Kakadu Day 5: Yurmikmik Walk and Drive

On our last day in Kakadu National Park, we were awakened by the sun as usual and got up at 7:30. One shouldn't sleep much later because it quickly gets very hot. By 9, the sun is already unbearable and then having breakfast and packing up is not so pleasant anymore.

After packing up our stuff, we started driving. After about 20 km on the unsealed road towards the main road, we stopped again because there were supposed to be some nice walks there. We then chose the second shortest one, which was about 5 km long. There were other routes that were so long that you would have to do them overnight and also need permission. The routes are no longer signposted or marked, so you should also bring a map and a compass. We didn't feel experienced enough to try that out :D

We walked leisurely through the woodlands and arrived at the lookout after a short time. It wasn't as far as we thought. But the distance information in the park is not so accurate. Every sign and map shows a different number for the same route :D

At the lookout, we had another beautiful view and could enjoy it in the shade of a tree. Then we walked back. On the way back, we had a moment of shock: we were walking on the path and suddenly I saw a buffalo standing in the shallow water about 50 meters away. One might think that's cool and not a problem, but factually, buffalos are one of the most dangerous animals in Australia. And I really wouldn't like to experience a buffalo charging towards me with its horns. So we stopped and stayed calm. The buffalo noticed us and stared at us. It then jumped suddenly and very nimbly out of the river onto the higher bank and ran a bit through the forest. Then I thought that maybe it would be better if we went back up the rocks to the lookout because the buffalo probably can't climb up so easily there. That's what we did. After a short wait, we walked back and kept an eye out. Thank goodness we didn't encounter the buffalo again and we safely returned to the car.

On the rest of the drive, we stopped at the information point near Mary River Roadhouse at the southern entrance of the park and had our lunch. That's where we also saw the really fancy bus that you can see in one of the pictures. Very cool paint job.

Our next stop was Pine Creek. We thought maybe we could see something cool there because this town is included in the travel guides and has a history related to gold mining and other natural resources. But somehow it didn't impress us that much and driving through once was enough :D We didn't even get ice cream because the restaurant/snack bar was closed. A proper outback village!

So we drove straight to Katherine. It's about 320 km south of Darwin. But we drove over 900 km with the drive to and through Kakadu National Park. We stopped counting the kilometers at the car. That's quite a lot actually :D

In Katherine, we first looked for a campsite. We used the app Wikicamps for that. It shows all the campsites in the area with their facilities and users can comment on them and write how much a spot there costs. We chose the cheapest one and drove there. First impression: junkyard :D We then found out that this "campsite" is operated by a couple who live there and seem to enjoy tinkering. The office was their living room and the camp kitchen was the terrace of their house, where there were grills and several garden tables. Quite unusual! However, we only paid $20 for an unpowered site for two people, which is really cheap. But the area of the campsite wasn't really divided up into spots. We stood between a grassy area next to the road and a permanent camper house on the other side. The sanitary facilities were quite far away, there was no toilet paper, and we didn't quite understand the door locks there. I also saw my first really big spider in Australia there (diameter about 10 cm) on the toilet. We also noticed that there are a lot of permanent campers at this campsite. Some of it looked really run down. But at least our spot was shady and we could use the barbecue grill. For that, we bought some extra meat and grilled it together with zucchini and bell peppers. We also had baguette. It was such a delicious meal!! We really deserved it.

During dinner, two other girls were also sitting at the table and we had a very nice conversation with them. One is from the UK and the other is from Israel, and they are traveling together. Since they had just come from Uluru and we from Darwin/Kakadu, and we wanted to continue in the opposite direction, we could exchange experiences. We sat together all evening and also had breakfast together the next morning. It was really nice, especially since it was my birthday. So I had a few people who wished me happy birthday :) Since we were able to go shopping again the day before, we treated ourselves to a really nice breakfast with juice, fresh bread, and strawberries. Very tasty!

I will write about what happened next in Katherine and how my birthday was in the next blog entry :)