Kakadu, Northern Territory.

Departing friends were happy to share information on where to make stops as we travelled through Kakadu. The road leaving Darwin was a sad one.  This place felt like I could make a home here.  I loved the atmosphere, the people, the cities but also realised that there was so much to see, so much more that you couldn't possibly see in all but 3 weeks!
The drive along   was taking us into Kakadu, World Heritage listed with around 20,0000sq kilometres of history for thousands of years and home to the Aborigines.  The landscape took us through wetlands which were still lush because of the heavy rain falls they had in the previous months which still found some billabongs, campsites closed to traffic. 

Following our friends' advice we headed to Merl campground for the first night setting up camp before dropping the van to take the car further onto Ubirr, Aboriginal Art site at susnet. Monstrous, huge boulders formed cavities, shelters, hid artworks for thousands of years. Reaching the summit to take in the huge expanse before us was truly an amazing sight.
The pastures, dotted with shallow billabongs, long grasses with bright white, red, sometimes even blue waterlillies peering up at the sky taking in the last few shards of the sun before going down. Spectacular ranges from east to west, dotted with  fires that burnt to protect the land beneath and prepare for the next seasons growth of substance for the land and its people.

Next day we went out for some walks before making our way back via the East Alligator River. 

Here we watched a chap fishing for Barramundi and as he explained there was shark in there as well.  He did point out the crocodile not much further away from him than about 200 metres in the water. Daniel and I watched pensively before realising the croc was there, raising his eyes just above the water line before submerging again.  I think he was eyeing off the fisherman!  We watched the croc as it slowly made its way up against the current.  Needless to say we didn't hang around long much after that.  Daniel was himself hungry so time to get back for our dinner. 

Camp fire lit, steak on the camp fire ready, a glass of red to celebrate but not for long. Attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes it was time to head into the van to finish dinner.  Let's just say if you're not on a powered site, it's very hot outside, you can't use your aircon then I'm not a pretty sight either!  Hot and bothered we somehow managed to get some shut eye, that's
all it was, shut eye, before the crackers went off somewhere in the middle of the night in Kakadu....'bloody kids'

Rock art

Overlooking the floodplains

Rock art in the caves

Bit of hiking in the mix

Dinner by campfire

Next day as we returned to the intersection for Darwin to the right and Jabiru to the left, I said 'right' to Daniel for Darwin. I could really have gone back. Needless to say he laughed.....at me....not with me before taking a left onto Jabiru.  Another  night in camp on a powered site, with aircon, we hit the town and the touristy things one does before getting back and into
the camp swimming pool. What a relief after the heat.