week 17 at Kakadu

more photos!!
We had a great time at Kakadu!!
We had wanted to go to a Jumping Croc cruise on the way out (the Hunter Safari one) but we got away from town so late that we did not have time. We arrived at Jabiru with just enough time to unpack and get a BBQ dinner on before the mozzies came out and the sun set.

We stayed at Lakeview which is owned by the local indigenous community instead of some multi-million dollar overseas consortium. I had been talking to a couple at Litchfield Café the week before and they had stayed there. They mentioned that the accommodation was in nice permanent safari style tents so I was not expecting anything anywhere near as flash as what they were. Tents, sure, but made out of a fine metal mesh with timber floors and high ceilings with a fan and fridge and sink. Really nice. I had wanted to take a nice photo but we trashed the place with our piles of pillows and blankets and bags and books and cooler bags within ten seconds.

Only downside of the rooms was that the metal mesh is totally not soundproof and the kids are noise machines and Darcy is in a horrible squealing phase so I imagine we gave the neighbours the shits. The kids had napped too long during the day and were crazy full of beans until far too late. So I did not get a chance to make any phone calls like I had wanted to and no time to get online. I just figured I’d call people the next night…

We were awake ridiculously early the next day. We had debated doing a 9am cruise but were not sure if we would be able to be ready in time. No problem. We were out of there super early and on the road. But we did not book the cruise and instead just turned up. Don’t do that! LOL! No room on the boat so we headed out to Ubirr instead. I had wanted to do sunset at Ubirr but because we were so late to the park we missed it. We already know we will need to come back to Kakadu so that is one thing that we will plan around next time. Sunset from the top of the rocks would be just magical!

The whole area at Ubirr was great. The rock art is just incredible to see. The community and history and culture that the aboriginals had is just staggering and so beautiful. If you were not already saddened by what was stolen from them in the past than seeing the artwork here I think would be a huge awakening. There is one section that we call the Menu Wall and it is a big area of rock that is painted with all the different food sources in the area. The animals are coloured according to fat deposits on their body, the cheeky mullet is painted with his neck broken or head removed as a way to remind the next generation that that particular fish needs to be killed as soon as he is caught (as opposed to leaving the fish until leaves to stay fresh for a couple of days) because the cheeky mullet is cheeky! And will wait until noone is around and then flip-flop back to the water. We were lucky enough to catch one of the free ranger talks and learnt a lot. We will certainly plan our next trip around the talk times at a few different places because it really adds a whole other dimension to the history and animal life in the area and the changes in the landscape with changing ocean levels and floods etc.

Jordy was rapt and listened to the ranger and wandered all over the rocks and at the end she spoke to Jordy about the crocodiles (one of Jordy’s favourite subjects) and so he chattered away. And then she bought out a big crocodile skull that was part of the information for her next talk at another section of art. Darcy was not so interested and just kept trying to run and throw himself off the ledge of rock perhaps hoping he could fly or maybe keen to see how big a thud he would make at the bottom….
After that we wandered past several other smaller art sites and climbed to the top of the rock escarpment. It was a bit of a climb and Jordy always insists on doing it himself (he enjoys the bushwalks that we do). Half way up he had a decent fall backwards into a crevice. A few tears and a hug and I asked him if he wanted me to carry him… he sniffed, took a breath, and say “No, I want to walk.“ and off he went back up the hill. Tough little nugget.
I would love to see this area just after the wet season. The whole area floods and becomes a massive billabong and wetland. I’d like to see it half and half when there is more water than what we saw but not quite fully flooded (too fussy?!?!) but it was beautiful. The green grass just stretching out for miles. It would be nice at sunrise too with the birdlife around.

Back down the road to the Border Store for some morning tea and to get tickets for the 11am cruise. The ranger that we had spoken to mentioned that some indigenous artists from Injalak would be at Merl Campground at 10:30 showing people how they make paint with ochre and doing some paintings. Merl was just near the boat ramp… so we decided to take our snack to Merl and see if we could catch a bit of the painting…. I am really glad we did because now we know what is there we can plan our next trip around that too! LOL! After the artists demonstrate how they paint and make brushes the tourists can have a go at making a brush and doing their own painting which Jordy would have loved (and to be honest I would have enjoyed it too!)

A quick throw everyone in the car and off to the boat ramp. We had chosen to do the Guluyambi Cruise, another company owned by the local community, which offered more than performing crocodiles. I am so glad we did because we wanted the boys to see a croc up close but were not keen on them being lured to perform for food. When the cruise first started our guide mentioned how the crocs were all mostly sleeping during the middle of the day and so I thought, bummer, we won’t get to see any… wrong!! Apparently come sunset you don’t want to be anywhere near the banks and I can see why if most of the crocs were off sleeping cos we certainly saw our fair share. The Guluyambi cruise went for just under 2hours and I lost count of the number of crocs we saw. We were also shown areas where it was (and is) safer for the local aboriginals to live by the river where the crocs can’t climb the rocks but where there was a good ledge and overhang for shelter and where yams and other bushfood grows. We saw more rock art and were told a few stories about Namarrgon, who brings the lightening.

We got out at a section in Arnhem Land (we did not need separate permit because the company is owned by the indigenous community and so the cruise price covers the permit) that is near a spring that their stories say was created by the women’s digging stick. There was a great view up the length of the East Alligator river from the rock ledge. We also saw how the tropical monsoon rainforest that used to cover the banks has all been destroyed by the two cyclones that went though the area over recent years.
It was a really good cruise that I would highly reccommend. I was surprised by how much the boys enjoyed it seeing as it went for so long but they both liked just floating down the river and both loved the crocs. Actually, Darcy has now learnt the sign for crocodile and goes looking for pictures of crocs to show me almost as much as he looks for kangaroos. :)

From there we drove the 70 odd kms down to the Nourlangie Rock. Actually, we call it Nourlangie but that was a mistake that earlier white people made and it should be called Anbangbang… By this stage both the boys were asleep and we were really low on water.
I stuck Darcy in the egro (sound asleep) and Jordy in the pram (also sound asleep) and we headed off to see how pram-friendly the path was. Not too bad really for the lower section but there was no chance of climbing up to the lookout (another stop for next time!). But we wandered around a few of the art sites which were different to those at Ubirr. There was one section that had a drawing of a family group and they painted the breast-feeding women with flecks on their breasts indicating the milk which i thought was rather cool. I called this photo Namarrgon but then i reaslised it's not... It's the other dude but i can't remember his name!
There is a lot more in the area to see including some impressive rock painting at Nawurlandja that we did not have time for (a much bigger walk to Nawurlandja that the kids were far too tired to attempt) but we would like to hear the ranger talks here too so another one to plan around next time.
Back in the car all dying for a cold drink and off to Cooinda Lodge. I had wanted two nights at Lakeview but we booked so late that we could only get one night, so I ended up having to book the second night at Cooinda. Which actually worked out well as there are a good variety of things to do both north and south of the park and different areas that are worth seeing for sunrise/sunset that would be too far to travel too from just one place so next time we will stay two nights north and two nights south. But Cooinda was a heck of a lot more expensive than Lakeview. And I even got a local’s discount at Cooinda so without that the price would have been crazy. The room was nice, and they had a bistro, and pool (and cold water in the fridge!) but still, the full price would have been a bit over the top.

There was a 90min ranger guided walk along Yellow River (right near the Cooinda Lodge) that we had intended to do but once we sat down we decided a beer sounded nicer than another walk so we went for a swim and then a relax at the bistro.

Too late for the walk and too early for sunset but we headed down to Yellow River anyway. It’s a beautiful piece of river and if you’re into fishing it would be a fantastic place to throw a line in. The grass is all floating on about half a metre of water and there are lots of birds… and apparently the sun sets right over the water and is something to see.
Instead we saw a crocodile hiding amongst the plants and inching closer, closer, closer to a tasty looking bird on the water’s edge. A small crowd gathered to watch and we all waited waited waited for him to get close enough to launch his attack but the bird was too smart and flew off before the croc was close enough. Here he is creeping creeping... and fly away bird!

That evening the rangers did a slide show outside in the bistro that we caught most of over dinner before the kids decided it was bed time. A big day for two little boys. There was no phone reception out at Cooinda so I missed my only chance at Jabiru to make any calls. We had internet access though so I got a chance to update the blog and catch up on emails.

We called into the Warradjan Cultural Centre on the way out the next morning- they have a great display on bush foods, and the moiety kin system and seasons and stories. That was really interesting and well worth a stop although perhaps best done when Darcy was not so full of energy and into everything and ready to destroy the place! Then a big four and a half hour drive back home via Pine Creek.

Having done our speedy glimpse at Kakadu we have a better idea about how to plan our next trip in. I think you could easily spend a week in the park. And the national parks camp areas look great too if you have a caravan. We found a great full day tour that we will do next time and a few other things. I am tempted to do a sunrise cruise along the Yellow River too but it’s rather pricey so I’ll have to wait and see.

oh, and if you need fuel coming in or out... we did not fill up at Cooinda Lodge cos it was a little pricey, but it was even more expensive at the roadhouse on the way south and not much different at Pine Creek- so there you go!

Week 17 around Litchfield Café

Had a couple of fun afternoons at the café. I’ve gone up around 3pm each afternoon (after the lunch rush) and the kids and I have hung around and chatted to people. We had a lovely couple from Melbourne staying in the tents for a couple of nights and they were great to talk to (I think Mum and Dad even had dinner with them one night!) and then a young family from Lismore (who cloth nappy and AP no less! Wow!) so Jordy and Darcy played with their son and I had a lovely natter and a few other really friendly groups through that were up for a chat.

There were a few evenings where were still up at the café talking until far too late and there was a big rush to feed the kids and shower before the sun set (it gets cold out there in our outdoor shower once the sun is gone!).

Just a km down the road from Litchfield Café there is a Winter Solstice celebration party weekend festival sort of thing on at the moment. Heaps of DJs from Darwin and Adelaide and around the place are there. It officially started on Saturday but on Friday night they must have had something going on cos we could hear the doof doof music from the café (and from our caravan!) We are so used to the peace and quiet of an evening that I have to say I kind of resented the noise even though it was no louder than you’d hear in town if the people down the street had a party (and much much quieter than the teenager next door at Port ever was!)
We were all given free tickets so Mum and I took the boys for a look on Saturday afternoon. A heap of people camping out there but not entirely what I expected. Seemed like a bunch of backpackers trying too hard to be hippies and just smoking and drinking and missing the whole point of the beauty of the area. But they seemed to be having a fun time so it was all good. We just had a bit of a look around and then sat and listened to the music and watched the boys dance and chase around the place for an hour and then came home. Apparently some of the kids from the local Woolaning community danced at sundown and that would have been nice to see but we did not head back for it. The music did not stop all night! But they had a groovy didgeridoo or synthesized didgeridoo track playing from sunrise for about an hour and that was nice to wake up to. It reminded me of the guy and his band that play the Mindil Markets with a great combo of hip hop sort of music and the didgeridoo and clapping sticks etc. It may even have been him??

Getting cooler here of a night! Down to 6’C outside and 13’C in the van. We have all the blankets out! But the days are just glorious. We've been for a few nice early morning walks just close by camp for no reason other than to wander and it's been lovely. The kids love LOVE the wallabies and kangaroos around the place. Darcy in particular!

Week 16

I’ve been doing a lot of bird watching this week. There are just so many birds out here and they are such a challenge to photograph that I have become a bit addicted. There are a few billabong and wetlands areas around but I have not bothered to go that far afield. And these are all taken right around Litchfield Café. Actually, they are mostly all taken within about 5metres of our caravan! The Honeyeater ones I walked a whole 30-40metres from the van and sat out in the yard out the back.



The boys even come and sit with me while I try to catch them mid-flight. But Darcy wants to touch them and so keeps walking up to where they perch and scares them away. Or he stands up and yells and signs bird, bird, BIRD! Which the birds don’t seem to enjoy and they bugger off and perch in the bush and just watch until we go away. But I won’t give up until I get a good in-focus wing shot of them! I took the boys for a drive to Florence Falls earlier in the week. Actually, we had been expecting a friend to call in to the Café for a couple of days because we knew should would be in Litchfield but when the week rolled on and we had not seen her we figured things must have gotten busy and she did not have time to call out…. So for the first time all week I took the kids out and about to go for a walk and as Murphy could have predicted about half an hour after we drove out Helen turned up. Tim showed her around the place hoping we’d get back in time but half an hour after she left I got back home with the kids. Bugger!

But Florence Falls was nice- an easy stroll down to the swimming hole and back up again. Lots of rock wallabies out. I carried Darcy in the sling so I did not take the camera but I’ll have to go back cos the wallabies (who are normally quite shy) must be more used to people and we saw them hiding amongst the rocks in a few spots. There was a tiny one (smaller than a possum) that was sitting along a small track off the main walkway and even Jordy was able to get about a metre away from him and he just sat and watched us and moved about through the little rock hole he had. Both the boys thought that was pretty amazing and Jordy moved really slowly and spoke in a whisper the whole time we were watching him.

We did not go for a swim (there are easier spots in the park to take little kids!) but the water was really nice and the falls looked beautiful. We have to get back to Wangi! But have not had a chance this week. Oh, we did go there last weekend. There was a tree planting thing on and you could go down and plant a tree in the park grounds and we thought that would be really cool. We know the people from Greening Australia that were organizing it and it was supposed to go from 1pm to 5pm so we thought we’d have time after work. We turned up a little after 4pm and they had run out of trees!! How rude. Jordy was a bit disappointed but the bloke gave him a soccer ball. LOL! And I think that made it all better.

week 15

I have done a non-travel related update on the original blog with what the kids are up to... And here’s a few photos of the boys from this week (and one from our camp from Darwin last week).

Us feeding the pigs at the community college down the road (we keep all the food scraps from the café for them so they eat REALLY well!). Darcy wants to touch them so badly but then freaks out when they snort or squeal at him. Jordy just thinks they are like pet dogs.

Jordy working on the new toilet block and doing some building work. Darcy helping (not) with the sprinklers.


Wangi Falls swimming hole opened this week and so we took the kids for an early morning swim. The water was beautiful, a little coolish but still really nice. The water is crystal clear and the swimming hole has a great sand bank in the middle where it’s shallow enough for Jordy to walk. I’ll get some better photos soon cos I can’t wait to get a chance to take them back later in the day when it’s a bit warmer.

Oh, last night!! I think winter arrived. The weather has been odd here (like it sounds like it has been everywhere else in the country at the moment) but it will look like it might be cooling down only to then get really hot and muggy almost Wet Season weather again. But it went from needing the air con on overnight the night before to being super cold last night. We were all snuggled under our blankets and I wished someone would get up and shut the door but it was too bloody cold and I was not getting out of bed. We put jumpers on when we got up but by 9am I think it was close to 30’ again. I know it’s mid thirties out there again now. I was thinking just last week that I wish the nights would cool down but I take it all back now. I don’t miss winter at all.

week 14

i think it is week 14?? i'll check later.

Jordy and Darcy had a great afternoon at the cafe the other day. We had about 30 Chinese people in for a late lunch. I think it was a big extended family with kids, teenagers, young couples, older couples.... a whole big bunch of people. And they went crazy with the boys :)

Tim and Lisa were flat out in the kitchen (everyone else had the day off and was in Darwin) so i was trying to clear tables for them and the boys were just walking around following me and playing with some lego and all of a sudden Darcy is being carried around and goo'ed over and all the kids have swarmed Jordy and are running and playing. In the end the boys were passed around, photographed, hugged by everyone, fed ice-creams!! and just generally made a fuss of. Jordy actually cried when they left (god love him). It was so funny to watch. But it was handy cos i got heaps of work done.

The snakes are still out and about. Tim and Jordy encountered one in the toilet the other day. Neither had shoes on cos they were just going over there first thing in the morning. I think it gave him a bit of a fright to be confronted with a hissing rearing snake while he had his hands full keeping Jordy up off the ground. He couldn't even chase it anywhere without kicking-boots and had nothing to kill it with. So now even early morning pee stops need shoes.

The boys both love helping me do the gardening. Darcy is now totally obsessed with sprinklers and heads for them at every opportunity and trys to drag them around. He ends up soaking wet every time. Luckily we dry off super fast in the heat.

Here is Julian (and Dad) burning off. This is the local fire tanker.


Here is Darcy chewing on his 1st Birthday card from Nanny and Poppy that came in our mail bundle.


This is an older one that i forgot to include in a blog post - doing some drawings

seeing the sights in Litchfield

Had a quick walk through the termite mounds the other day. Bloody huge tall things they are.



And i foolishly decided to head to Wangi with the boys to find a geocache that is there. I just thought it would be a quick early morning walk as i expected it to be in the main touristy area and so nice and easy. So i just stuck Darcy in the pram and Jordy was just wearing his crocs instead of his sneakers.

We got down to the main water hole and the GPS said the cache was about 300m away. So we wandered down to the next viewing platform... GPS still said about 300m away.... so i figured we'd just wander up the track a bit and have a look... anyway, long story short here is Jordy having a rest in the tree house half way up the mountain.

And the view from the top of the waterfall. Yep, we actually walked the whole way around the side of the swimming hole and up, up, up, up to the top of the range where the falls start. And of course you could not take a pram up the steep track so i carried Darcy the whole way and Jordy, the champion, climbed like a billy goat loving every minute.

For the record we did not get to the cache. But now that i know where it is i will go better prepared (and alone) next time! Although Jordy has asked to go back to the treehouse... so maybe i will just leave Darcy at home.

a photo update

more to come tomorrow if i can get online...

I drove into Batchelor this morning to get the mail and was planning to catch up with things online but it was not as easy as I had hoped!
When I checked the mail box I thought, YAY! Just a small envelope of letters from Ray and Joy, they must really be sorting through the crap… then I saw the parcel notification card and went inside and was handed a massive bag of mail… urgh! Lucky the kids fell asleep on the way in and I could sit in the truck for an hour and sort though the massive bundle into smaller piles of urgent, sort-out-at-home, and no-clue-what-this-is-about!

Then we went to the library where I hoped I could pay some bills online and catch up on emails. No luck. The kids were great but there is only so much you can get done with two boys running and laughing around a previously quiet library and only so long you can ignore an ever growing pile of books on the floor in front of you before you really have to give up on getting anything done and start paying attention to your kids!

So while I took photos in to upload I did not get a chance and I had no hope of updating the blog. But there is a lot of other stuff that Tim and I need to sort out online and getting into town is not proving easy so we are going to ask the boss here if we can use his office and his computer to sort some stuff out tonight… if you are ready this then he said yes. LOL.

What’s been happening this last week….

Had a few funny wildlife encounters.

There are a lot of wallabies around the whole area and our camp is no exception. Before we parked our vans here the clearing up and track down to the creek must have been a popular spot because they hang around right outside the van (which the kids love). Actually, there is a mummy wallaby with a big joey in her pouch that hangs around out the back all the time and I have been trying to get a good photo of her but with not much luck. Darcy keeps trying to make friends and runs at her shouting “dog” and as you would expect mummy-wallaby never seems to hang around for a pat.

But most nights we hear them jumping through the walkway between the two vans and often hear the twang as they trip over our awning ropes (sorry, fellas) so we have gotten used to that noise. A couple of nights ago I was awake with Darcy and heard some movement in behind the vans. I listened for a while and it was not a wallaby. It sounded more like a person walking but you’d have to be crazy to be walking along there at night in the dark with no torch and even if you were crazy there is no reason to be walking there (keep in mind we are in the middle of not much and our camp is at the back of the middle of not much!) so you’d have to be crazy and lost…. But I watched for a bit trying to work out what the noise was. I saw something disappear up behind the donga (and I am still not convinced that it wasn’t a person!) but ten minutes later there was a knocking/hammering/banging type sound from the other end of our camp closer to the café. So I woke Tim up just in case there were people dicking around up at the café. He assured me that Julian often gets up at odd times when he can’t sleep and he might be up there working?!? WTF??!? I was not convinced and I stood looking out the window for a bit wondering if I should go and have a look but Darcy was unsettled and I did not want him to wake while I was gone (cos he’d fall out of bed). Then out the window in the light from our shower block I could see dirt flying in the air. ?? So I woke Tim again. He was convinced that it was Julian cos if it were a thief what would they be doing digging around our vans. He had a point but what the hell would Julian be doing digging a hole in the middle of the dark. Anyway, I went back to bed and figured I’d have a look in the morning.

Next morning I did notice a big dug-up patch of sandy dirt just near where I put the spinklers to water the plants that we are growing so maybe it was Julian after all. I forgot all about it until later that evening Tim said it wasn’t Julian and he reckons maybe it was a buffulo or wild pig. Hhmmmm…. ?? Does a pig sound like a person when they walk through the bush?? It will remain a mystery I suppose.

Less of a mystery… Tim putting his boots on this morning and his foot getting stuck and not going in the whole way. He tried again and still stuck… something in his boot perhaps? He tipped it up and out fell a dazed cane toad. I think it was already half dead from the pounding from Tim’s foot but he finished it off with a pounding from his boot. He then explained to Jordy that you should ALWAYS check in your shoes before putting them on.

A couple of days ago I ended up with my first snake kill. We’ve seen at least one or two a week since we have been here but this was the first that I spotted. I was working the buffet and the area around there is well traveled so not where I would have expected a snake especially seeing as Mum and I were walking back and forth in the outdoor kitchen area all morning. But mum walked past and I was following her and right there under the plate cupboard (that is up off the ground on stainless steel legs) was a snake tail disappearing into the garden. I told Mum to stop walking and called out to Zac, who was working nearby, to see if he had a shovel. No shovel but he grabbed a mop while I watched it head towards the mesh fence. I thought we had lost it but Zac managed to reach over the fence and trap it under the mop. Nothing in the area to properly kill it with so I grabbed a golf club (one of the many can toad killing devices around the place) and had to club it to death. Zac had a good hold on it so I could properly look to see what it was; black diamonds on it’s neck and a brown stripe across it’s eyes- a western brown, the one we really don’t want to see. But there is now one less.

Apart from our animal adventures I am not sure much else is going on, but I am really enjoying the experiences that living here (and traveling in general) is giving the kids. I love that Jordy can now identify the calls of several different birds, and can recognise the difference between a whistling kite and a wedge tail eagle in flight. Even by spotlight he knows the difference between a cane toad, a green tree frog, and a brown frog and he knows which is good and which is bad. He loves spotting animal tracks and when we ride the bike past a wallaby track we have to stop so he can get out and look more closely at it. I love (in a bizarre way) that when we go into a town and use a toilet in a building (like at the library) he looks for frogs, spiders, lizards and moths and he gets disappointed when there are no ‘friends’ in the toilet cubicle. I love that Darcy is free to play in the dirt all the time, that he is learning to swim in the creek chasing fish rather than in a chlorine swimming pool, that he is addicted to sprinklers, and is able to water the garden surprisingly well!





Ran out of time! But it works (though it is really slow!!!!) so hopefully I will be able to update again soon.