Road Trip – Day 61 (May 15)

Happy birthday to my two brothers today.

Today I crossed off Kakadu National Park and added another one to my bucket list – to fly over Kakadu during the wet season.

We left at 8am and returned by 5.30pm. It was a long day. John & Denise baby- sat Kurgan for us which was great. Kakadu covers nearly 20,000 square kilometres and is World Heritage Listed. No wonder we didn’t get to see everything. Another thing preventing us from seeing some things was the number of roads closed due to recent flooding. Of course the wildlife would love all the water around the wetlands.

I was excited to see a large flock of “Little Corellas”. They are often seen in large flocks on the ground feeding on grass seeds. These guys flew right in front of the car.

We stopped at the Bark Hut Inn so we could photograph the water buffalo in the yard. Unfortunately he turned his back on me so I turned to the Emu who was giving me the ‘evil’ eye.

 

We passed over many creeks and rivers of varying sizes. This one was ‘Flying Fox Creek’. As the Dry season goes on many of these creeks will dry up.

We arrived at South Alligator, so named  by Lieutenant King in 1820 who named them in the mistaken belief that the crocodiles  in the estuaries were alligators.  South Alligator itself  consists of a Visitors Information Centre, Motel and Roadhouse and very little else. Of course there is a South Alligator River nearby.The South Alligator river is regarded as one of the richest biological regions in Australia. We saw a lot of birds, butterflies and even some snakes. This river is very wide and either side of the bridge there were signs warning you about the dangers of crocodiles in the area. We looked hard on the banks of the river but didn’t see any crocs.

The water looked very muddy with a grey mud lining the shores. This area of the Northern Territory is rich in mineral deposits and is where you find the Ranger Uranium Mine.

We continued on until we came to the Mamukala Lagoon. There was a short walk to a platform going out over the lagoon. I think we needed to be here very early in the morning to see the wildlife but it was still a beautiful spot.

We continued onto Jabiru which was originally built in 1982 as a closed town to house the community living at Jabiru East near the Ranger Uranium Mine eight kilometres away. Both the mine and the town are completely surrounded by Kakadu National Park.

We visited one more lagoon with the usual crocodile warning. Needless to say we didn’t go into the water.

We turned around and headed back to the caravan park after seeing the last of the lagoons where the road was not closed.