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10/12/08 After a morning in Darwin, where we caught up with emails and stocked up on supplies (and I got a sports t-shirt to replace the one that got 'lost' in Bangkok), off we drove to Kakadu! The only town in it is Jabiru, so we set up camp at the campsite in Kakadu Lodge. It has a great swimming pool, but quite a lot of flies which was annoying.
11/12/08 We planned to go to Ubirr today, which is a really famous Aboriginal rock art site, the art variously dating between 2000 and 20,000 years old! It didn't open until 1pm, however, so as we had got there early we had some time to kill, so we walked to Cahill's Crossing nearby. This is a ford across the East Alligator River, which is the border between Kakadu and Arnhem Land. You can't go into Arnhem Land without a permit, but we wouldn't have tried crossing it anyway, because there were signs next to it warning us that Estuarine crocodiles have a serious presence in the river, and not to enter the water or even approach the edge. (This sort of crocodile can be very aggressive and have killed and eaten humans.) We noticed however that despite this warning, there were a couple of men standing in it fishing! We were hoping to spot some crocodiles along the river edge, but didn't see any.
When Ubirr opened, we went straight in. It was boiling hot - it felt like at least 40 degrees - and there were quite a few flies which made a nuisance of themselves, but in my opinion the quality of the art easily transcended the problem! There were several small rocky outcrops and collections of boulders, with the art painted on crevice walls and overhanging ceilings. It was amazing how well preserved some of them looked, and how colourful most of them are. There was one huge wall (now called the 'main gallery') which was absolutely covered; apparently the act of painting was more important than the finished product, so many were painted over, over the following centuries. This particular site was used for hundreds, possibly a couple of thousand years, and we were told that you could see this in what images were painted. For example, there were some which were clearly painted in the 19th century, on their first contact with white men; one figure has a shirt, trousers and boots and has his hands in his pockets, and another is smoking a pipe and has his hands on his hips. Most of the other images were of food - turtles, wallabies, goannas, barramundi and catfish - and some of these are shown in x-ray form. Another interesting thing about the 'main gallery' was a painting made on the overhanging ceiling; made, so Aboriginal people believe to this day, by Mimi spirits who moved the ceiling rock down, painted it and then pushed the rock back into place. In another part of Ubirr, we saw an image of the Rainbow Serpent, who supposedly rests across the river in Arnhem Land.
The evening was spent in the pool and spa, after some food.
12/12/08 Today we went to Nourlangie Rock area, stopping at Bowali Information Centre on the way. This had a lot of interesting information about the habitats and wildlife of Kakadu, stuffed examples of the latter, and information about the Aboriginal clans and languages within Kakadu.
Around Nourlangie Rock, we visited Anbangbang rock shelter, where we were told there has been an Aboriginal presence for at least 20,000 years, and then Anbangbang gallery, a major rock art site. This art included images of the Lightning Man, an Aboriginal Creation Ancestor. Quite a lot of the images on this site were repainted in the 1960s by one of the last prolific rock art painters in the area (nowadays the Aboriginal community prefers to paint on canvas, paper or wood) - repainting was part of the Aboriginal rock art tradition, and only certain people were allowed to do it. Finally, we climbed up onto the massive rocks of the Gunwarddehwarddhe lookout; again, it was scorchingly hot and the flies were annoying, but the view more than made up for it! We looked out over Nourlangie Rock, stone enscarpments, and flood plains. On the way back I hopped out and climbed up to the lookout at Nawurlandja Rock. I was nearly consumed by the flies which immediately descended upon me when I got up there, however, so my visit was a short one! I stubbed my toe when trying to find the way back down, as well, so I got back into the car with relief! The view was very impressive though, looking out over miles upon miles of savannah forest, and more enscarpment.- comments