Crocks, crocks, everywhere...and I don't mean the shoes

2008-09-21 - Sunday

We are definitely in crock country...there's no mistaking it now.

Nice and early this morning (7am), a good number of us took in the Yellow Water Billybong boat cruise along the South Alligator River floodplain in the Kakadu National Park... yes, it is called the Alligator River, but it is inhabited by Crocodiles.

Unfortunately I don't have the stats in from of me, but it's certainly worth mentioning that the National Park we're currently in, Kakadu, is large. In total, it's almost the size of Switzerland. It has something like 7 distinct types of landscapes and is home to a fair representation of all the critters one could hope to see while in Australia. Darn it I wish I had those stats. If I can find them before I post, I'll add them. They really are quite impressive. But, back to the Crocks...

We ended up seeing them pretty much every 120 feet or so... But by no means were they the only creatures... There were more kinds of birds than I could count... And it definitely goes without saying that there were more than I could identify.

I've included some pics, but don't ask me what they are. If you know, feel free to mention so. :-)

For the afternoon, we were off to the Anbangbang Gallery, where we did a little walk around some rocks which served as both a shelter and a painting canvas for generations of aboriginals (back as far as 20,000 years according to the info panels). The rock art we saw depicted such things as stories, which probably served both to entertain and teach; as well as, some paintings which depicted thier spirits. One such spirit, a particularly dangerous character called Nabulwinjbulwinj (Nar-bull-win-bull-win) would eat females after striking them with a yam.

There were several pieces of art where you could clearly see it was superimposed over another... which was a common practice among Rock Artists... After all, there are only so many nice flat giant rock formations to go around.

Then we were on the road again. Tonight our home will be the Kakadu Lodge in Jabaru.

Several of us headed out for another sunset view tonight. We drove to Ubirr, approximately 40km from our campsite. Before the sunset, we took time to discover more rock art. According to the info panels, the rock art in Ubirr represents some of the finest collections in the world.

Again, the art we saw depicted stories, spirits, instructional diagrams and such. Really neat stuff. Our trek through the art collection brought up to a cliff side overlooking flat and wetlands. Below us, kangaroos could be seen bouncing along; as well as plenty of white cockateel looking birds could be seen flying past.

This sunset was different than any of the others we've experienced to date. As we approached Ubirr; Matt, our guide, suggested that once we got to the sunset location, we should find a space to be alone and just use the time to reflect: Reflect on the aboriginees that may have experienced similar sunsets in the past, or on anything at all really, but to just use the time in a quiet way.

Everyone took the advice, and while we didn't really compare experiences, everyone did seem to take something uniquely special away from it.

Finally, for supper tonight, a real treat - two whopping homemade bacon cheeseburgers and our first desert: BBQ'd Bananas (wrapped in foil, cut lengthwise with chocolate in the middle... Hmmmm) prepared by Andrea and Amy. Unfortunately, the two whopping homemade bacon cheeseburgers just didn't leave any room for desert. :-( However, we are refridgerating them for tomorrow. :-)