This morning, we got together for our communal breakfast at about 7:00am. Our campsite has a tent that serves as a kitchen/dining room. Everyone helps get everything out for the meal, helps with cutting things up, etc... If you didn't help getting ready, then you're on cleanup duty afterwards. If there is any cooking to be done (such as the buffalo sausages, kangaroo and potatoes with onions for dinner last night), our guide does that. (interestingly, the kangaroo last night tasted like beef, while the kangaroo I had on the Darwin sunset cruise tasted like ham).
Sure enough, everyone was complaining about the heat and Mosquitos in the tents. Thanks, Janet!!! I slept well in my a/c cabin, and only a few Mosquitos found me there. But I tried very hard not to rub it in :-). There was one other person who did the upgrade, too.
After cleaning up and loading up the van, we were off to Burrunggui in the Nourlangie region...
where we were able to see the rock art that was left there by the aborigines. It is estimated that the Aborigines lived in this northern area of Australia as long as 20,000 years ago (some even believe 30,000 years). They lived within the crevices and caves of rock structures such as this, especially during the rainy season.
The age of the rock art drawings is unknown, such as this one about "the hunt" -- aborigine with spear on the right in red.
And this one which was about the men and women dancing...
Closeup of part of the same drawing.
The most impressive one was the one which featured the "lightning man"
The band around him, connecting his arms and legs, represents the lightning. The stone axes on his knees and elbows make the thunder. There was much more to the drawing including this image. There was also a whole row of other family members below this image.
By the way, for movie fans, some of the scenes from "Crocodile Dundee" were filmed in this rock area. We had our own "Crocodile Carl" showing us around.
Then onto our next campsite at gagudju for a quick lunch (wraps of cold cuts, etc) before heading on to our boat cruise starting off in the billabong (these are pools that fill up in the wet season, but are then dry during the dry season).
It creates beautiful wetlands with lots of interesting birdlife
and crocodiles....although this is the only one we saw...
It was all quite spectacular!
Then on to Nawurlandja rock, where we climbed to the top along the rock ledges...sometimes getting extremely challenging for me, but I made it to the top!! (Adam, I'm sure my H3 rock climbing helped! Btw, our second guide who was helping me on the rough patches, was also named Adam!) From there we could see the rock area we had visited earlier in the day. This photo was taken only halfway up....my photos at the top did not turn out, as when we got there, a storm had moved in (as you can see developing in this photo) and the rain was "smashing down" on us. Although it only lasted briefly after we had started to descend. But take my word for it, the view was outstanding, and it was worth the climb!
Back to our campsite for a dip in the pool before dinner. Tonight it was chicken curry with veggies over rice.
As it was EarthDay, the park recognized the day by extinguishing all lights for one hour from 8:30 to 9:30, during which time they had a special presentation on the didgeridoo. Then it was back to my wonderful cabin room, which was even better than the first night!
Ahh, sweet dreams! Tomorrow, one more day of adventure!
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Location:Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory, Australia
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