Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Day 13 - Cooinda, Kakadu
Yellow Waters Sunrise cruise and Nourlangie
Merv set the alarm for 5:45am so we would be at the bus stop at 6:20. He forgot to take it off silent so when I looked at the time at 6:15 we flew out of bed, got dressed and were at the bus stop in time!
The cruise was really good. 3 boats went out, each carried about 50 people.
We went down stream and saw some crocs and lots of birds including 2 or 3 different kingfishers, whistling ducks (they don't quack and don't like water), Jesus birds (they walk on the water lilies catching insects), some sort of heron that spends all day looking into the water for food, lots of egrets, magpie geese, and a jabiru.
We watched a beautiful sunrise over the buffalo grass. The cruise went for 2 hours and we came back to Cooinda for breakfast, which was included. It was the best breakfast and topped off a great cruise.
We did some washing and had some rest time until mid afternoon. Then we went to Nourlangie, which is a rock art site. We got there in time to follow a guide around and listen to 3 different talks. There is evidence that aborigines have been in the area for 50,000 years!
The geology is much older with the sandstone cliffs some of the oldest in the world. At one stage the ocean came up to the cliffs/escarpment that are now the Arnham Land border. It's hard to imagine. The ocean is a very long way from there now.
The rock art was very good and the stories very interesting. The views from the lookout were magnificent. It's impossible to capture the impact in a photo.
We stopped at a billabong on the way back, just before sunset. It was lovely and peaceful. Some people there had seen a little croc that is living there. We saw some pretty kingfishers too.
Driving back to Cooinda we watched the sunset. It was the reddest sun I have ever seen!
We heated up some tinned stew in the camp kitchen and chatted to other tourists.
- comments