We're going to Kakadu.....

We left Darwin in the rear view mirror (not that I can see anything out of that will body boards, fridges, hoses and fishing gear in the way...not to mention a two tonne caravan!!) and we headed toward Kakadu. 

We went for a swim in the caravan park pool while I desperately tried to organise a barramundi fishing charter.  Unfortunately the first available is Tuesday...looks like we will be staying 5 nights in Kakadu instead of 4.

We headed out to Ubirr the next morning to look at the Aboriginal paintings.  There were plenty of informative talks by the ranger about the aboriginal paintings and their meaning which Charlotte absorbed like a sponge.  We went to the top of Ubirr which is where Crocodile Dundee looked out over the Never Never.  After a refreshing dip in the resort pool we were back out to Cahill's Crossing where we saw some very foolish people fishing for barra with their feet in the water while crocs were circling metres away.  We saw plenty of crocs (in the wild) on the turn of the tide, but no tourists were taken.

We headed towards Yellow Water the next morning where we visited the Cultural Centre where we purchased some lovely new hats.  We then had a quick walk around Mardugal Billabong (no swimming here...lots of crocs) and moved onto Yellow waters for the Sunset cruise.  We saw a heap of wildlife including to name a few,  Jabirus, Sea eagles, Pigs and a heap of big crocs.  The kids loved it, but it was probably a bit long (2 hours) as their parents both wanted to feed them to the crocs at some stage of the cruise.

The next day was probably one of my favourites of the trip so far.  We got up and left the caravan park early in the direction of Jim Jim and Twin falls.  After 60km of dirt road and then a further 10km of 4 wheel drive tracks (I was in Low Low) we arrived at Jim Jim where we scaled some massive boulders to the waterfall and beautiful swimming hole found at the bottom.  Once again Charlotte and I braved the cold waters which revitalised us for the walk back.  We were undecided whether we would visit Twin Falls as Mel had a cracking headache...but I didn't so on we went.  After another 9km of 4x4 tracks and a 700mm river crossing (don't tell the boss....Tri-Fixx do go everywhere you know) we made it to Twin Falls.  We had a little boat ride on the river which led us to the falls.  There was definitely no swimming here as salties could swim in at any stage so we had to make do with little showers on the walkway to escape the heat.   The best thing about these two destinations was that we basically had them to ourselves.  As they were so remote with only 4x4's able to access them, the majority of tourists flocked to other sites in Kakadu.

Our last day in Kakadu, I got up early and got on my barra charter.  There a no guarantees in fishing so I was very happy after we put the boat in the East Alligator river that I landed my first size barramundi within 15 minutes.  The rest of the trip was just cream landing another barra, a tarpon a catfish and watching the other 2 people on board catch a few fish as well.  A great mornings fishing with plenty of croc spotting as well. 

We finished our last day in Kakadu with a day by the resort pool.  We were enjoying it so much we ended up eating a meal there with some acoustic music to entertain us.

Our last encounter in Kakadu was driving down the road and running over a 2-3 metre Brown snake.  We were just hoping it was killed immediately and not wrapped under the car or caravan waiting for us at our next stop....