Sunset Cruise on South Alligator River, Kakadu National Park

 The number one focus of this trip was to explore Kakadu National Park and, having now travelled almost four thousand kilometers, our anticipation heightened! After refuelling at Pine Creek we entered the National Park via the Kakadu Highway.

This was a very different National Park to those I had visited in other States and countries. Here the vegetation alongside the road was bare and blackened with fires still burning unattended in many places.  Burned black tree trunks with green heads standing on the bare sooty earth made a striking picture. The smell of bush smoke waved past our senses.  Even though this was only the beginning of the dry season, the grasses had a dry yellow hue giving a scorched appearance. I later learned that it is the practice to burn off the park in a mosaic pattern every three years. This minimises major spontaneous fires and also allows those plants that require fire for regeneration to thrive. We planned to try bush style camping instead of the commercial caravan parks so we were pleased to find that our chosen camp site was well away from any fires.

Mardugal Camp, Kakadu

Our first real camp proved to be the highlight camp of the whole trip! Mardugal is a non commercial  camp managed by the National Park Board and had bush luxuries such as showers with hot water -  thanks to the solar system. Trees provided shade and there were grassy areas where one could pick a spot and set up camp untroubled by close proximity to neighbouring campers. We loved the environment, meeting other travellers and also the Ranger's evening talks and walks in this woodland area.

South Alligator River, Cooinda

By early afternoon we had set up our camp, had lunch, chatted to a few other campers so we decided to take a drive to Cooinda to obtain our National Park passes. That done, we went for a drive to get a feel for the Park so that we could plan for our upcoming activities. 

Kakadu, and also the rest of the Northern Territory, proved to be full of surprises! One minute we were driving down flat dry sided roads when, suddenly, we found ourselves confronted by an amazing sight of water - either a river, billabong of a waterfall! We were soon out of the van and taking the boardwalk from the Yellow River cruise boat ramp. How still and quiet it was! And how beautiful!  We knew that we couldn't wait another day to take a cruise through this amazing place! Back we went to book our sunset cruise which would depart in little over an hour.

South Alligator River, Kakadu National Park

Sunset Cruise, Yellow Water

My photos do not do justice to the incredible number of different birds that are currently gathering here as the monsoonal waters recede.

Cormorant

Nankeen Night Heron

There were many egrets, lazily named small, medium or big.

Pied Cormorant

The calls of Whistling Ducks that have begun flying in as the water elsewhere in the Territory dries up accompanied us as we slowly floated downstream. In a few weeks their numbers will be in the tens of thousands.

The sun was going down with the smoke influenced light changing  colours minute by minute.

Yellow Water Sunset cruise

A lone male estuarine croc patrolled his territory. Top of the food chain, he guarded his many smaller females, daring us to come closer.

Male estuarine crocodile, South Alligator River

Come any closer and I'll let you know who is in control here was the message we received. We backed off!

A Four metre long saltwater crocodile

Male Estuarine Crocodile, South Alligator River

One of his harem wasn't that keen to see us either!

Female estuarine crocodile, Kakadu National Park

Female Saltwater Crocodile

This lady became decidedly cranky and suddenly turned, snarling, her awesome jaw letting us know to back right off!

Lotus on Yellow Water, Kakadu

Lotus

At the height of the wet season lotus flowers bloom thickly. There were still some vibrant patches left for us to enjoy.

As the sun slowly descended, allowing the crocodiles to hide in the darkened water our spectacular cruise came to an end!

Sunset on South Alligator River, Kakadu

What a great start to our Kakadu experience!

Mount Isa - a surprising city

Lack of internet connections, some long driving days and many days full of exploration and fun made it impossible to continue day by day blogging so the rest of the posts about this trip come from my diary and memory. 

I'll pick up the story at Mount Isa where we met our son, Rohan who joined us to share our holiday and to assist with driving. There were many nights on which he tossed up some great meals too. Accompanied by a glass of wine, eaten while seated under the balmy, clear and starry skies, these will be long remembered with appreciation and love.

Mount Isa, Queensland

Our first impression of Mount Isa was of a dreary town dominated by two high smokestacks set beside a black mountain of coal [?] and puffing out brown smoke. How dismal, we thought.How wrong we were! We had a few days here and the distinctly laid back air soon had us relaxing and forgetting time, the place began to be familiar and, by the time we came back on our way home, we felt some affection and appreciation of its uniqueness! 

The first thing we noticed was that the local people showed obvious pride and affection for The Isa and that community projects were regarded as of high importance. On arrival we were immediately roped in to participate in a weekly barbecue to raise money to buy feed bales for the farmers who were struggling to feed their stock during the current two year drought. On Show Day McDonalds was the only business open with the rest of the town totally deserted.

Many thousands of tourists pass through here but people were still very friendly and ready to help. Replacement of our badly cracked windscreen was accompanied by friendly conversation and sharing of the local's favourite places and activities, some of which we followed up.

Hard Times Mine - a tourist mine

One of the surprises was learning that Mount Isa is, according to the Guinness book of Records in 2012, the largest town in the world landwise. It takes in 43,310 square kilometres including the area to Camoweal 200 km to the north, and is larger in area than Switzerland. I wondered where the "Mount" was and learned that The Isa was named in 1923 by a mineral prospector John Campbell Miles after he was shown mineral deposits by an Aboriginal and thought the area would become like Mount Ida, a goldfield in Western Australia. Gold is not the mineral here though! Try copper, lead, zinc and silver! Vast deposits of these are now mined by a Swiss owned company but formerly by MIM - Mount Isa Mines, for whom the town was built.

Beef Cattle, Mount Isa

Prior to mining settlers had chased out the Kalkadoon people and tried farming this arid area. I was pleased to read that the Kalkadoon had actually successfully kept the settlers out for some years until 1884 when the were finally chased out by armed guards, their country effectively stole. My Opinion now, in 2014 when ethics and morals of such actions are regarded somewhat differently. I do, however, remember being outraged when watching the BBC newsreel on the last Friday each month and hearing how great it was the similar things had been achieved by the [then] mother country. I also remember getting into trouble for voicing my outrage!

It seems to me to be madness to still be trying to farm in this dry, harsh area. Many of the cattle we saw seemed emaciated and I wondered what the RSPCA would have to say had they been city animals. I do understand that families who may be tired of the struggle to raise stock cannot leave land they have held for a hundred years and would face economic ruin if they did so. What an un-winable situation.

Lake Moondarra, Mount Isa

Water supply is always a very serious issue here. In 1958 the Leichhardt River, which occasionally flows through the city, was dammed to obtain water principally for MIM.  This dam gave the local people storage for their drinking water and also a very popular recreational spot, Lake Moondarra. It is a favourite spot for fishing with the lake being stocked with barramundi and the like and is the venue for an annual Fishing Classic competition. Water sports are very popular however I wouldn't like to swim in the water after hearing about a water snake swallowing a one metre fresh water crocodile earlier in the year!  Freshies are usually disinterested in people however the snake may not be, especially if the person is not so tall! 

The lake was surprisingly big - something not obvious in my photo. It had very much shrunk from covering its 23 square kilometres, was at less than 30% capacity and covered with blue-green algae. Although the nights were cool the daytime temperatures reached 30C so the evaporation rates would be significant.

North to Camoweal

Our travel plan was to head for Kakadu National Park so we hit the road north.

Camoweal

Distances are unimaginably great in this part of the Queensland and their are few places to stop either to take a photo of an interesting scene or to take a rest. It pays to know before you travel just where it is possible to stop for a break. I used two books Budget Camps in Australia www.exploreaustralia.com.au and Camps Australia Wide www.campsaustraliawide.com together with the very comprehensive and up to the minute www.caravancaravan.com.au so we were able to plan our day's drive. This was fortunate as the Queensland signposting is not as good as we have found in other states.

Rest Stop

Some rest stops were merely pull ups with a rubbish bin while others provided amenities and were popular with the grey nomads for free overnight camping. Hardly camping though when you are pulling the equivalent of a small house complete with washing machine!

With two drivers, we pushed along the 640 kms to Three Ways where we spent the night camped behind the Roadhouse. The next day we did about the same number of Kilometers to Katherine. Kakadu began to seem real and close! 

Next Post Kakadu!