Kakadu NP - Part 1

Blog No. 2 Australia

After spending 2 very impressive and beautiful nights in Mary River National Park, we continued towards Kakadu National Park. We camped at Aurora Camp Site, a campsite with showers, which we desperately needed. In the evening, there was a typical Australian (or rather American) dinner at the bar there - with lots of fries and even more ketchup. Then we continued towards the east - here it is almost mass tourism. At a similar dam, as we have already experienced, the crocodiles were frolicking - and many people watched as the cars crossed the river - of course, only the ones with 4WD :-) The water was very muddy and not nice - so nothing compared to our experiences on the Mary River. On a short walk (2.5km) in the midday heat, we saw many birds and also a small goanna. Sven also claimed to have seen a jumping dingo - it could have been a kangaroo too :-). Oh yes, we also saw wild boars along the way. We skipped the sunset at Ubirr Rock. It is highly sought after and one of the highlights here - so we didn't want to join the 400 visitors. In Jabiru, we didn't shop and got some important camping equipment. At the campground, we were almost alone at the beginning, until all the sunset visitors returned, then it started - one fire after another was lit - and the Germans thought to themselves - "With this dryness!" We cooked noodles - the noodles were still in the bag on the picnic table - when the eagle (a whistling kite) came and tried to steal the bag of noodles, but fortunately he didn't succeed - otherwise we wouldn't have had dinner.

Today, on August 4th, we visited one of the highlights - Ubirr Rock with its rock paintings - but in order.

The first walk was a very nice path through the rainforest - now somewhat dried out but you can get an idea of what it must be like in the rainy season.... There is a very large fig tree here that only women are allowed to visit - for us a beautiful experience, the men had to stay outside.

Then we went to the rock paintings. There is a story for each painting - the legend that is passed down from generation to generation. These were explained and then we went uphill to the mountain - this place was very impressive. We got goosebumps - a vast landscape with the beautiful rock formations that you know from many Australia photos - great!

Our third walk then went directly to very beautiful rock formations, through which one should and could go. Overall, a very impressive day, but also very exhausting due to the heat.