Cooinda Kakadu National Park ( 2nd - 6th July)

We arrived in Gagadju Cooinda a few days ago. Auntie Michelle had booked three nights for us to stay at the caravan park, where they had also booked cabins for three nights. We had a great time seeing cousin Angus and his new baby sister Tilly (4 months old) and I meeting Casi and Mieke ( Uncle Noody's twins) for the first time.

There was live entertainment for the first two nights which was great. On the first night we just dropped in for a listen and on the second decided to meet the rest of the family for a few drinks and listen to the music and play some card games. After Auntie Michelle and her family retired for the night we stayed a little longer as we were babysitting a boy called Riley for the day and were waiting for his dad to pick him up around 9. Riley (7) was the son of Sean, who was a tour operator at Cooinda, taking people on Safari tours which concentrated on finding bush tucker with aboriginal people and then cooking it up, into a feast, on the camp fire for the evening meal. Riley was an amazing, well mannered boy, who taught us about eating green ants. Auntie Michelle and I tried one and they had a very distinct lemon flavour as you bit the tail part off. What a great education for a boy of 7. Riley's mum had gone to Brisbane, as his baby sister was ill, so dad was doing two jobs at once and Riley enjoyed a day off from hunting and spending it with us, also celebrating Maddy's 5th birthday. Sean even gave us $100 and a large piece of Buffulo meat for our help.

We decided to celebrate Maddy's 5th birthday whilst we had some family around. Maddy had a great time with a festive pirate party. Luuk and I managed to pull together a good pirate ship cake again, having previously done this for Sam's 5th bday. We sat around and made friendship bracelets with Mieke and Luuk made some double barrelled guns for all the boys to play pirates with. After cake, we all headed to the pool to cool off as it gets warm mid afternoon. Sammy lost his first front tooth which fell onto the aggragated base of the pool. Luuk, luckily after a bit of a search, found the tooth so it could be made ready for tooth fairy inspection later that night. Surprisingly, she found us here, in Cooinda, and left $3 for his 3rd tooth.

Whilst at the bistro listening to the band, later that evening, Auntie Michelle bought us the bands CD as we were really enjoying it. The kids were doing all sorts of crazy dancing, Sammy the famous robot dance and Maddy loving his rendition of Happy Feet whilst Ash danced with her mama and papa with whizzy dizzies and flips. The audience was overwhelmed by the kids hilarious entertainment. A few mistakes in the restaurant led to us eating a second, almost free dinner, which was nice as this was out if our budget. When we were heading home one of the guitarists, from the band, ran after us and gave Maddy their other CD as he was the birthday boy. Great Australian talent from Byron Bay.

The next day we went to Narulanga and visited the Anbangbang billabong which was the most amazing sanctuary for birdlife. The full walk was closed due to seasonal changes but we saw enough to see its great beauty and diversity. We didn't see any crocs but signs ensured us they were lurking and not to risk the kids safety by going too close to the waters edge. Saw a few Kingfishers and Ibis's amongst many others. Great for bird lovers or spotters. We headed onto the aboriginal rock art and caves at Anbangbang. This was an amazing 1.5 km walk with 5 different viewing platforms for ochre paintings all with their own dreamtime meaning. All the elders from the clan of the area had passed on but neighbouring clans looked after the site according to tribal law. There are so many ranger guided talks in Kakadu and if you plan well you can make the most out of these. Back to camp for an afternoon swim, cuddles with Tilly and a few games of boule with the kids which Angus topped. We followed this with a Yummy dinner of fried Buffulo, a gift from Sean, which was surprisingly delicious and tender.