Saturday, July 27, 2019

Kakadu NP + Nitmiluk NP ~ NT, Australia

After Darwin and the Litchfield NP was Kakadu NP our next stop in the Northern Territory, Australia. Kakadu NP was declared both, UNESCO cultural and UNESCO natural heritage. Its natural scenery that i remember from the Crocodile Dundee movie was probably the main reason to visit Australia. As often when you expect too much, we have been somehow disappointed 😕. Mainly because we have seen the beautiful Litchfield NP before and because at the first day on our road from Darwin to the main visitor center Bowali close to Jabiru there was not much to see. The scenery did not changed a lot over hundreds of kilometers. Even our three stops (wetlands walk, tourist center, East alligator river) were not very interesting ...

Later on we have seen beautiful nature in the Kakadu NP and learnt a lot about its people, plants, animals, climate and experienced much more: nature walks, billabongs (water holes), dry jungle forests, rock formations, aboriginal rock arts (20.000 years old paintings), boat tour, climbing up rocks and waterfalls, swimming in waterfalls and creeks [of course free of saltwater crocodiles (estuarine) in the dry season], enjoyed driving our 4WD car on unpaved roads, chilled on the rocks waiting for sunset, .... just the food was not to good and the prices were too high for the service provided ... 

After 3 nights in Jabiru we have moved south to Katherine and spent the next day in the Nitmiluk NP and the Nitmiluk Gorge (built by the Katherine River) walking and canoeing. As the Nitmiluk NP borders on Kakadu NP and the nature does not know man made borders, i will not make a separate blog post for Nitmiluk/Katherine :-).

Enjoy few pictures:
aboriginal arts in museum
billabong (water hole)
gorilla guru 😃
two of us
 
best of all wives 💖
rock arts (at Ubirr? Or was this the 2nd rock arts site we have seen?) 
this 25-30 cm big insect was in the bathroom all night, then i took in out in the freedom
Australia is a dangerous country, isn't it? 😃
boat trip at Yellow Water
salt water crocodiles (estuarine) inhabit also the big rivers deep inside the country
  
border cafe 'Manbiyarra' at Cahills Crossing between the Kakadu NP and the Aboriginal reigned Arnhem land. A special permit is needed to cross this border.

Friday, July 26, 2019

litchfield NP, NT ~ australia

our next stop after darwin was the litchfield NP.
when you do not expect much (or do not know what is waiting on you), the positive surprise can be huge :-)
all in one
we have seen the wangi falls, florence falls, magnetic termite mounds, ... learned a lot about the freshwater crocodiles + saltwater crocodiles, about termites and some spiders ... we've walked to the top of the wangi falls and swum later in the waterfall basin ...
termite mound
wangi falls
freshwater crocodiles (not dangerous for people) + saltwater crocodiles (estuarine)
best of all wives 😘
two of us at the wangi falls
florence falls
termite mounds
magnetic termite mounds
more pictures here.
the overview about all our stops in australia is here.
eof