Breathtaking scenery teeming with wildlife, living culture, strenuous walks and refreshing waterholes. Kakadu has it all...but it is a big joint, so plan carefully to avoid messing up your visit!
OK...maybe "messing up" is a little too harsh...we still had a great time, but there is a lot of travel time within the park, and the reality is we could have enjoyed our connection to 'country' a whole lot more than we did with a few adjustments to our 2-3 day itinerary.
“Our first mistake was probably not to start our journey at the southern end of the park - and work our way from Pine Creek to Jabiru along the Kakadu Highway - a route that covers more of the major scenic and cultural highlights of the park than the northern Arnhem Highway entrance. It just didn't look as logical coming from Darwin.”
I reckon this would have allowed us to easily take in Maguk and Gunlom Falls in the southern end of the park on the arvo of day 1 (camping at Gunlom), then maybe Koolpin Gorge (permit required) on the morning of Day 2, Nourlangie Rock and the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the arvo, followed by the sunset Yellow Waters cruise (camping at Cooinda). On the morning of Day 3, we could have taken in a ranger guided walk at Ubirr at 9am, before making our way over Cahill's Crossing on the low tide toward our ultimate Arnhem Land destination. Not to be, and as they say in France....say lar vee.
Note - Jim Jim falls would also tentatively be on the list - but you'd need to add an extra day to your itinerary (with a 4 hour return rough 4WD ride once past the turnoff). Ultimately, however, there's only so many waterfalls you can see before they start to blur into one - and the good oil is that Jim Jim is at its most spectacular during the wet season - when it is only really accessible via helicopter. How cool would that be! The other consideration - particularly for non independent travellers would be another organised tour in addition to the Yellow Waters cruise - along the lines of Animal Tracks Safari . Not cheap.....but probably worth thinking about.
Our second mistake was not to plan our Kakadu itinerary around the Wi-Fi requirements of the Queensland University of Technology's second semester 'on-line' enrolments for our daughter, which meant the Cooinda Visitor Centre (and my Telstra hot spot) got a workout for a couple of hours on two of the three days we were in Kakadu. (She did get all her subjects sorted in the end)!
What we did do:
Information Centres: We started our visit to Kakadu with a drop in to the Window on the Wetlands Visitor Centre - which sits atop Beatrice Hill (Ludawei). Technically, this was not really in Kakadu proper - sitting to the west of the park boundary - but it did provide a bit of an introduction to the floodplain ecology, and information on the region's Aboriginal and European history. We then pulled into the Bowali Visitor Centre just south of Jabiru - which provided good general information about the park and its highlights. Both these facilities were very good - BUT - so is the Kakadu Visitor Information Guide and perhaps the better use of time is to properly read this guide prior to arrival (which we had done) - give the visitors centres the swerve if you are time poor - and then utilise specific tours and/or guided ranger walks to learn and appreciate both country and culture. One on one interaction is almost always best.
Yellow Waters Cruise: Our sunset cruise across the Yellow Water (Ngurrungurrudjba) Wetlands was one such experience and - as anticipated - outstanding. Honest, entertaining and thoroughly informative - our local Bininj/Mungguy guide Dennis gave us an excellent introduction to Country - and engaged one on one with whoever on the boat was keen to listen, learn and have a laugh. He helped the camo clad and camera laden twitchers aboard spot Crimson Finches, Jabirus and Whistling Ducks - and managed to steer us to within spitting distance of no less than half a dozen decent sized Saltwater Crocs. He gave us tips and ideas on what to see and do while in the park, taught us about the six seasons of Kakadu and the importance of fire in land management. He showed us how feral animals, including buffalo, wild pigs and horses had caused significant degradation to the wetlands and the billabongs' banks and how the spread of the poisonous cane toad had severely decimated goanna populations (prompting memories of plentiful goannas in the campground on my first visit to Kakadu some 25 years earlier). He told us stories of his childhood growing up in this special place, how things had changed - and gave us glimpses into the challenges of keeping the culture alive for the next generation of traditional owners.
Whilst Kit and I had both been on the Yellow Waters cruise many years ago, a visit to Kakadu without providing the same privilege to our kids would not have been complete.
Cooinda Campground: Given the late finish of the sunset cruise, the only logical spot to camp near Yellow Waters was Cooinda. With well laid out and spacious sites, and clean well maintained facilities, the commercially run campground provided a pleasant stay.....but ultimately, it was just a campground.
Nourlangie Rock: Just a quick 45km drive on the tar north east of Cooinda lies Nourlangie Rock - a place of great cultural significance to traditional owners. Nourlangie (Burrungkuy) - together with Ubirr a little further north - provides some spectacularly preserved rock paintings documenting daily life and legends from 20,000 years ago through to 'first contact' with Europeans. The 1.5km circuit through the Anbangbang Gellery Shelter, Incline Gallery and to the Gunwarddehwardde Lookout through the Arnhem Land escarpment is a serious trip back in time - and it's best to take it slowly through the walk to really feel the connection with this special place. The art includes depictions of the Lightning Man (Namarrgon), x-ray type paintings of animals and fish right the way through to images of European 'tall ships' - which effectively depict 'first contact'.
Ideally, a visit to Nourlangie would be timed to coincide with a ranger guided walk, and whilst we had planned to do this at Ubirr - time constraints (and university enrolment requirements) had us effectively ham-strung.
Gunlom Falls had been a highlight of my visit to Kakadu in the early 90's .... and it didn't disappoint this time around. Toward the south west of the park, Gunlom is a good 2 hour (130km) drive from Cooinda via the Kakadu Highway and a roughish track best suited to a 4WD....or at the very least a well sprung rental.
By far the highlight is the challenging 1km scramble to the top of the falls to reach the "infinity" style rock pools at the summit, with awe inspiring views of southern hills and ridges. Pictures don't quite do it justice. The climb was pretty hot going - even in winter - and even though its only a short walk (on paper) it is close enough to vertical, so its a good idea to take plenty of water and maybe a few nuts (or even a couple of beers and some cheese and bickies) for sustenance. We left the tinnies in the Engel, but got through pretty close to 2 litres of water each. Once at the top, we spent a good hour or so swimming and taking in the scenery - absolutely beautiful.
Back at the base of the falls, we did crack open some beers (and a little vino) while we soaked up the sunset at the plunge pool.
The campground at Gunlom campground was well maintained and very comfortable - with flushing toilets, showers and drinking water. It wasn't cheap (by National Park standards) with three adults and two kids notching up a $60 fee. Bring cash.
Overall - Kakadu was great - but for various reasons, we could have done it better!
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