Kaka-do !!

Mon 26 - Friday 30 June 

The last few years we've heard many people in different parts say Kaka-do and Kaka-don't. Team Green has come the to conclusion... KAKA-DO !! We have had such a varied and spectacular Kakadu experience these last 4 days. 

And yes it comes down to a matter of opinion. There are loads of tourists around and patience is the key to the game! The further north we have come the greater variety of people we've come to be around. And Kakadu at the moment is a global campground!!

This post is a little epic chock full of more pics than more words hopefully, so the pictures can speak for themselves. Reflecting on the past 5 days the highlights for me ar the Guluyumbi Cultural Cruise, Sunset on Ubirr Rock with the Santa Sabina Orchestra and Choir playing, visiting Injalak Arts Centre in Arnhem Land and all the walks we have done - which essentially covers the rest !! 

Jim Jim Falls

Leaving Katherine Monday morning,we were met with all the Grey Nomads leaving town and heading north.....note to self and new camping policy no travel on Monday after 9am !! It must be earlier or preferably not at all!

It's amazing how the landscape changes so frequently - it's the rocks we've noticed in particular going from reds to sandstoney greys and greys. We came through Pine Creek on our way and arrived at Gunlom Falls early afternoon, ready for a walk and a swim at the plunge pools. 

Gunlom Falls

The ascent to Gunlom Falls

It was a steep climb up with a fabulous reward at the top. It's here we've noticed many more nationalities are around us. It's hot for us and the forecast for the week is 32-33 with lows of 21 overnight...yep it's summer!!

Gunlom Falls from the plunge pools

Team Green 

I didn't realise this lady was standing behind us at the top of the plunge pools for the photo, and she had good reason to be standing there too. One of her teenage daughters had gone down to the next level the final plunge pool before the waterfall and was exploring to closely for her liking - I could feel my head going into Nurse mode wondering briefly for a moment why I hadn't bought up the PLB Emergency beacon with me !!

Plunge pool

From the top of Gunlom it's incredibly breathtaking, a little scary and beautiful all at the same time. At the base of Gunlom is another swimming area...with a sandy gravel style beach - so spectacular and with the sun going down and some smoke going across the sun from burning off areas....the colours are extraordinary.

At the base of Gunlom Falls - stunning swim area

Sunset at Gunlom Falls

A lovely end to our first day in Kakadu. So pleased we gained an extra night here as we were ahead of schedule on the spreadsheet !! ;) We headed towards Cooinda the next day and we didn't actually have planned where we were going to stay for the next 3 nights. A quick coffee at Cooinda Lodge and a few phone calls sorted us out. Deciding to stay at Jabiru as a base, we felt this could then allow us to travel to different areas we wanted to visit over the next few days. 

Top of the list was the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise on the East Alligator River that borders Kakadu and Arnhem Land. We got tickets for the 3pm cruise that day. 

East Alligator River

Salty.....

Native Hibiscus

We had an incredibly quiet soul as our Guide on this tour, Tyrone. Born at Oenpelli in Arnhem land, he has grown up in Arnhem land along with his families. He shared with a few sitting towards the back of the boat that his Mum and Dad speak different dialects, he learnt English at school and translates for his Dad in particular who has no English at all. His Dad, and both grandmothers were all born in the bush. His obvious passion and knowledge of his landscape and ancestry was incredibly moving. He shared so much with the boat about how different plants are used such as Native Hibiscus, Pandanas, and Malaleuca. Not to mention the animals in the area to and little on the six season cycle in the Arnhem Land/ Kakadu area.

Sunning himself.....

Barramundi & Catfish Rock Art painting

On the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise

We stepped off the boat into Arnhem Land briefly to watch some spear throwing out of spears that the chap leading the other boat had made - just incredible the distance that he got with them. 

Tyrone, our Captain for the arvo...

Overall , this was 2 hours on a Tuesday arvo that I didn't want to end. The deep connection Tyrone has with his land and his people was evidently embodied. The Guluyumbi Cultural Cruise and Cultural Tours are 100% Indigenous owned and it's easy to see these guys are working for a loving in the dry season. Incredibly memorable arvo ...I took notes on my phone to add to my journal later too...they shared so much and it was a really quietly engaging group of tourists too and I think this is why it was so fabulous - Tyrone felt comfy and so it flowed.

Cane Grass that Saltys lay their eggs in

Our first full day in Kakadu and we decided we'd head south of Jabiru to Jim Jim Falls. South towards Cooinda, we then turned off to Jim Jim and Twin Falls with a 50km dirt road to here. The final 9km was a narrow dirt track with a few crossings. We had some morning tea at the campground and had a great chat with Brian the Campground manager and he shared some great ideas and places to go and see. Top of his list excitingly was the Guluyumbi tour we did the day before - 'the best tour in Kakadu' and he shared some of the background of how it all came about. 

Road to Jim Jim Falls

Incredibly twisted tree

Approach to Jim Jim Falls

Includes a Beach !! 

It was quite a walk into the Falls only 900m but lots of rock and boulders to climb over to get to it...then this pearly white sandy beach...incredible !! The water was clear and very cold and on the way to the falls was a beautiful almost lagoon - with a massive croc trap in it !! Massive no swim signs everywhere near this spot and of course it was completely magnificent...

Extraordinary rock cliffs all around

Unusual rock patterning

Love the clouds refelcting in this pic near Jim Jim

Twin Falls was closed, as their was a big croc still lurking that they hadn't managed to find yet and the water crossings to get to it were still too high so a shame, and also just the way it is. Very pleased we got to see some of this area of Kakadu. 

Yellow Water on the South Alligator River

More Lilies.....

Cracking day and a hot one too. The kids really enjoyed hanging out at the pool in the arvo and we enjoyed happy hour !! 

Proudly sponsored by our major partner - Chesney Pastoral ;) ;)

Nourlangie Rock became famous around of time of Croc Dundee being released...when big hair was in !! We had  fabulous walk for 2 hours with one of the Kakadu Rangers - Phoebe. So passionate in being privileged to share the Bining stories with the Balanda (non-indigenous peoples).  In this time she briefly and eloquently covered some aspects of Rock Art, Flora, Fauna, Family/Law/Kinship and Culture - just incredible. The rock art and dreamtime stories connected to these were brilliant and a shared parts of a pictorial history of indigenous peoples living in this landscape for the past 25,000 years.

Nourlangie Rock

The Feather, Nourlangie Rock

At the Bowali Information Centre - the kids enjoyed the small cinema with Kakadu big screen experience - a 4 part series on 12 months in Kakadu - there were some rangers on there that we'd met out and about the place over the last few days which the kids thought was fabo. Chatting with Katie in the Shop area, she shared with me that a Choir would be singing the sun down at Ubirr Rock that evening and about the Injalak Arts & Craft Centre at Oenpelli in Arnhem Land and how to get a permit etc. 

Which left the arvo sorted really - kids cooled off and swam for a few hours before we drove out to Ubirr. The Choir and String Orchestra were from Santa Sabina College, Strathfield in Sydney. The Musical Director was Mrs Cary, from the Mrs Cary's Concert Series on the ABC a few years ago. It was spectacular! One of the songs was about Fire which was timely as the plains below Ubirr Rock were beginning to burn off.

Mount Brockman Grevillea 

View from Ubirr Rock 1-1.5 Billion years old ! 

So I'm filming Santa Sabina College and loving up the beautiful almost haunting music and Sash comes up to me and says ' April's here Mum' . Initially I thought that it was a kid from another camping stop ,then I looked and realised this was a child from Sashy's netball team in Orange !!! Yep the Englund family were up in Darwin/Kakadu fora week and we'd found them - or they'd found us at Ubirr Rock!!

Sashy, April, Lily & Harriet Englund

Eves & Harriet Englund

The kids couldn't believed that they had run into each other up here.....Phoebe was back after the concert had finished to talk about Ubirr Rock and the history of the landscape.

The sunset was spectacular and wow what another busy day exploring...

Our last morning we had a bit of a treat in store as we'd obtained a permit to travel 15km into Arnhem land to Oenpelli and visit the Injalak Arts Centre. We had to cross the Cahill Crossing with the low tide and it's amazing how massive the tide height changes are up here anywhere up to 7-8m.  We saw quite a few crocs near this crossing when we were on the cruise on Tuesday.....

The short drive into Arnhem Land was pristine and untouched. In Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) itself it's a very different world. The evident level of poverty is highly visual and I was amazed we didn't get more questions from the kids. With only  a small supermarket, Police Station & Servo it's a very small locality. In some respects this was what I expected and perhaps hoped I wouldn't see. There was a little park near Injalak with a playground and no little people playing on it. Reading up about it West Arnhem College provides schooling Preschool to Yr 12 and the population of Oenpelli is about 1200. The permit we received was very strict in where we could and couldn't go, a real experience.

Watching the Artists painting outside in the sunshine with some music happening, they quietly went about their work with some chatting, plenty of dogs lying around too. The artworks available to purchase here are exquisite. Woven baskets made from Pandanas that the women make, screen print fabrics of locals artists available are amazing, paintings on canvas with lots of abstract florals and local fauna. Just beautiful. And yes we made a few purchases each, the girls and Hugo bought a beautiful wallet each made from screen printed fabrics and hand made in Cambodia in a Fair Trade agreement. I got a stunning screen printed fabric to mount onto canvas as a painting, and some woven Pandanas earrings. The artwork fabric was designed by renowned Arnhem land artist Graham Badari - screen printed by the Women is greens and blues, just gorgeous.

There was only two or three cars there at Injalak Arts Centre whilst we were there. Stu and I were sharing our thoughts of Oenpelli on the way through to Darwin. The feeling there was one of lost, an oppressive type of anger and suppression, perceptually it was the first time I've ever felt like a foreigner in my own country - and yes this is Arnhem Land and their country we were the visitors...absolutely. Milling around the artists though there was an absolute sense of purpose and peacefulness.

When I made the effort to interact the response was forth coming in their own way. I watched one of the founders of Injalak painting this massive tree log in such intricate patterns. The variety of language dialects was incredible and in Arnhem Land there are over 40 languages spoken with English being the second or third. We were there about an hour as we had to get into Darwin and it was an absolute bonus to be able to do this and have the tide of Cahills Crossing on our side and showed me there is so much more to learn as always ! It was a 60 minute experience and hey this was my lens of perception for this moment in time. I'm so pleased we had the opportunity to experience Oenpelli this morning and all we have learnt about these past 5 days in Kakadu.