Kakadu

Mothers Day today so we did just what Pam wanted, in other words - lots of walking, lots of lookouts and lots of cursing!!

About 30 minutes north of Jabiru is Ubirr, there is a shop where there is real coffee, tourist information and an assortment of food.  We drove up, there was a young bloke inside, he stuggled to open the door when he saw us outside, the internet was down, he was the only one there and he had a heap of work to do 'out the back'.  Back in the car to the Ubirr Aboriginal paintings gallery about 5 minutes up the road.

By the way, there is almost noone on the roads, when we get to where we want to go there are about 3 cars in a car park built for 100 cars and not a sole in sight.  Fortunately all the sights are well signposted with plenty of information at the carpark.

As usual Ubirr Rock Art Gallery provided the similar facilities. There is a 1 hour walk high up on to the escarpment overlooking the wetlands.  On the climb up are an incredible number of art on the underside of massive rock overhangs, some of these painting date back 2000 years.  Due to the silence in the area and the sense of history in this place it was a very spiritual experience just imagining the peoples gathered here to tell storys of the past and to convert those storys to art.  It is a shame so little is known of these people and their culture.

Around the corner to Cahills Crossing.  This is a crossing of the East Alligator River and provides access into Arhnem Land, it is a notorious crocodile habitat and there are warnings about probable horrible deaths if you try to walk across the crossing.  Of course there was a family camped on the other side, a couple of the blokes were fly fishing (without any luck) while standing knee deep in water on the crossing.  After about 15 minutes one of the females came out on to the crossing, threw a bait net out and after casting three times caught half a dozen fish...good result for Mothers Day!!!  Noone got eaten by a crocodile.....today.

Back to Jabiru for lunch then south to Nanguluwurr lookout.  The information board declared a 300 metre walk and to allow 40 minutes?  We soon realised the 300 metres was the distance we would be climbing up from the carpark.  It did indeed take 40 minutes, Pam had a ball!!! 

Just up the road to Burrungkuy short walk, another art gallery in the rock walls, such interesting stories about the history of our nation.

Four nights at Jabiru

In this hotel - photo courtesy of Mrs Google, we are about half way along the belly on the right hand side.

Local art in the hotel

Pool area

The belly of the motel

First stop Ubirr Rock Art Gallery

Contrast between the sandstone escarpment and the wetlands

So much detail in paintings exposed to the weather for hundreds of years

Excellent access with indepth information

Cahills Crossing

No worries, there are fish!!

Nanguluwurr climb

Made to the Nanguluwurr lookout

Time to head back down to the car

 Burrungkuy