Got up way before dawn to go on the dawn cruise on Katherine Gorge. Wow. This is a spectacular place. Much bigger than Lawn Hill. The rock walls rise up 20 metres on all sides and are made up of 'blocks' of red, orange, white and yellow. The colours changed as the sun came up, being darker reds in the beginning, fading to yellow and white once the sun was well up. We had a local guide who explained some of the important cultural stuff, like places where h...

The drive down the Kakadu highway was uneventful. We did stop to take a photo beside an enormous termite mound. Stopped for a snack at Pine Creek and made it to Katherine in good time. Katherine is a sizable town (11,000 people) with the usual services including BP, Woolworths and Maccas. Our stop is the Shady Lane 'van park just out of town. It's fine. Did some groceries and laundry and staying in to watch LOTR together. A made an excellent meal: veal ...

This morning we drove out to Nourlangie which is the Balanda (non-aboriginal) name for 2 areas called Burrunggui (Boor-oon-goy) and Anbangbang (Un-bung-bung). The area is a large rock escarpment and has rock shelters, cave paintings and a pretty cool look out. We just managed to arrive in time to listen to the park ranger, Christian Dibbens (I think), do a series of 3 talks. He talked about the connection between language, law, culture and country. Then he ...

We drove over to Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre this morning. It's an interesting bit of architecture, shaped like a pig-nosed turtle apparently. Inside was a museum/cultural exhibit that explained a lot of the history of the local aboriginal people over the last 150y. They have seen tremendous change in that time: white settlers, buffalo hunters, crocodile hunters, cattle farming, and now National Park status and a return of a large amount of control...

We stopped by Jim the repairman's workshop to get the water shutoff valve replaced in the van and then got going. The drive out from Darwin is a bit long and boring really. The initial entrance to Kakadu is quite underwhelming and you wouldn't know it unless the sign said so. "Kakadu National Park - World Heritage." Refueled at Jabiru and then on to Cooinda to our stop. It's okay here, pool, shop, amenities, etc. Very busy. Had a minor crash when I back...