Kakadu

Well we made it to Kakadu and what a big place, we didn't realise but it has its own shopping centre and school here.  Two of the best things about Kakadu are kids under 16 are free and there are lots of free activities to do like guided walks, slide shows and kids activities

We spent our first night in a place called Gunlorn, (located not far from the start of the park) bush camping with toilets and hot showers.  It is also home to a safe swimming place for the kids, it happens to be on top of the waterfall, but a short walk of 30 minutes  up a steep incline, brings you to three great pools with white sand and rocks.  Amazing view from the top, looks a bit like a affinity pool.

The next day we decided to set up base in the middle of the park at a camp called Mardugal.  This is where we did our first free activity, a slide show of all the different animals in Kakadu.  Found out some amazing things about walleroos, haven't seen one yet but we are all still looking.

We did a boat tour up and down the South Alligator River (called alligator river as the first white people who named it didn't know the difference between Alligators and Crocodiles), it is also called Yellow Water.  On the tour we saw our first (but not last) of crocodiles in the day time and as the tour operator was aboriginal, we also learnt about all the different animals and birds along the river that they eat.

Later that night we did a free tour of the river bank with one of the rangers, who filled us in on all the different birds and fish the park has.  Today we did the top end of the park to a place called Ubirr, it is home to alot of rock art and also boarders Arnhem Land.  It is amazing how beautiful this place is.  The kids also saw a demonstration of Traditional Painting, then got to do some of their own.

To end of the day, we did another free slide show at our camp about the six seasons the aboriginals have.  Tomorrow it is off to explore around the middle of the park some more and they hopefully Saturday we get to see Jim Jim Falls a place Mark has wanted to see for years.  We are hoping to see Twin Falls as well, however, due to the heavy rain they had a Easter, we don't think they will open it up until next month.

Photos attached are of different places and animals in the park.

Talk to you all soon,

The Vandas

P.S.  One thing that isn't great about Kakadu are the misquitos, they are as big as flys and they really hurt.