long neck turtles, even Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger - in the the Northern Territory!)
There was a story warning others about crocodiles. "When Aboriginal children are told about the Namarrgarn sisters, they learn about saltwater crocodiles and their dangers. They Namarrgarn sisters used to play games near the mouth of the East Alligator River, when they would hide from each other by changing into crocodiles. One day, one sister said: 'Come on sister, we'll turn into crocodiles so we can kill anybody, no matter what tribe, no matter which Aborigine, we'll kill 'im.' The Namarrgarn sisters travelled to a salt water spring near Point Farwell called gungarnd'derdi where they changed their bodies into saltwater crocodiles. The palms which grow around the spring grew from the teeth which the sisters pulled from their mouths and planted in the earth." Even back then, they were worried about the crocs!!
And the view from on top of the caves!! The wetlands running into the bush. Just beautiful!! I passed a swamp on the way to the hotel and just had to stop and get a few photos. And a few more fires.
Then I checked into the hotel. It's a crocodile shaped like a hotel!!! I'm sleeping under the right front arm! And they have crocktails at the hotel restaurant/bar rather than cocktails. And since I am a preferred member - I got one for free! I put my bags in the room and went out to find the last things on my list. Unfortunately, we're not in the middle of the dry season, just the start and all the other things I wanted to see were down roads that were closed because of the deep, deep water over the roads. One of the booklets says that in order to get to Jim Jim Falls, you need to have a snorkel on your 4WD (it's just what it sounds like!) even in the middle of the dry season! There is always water on this track and in order to make it through, your engined needs to still breathe and the snorkel lets this happen! Twin Falls is further down the road to Jim Jim Falls, so that was out too! The Yellow Water Wetlands road was closed too, the paper said it would open late June, so I thought I might be ok, but no such luck!! I was going to do a couple of these walks to see the sigths, but no. Next month, I guess is the time to do it!!
So I went back to theCrocodile Hotel (it's called Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn, so I should have known!) I'm just worried what may be in my shower tonight!!! I'm staying in the Heart of Kakadu after all!!!
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About Me
- Laura
- Denver, Colorado, United States
- I'm originally from Colorado, but I've been living in Australia for three years. Before that, I lived all over the U.S.: Washington State, Maine, California, Oregon, Nebraska, North Carolina, Arizona, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and more... No, I'm not a military brat or a military wife; I was a traveling nurse for 5 years so I moved to a new city every 3 months. During my travels, I became intrigued with lighthouses and started making plans to photograph as many as I could in whichever state I was living (including the two in Nebraska!) My blog is about my trips to various lighthouses, as well as other interesting trips. I hope you enjoy reading, and leave a comment or two!
1 comments:
Great Pic
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