There was no need for a real early start as Kakadu is only a couple hundred or so kays down the road but we were a little unsure as to where we would be staying so we didnt want to get there too late and not find a good camp site, so we packed up early enough and drove into the National Park.
The drive in is bitumen all the way, you go past a few accommodation places early but none of them were near the main 'attractions', and the Army has a training base in the area so plenty of Army vehicles on the road.
We soon arrived at the Bowali visitor centre and got some good advice on what to see and where to stay and chose the Kakadu Lodge and Caravan park to stay at while we were up the northern end of the National Park. There are so many free/cheap camp sites in the bush but we chose the caravan park for its resort style pool and its a little more teenage friendly than bush camping.
The sites were huge and there are so many sites, no one sets up next door to each other, so everyone is well spread out.
After we set up and had a swim we went into Jabiru for a look. It is Kakadu's town if you like, it has a servo, small supermarket and has the main population for the area.
The lady at the tourist centre told us to go to Cahills Crossing and have a look at the Crocs feeding on the fish at the causeway. So that we did and what a show it is! The causeway is where you cross over into Arnhem Land and the fish are real easy to see as they try to swim over it straight into the crocs mouths LOL
From there we went to the Ubirr art site to look at the Aboriginal paintings and to also climb up on the rock escarpment to watch the sunset out over Arnhem Land.
The park rangers do talks about the rock art and afterwards we all climbed up the escarpment where she also did another talk about the area, it was really interesting.
When you think of the top end of Australia I think a lot of us would think of Crocodile Dundee or Kakadu or Arnhem Land and our perception besides crocodiles is those great landscapes you see in the movies or on tv documentaries? Well it was for me! LOL
Anyway just check out these pics...........I encourage you to enlarge them and imagine sitting on the cliff face over looking this place, it is like nothing we had ever seen before....amazing.
The photos just do not do it justice.
The lady ranger who did one of the talks.
As the sun went down on our first day in Kakadu we walked back down the escarpment and checked out the rest of the art on the way out as best as we could as it was getting dark!
We drove back to camp in the dark, had tea and went to bed after another great day.
