|
Add your link: Travellante
kaboodle for webmasters
Wir haben etwas gegen Gelenkschmerzen und Arthrose. Infos finden Sie hier.
Kakadu National Park Australia Info
Kakadu National Park Australia
"The three-day two-night tour of Kakadu National Park started with pick up from the hotel at 7am. Our first stop was at the Adelaide river where we took the Jumping Crocodile Cruise. The boat is a two level barge like craft driven by two outboards. There are six seats across the beam with an aisle between and an aisle on the outside of each row.
The water level was very high due to the heavy rains so we were told not to expect too many crocs since they were off in the trees in shallow water or breeding. As long as they were not in the boat I didn’t care where they were. At the start of the cruise we passed some trees loaded with more of the Fox Bats. As we proceeded along the river we spotted sea eagles, and whistling kites and black kites. I had never seen the birds called kites before and thought they were eagles. They have a similar flight pattern but are a little smaller. The obvious difference between the kites is the tail configuration. The black kite has a “v” shaped tail and the whistling kite has a square tail. A short distance from the dock we spotted a crock and he spotted the boat. He swam away from the bank and started to follow the boat so the captain stopped the boat and the guide rigged up a pole with about a 2 pound steak attached. When the croc got close the guide sloshed the steak in the water to let the crock know where he was to get fed. When he swam for the bait the guide pulled it up so the crock could not reach it. After about two more tries the croc got the idea and leapt out of the water. He missed so he went around again and this time he got all of his body out of the water except his tail and was rewarded with the bait. That was the last we saw of him so onward to try to find another. All in all we encountered 3 crocs who feasted on raw meat but equally interesting were the birds we saw.
We went to our hotel, the Gagadju. It is run by the park and is in the shape of a crocodile. The main entrance is through the mouth. There may have been an emergency exit at the tail but we didn’t look. The center of the hotel was open to the sky with a nice garden and pool. There were two restaurants one was sit down wait on me type, the other was a pub style with a long bar and bar food. Food was just good. Rooms were OK.
Day 2 -- The weather was kind of overcast in the morning but by the time we got to the airport the forecast looked good, so we took a scenic flight over the park. The airport is in a plains like area with the escarpment off in the distance on three sides. The escarpment looks like the side of a canyon except that it was formed by ground rising rather than erosion. It is a sand stone coast line of an ancient ocean and rises up to 1200 ft in some places.
The flight took us over Nourlongie Rock, an Aboriginal religious site, toward Jim Jam and Twin Falls. Viewing from the plane was great since the pilot went over each set of falls so that both sides of the plane were exposed to the view. We flew up canyons so that we could see the pool at the bottom and up over the escarpment to see the source of the falls and watch it fall over the edge. Lots of previous rain made the force of the falls exceptional. On the return flight we flew over the Gagadju Hotel and noted it’s croc like shape.
After lunch we went to see Nourlongie Rock from the land side up rather than the air side down (from the scenic plane ride). It is surrounded by a nice park with walkways which provide various views of the famous rock. There are many places on the rock where Aboriginal art is still visible. The colors are red , black , yellow and white all made from local rock or berries. Some of the areas are still very religious and restricted from tourist visitation. There were pictographs of Nomargan the lightning god, of birds , kangaroos and people.
Next stop was the Yellow Water Ride on South Alligator. A flat bottom boat was our transportation because the water covered area we toured was like a large lily pond with exotic birds. We saw a Jabaru , a large black and white stork; Darter, a large black egret like; Rainbow Bee-eater, a sparrow size bird with orange, blue green and white feathers and a hooked beak; Comb Crested Jacana or Jesus bird (because it walks on water) , has a red patch of feathers on its head and feet with long toes which allow it to walk on lily pads and aquatic plants; and a baby “Jesus” bird all fuzzy and cute looking for food all by it self. There were also a few Sea eagles which we were able to see very close up sitting in their nests. Off to one side in a large tree we spotted a nest for the Jabaru which looked as large as a tree house platform. Kathy noted the waterscape looked like a Monet painting of water lilies, it was gorgeous. The guide pointed out an 800 year old Paper Bark Tree.
Our stop for the night was the Katherine Frontier Motor Inn. It was the most disappointing place we stayed . The room was clean though. The only saving grace was the fiddler that was playing out on the terrace. He must have been 75 years old at least but he had an excitement in him that was infectious. I couldn’t stand just listening so I requested an Irish song and sang with him. No talent agents rushed me so we went off to bed.
Day 3 -- We had a mediocre breakfast and bussed to a swim at Edith Falls. This time the access to the falls was easy and the water was also very refreshing There were two falls actually one was the result of the recent heavy rains and was termed just a run-off. This was a great place to swim or just sit around and watch the falls. We proceeded to Nitmiluk National Park and took a Jet Boat ride in Katherine Gorge. On the way we saw a gaggle of 20-30 Black Cockatoos in the trees along the road. I don’t know if that is a gaggle but that is how many we saw. The gorge is gorgeous, very photogenic (an interesting derivation of the word gorgeous).
The jet boat was being repaired so we went to the visitors center. While eating we saw a Blue Faced Bee-eater, bird, eating French fries on the verandah. Food must be good here, at least French fries. This park has many hiking trails of various lengths which provide great views of the gorge and waterfalls. It was time to go on the jet ride so we donned our parkas and brought out our water proof cameras and were off. The trick of the jet boat is to make a fast turn and get everyone wet. It works. When there is rough water the driver doesn’t have to work so hard but in our case it was fairly calm. Somehow getting wet on a boat is not something I would stand in line for. Just in case we hadn’t brought our water proof cameras the driver warned us when he would make a radical turn partly to protect cameras partly to keep folks from getting ejected. The river ride through the gorge was great. There were a few rapids to traverse and maybe that is why the jet boat works so well here, small draft. We went by small light brown sand secluded beaches, waterfalls and just a myriad of earth sights. This would seem to be a great place to spend some time camping and climbing, to actually sit on the beaches or look down on river running through the gorge.
Afternoon tea was at a roadside stop with a bar, a restaurant and a coral where we could feed animals. The attraction was “Charley” the water buffalo who was in the Crocodile Dundee movie. You remember, it was the one Dundee stared off the road so he could drive through with his 4 by 4 and the ever pretty what’s-her-name on their trek through the outback. Our day ended back at the Atrium in Darwin."
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40
41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50
51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 |
61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 |
71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80
81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90
91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 100
101
102 | 103 | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 110 | 111 |
112 | 113 | 114 | 115 | 116 | 117 | 118 | 119 | 120 | 121 |
122 | 123 | 124 | 125 | 126 | 127 | 128 | 129 | 130 | 131
132 | 133 | 134 | 135 | 136 | 137 | 138 | 139 | 140 | 141
142 | 143 | 144 | 145 | 146 | 147 | 148 | 149 | 150 | 151
152
153
154 | 155 | 156 | 157 | 158 | 159 | 160 | 161 | 162 | 163 |
164 | 165 | 166 | 167 | 168 | 169 | 170 | 171 | 172 | 173 |
174 | 175 | 176 | 177 | 178 | 179 | 180 | 181 | 182 | 183
184 | 185 | 186 | 187 | 188 | 189 | 190 | 191 | 192 | 193
194 | 195 | 196 | 197 | 198 | 199 | 200 | 201 | 202 | 203
204 | 205 | 206 | 207
208 | 209 | 210 | 211
212 | 213 | 214 | 215
216 | 217 | 218 | 219
220 | 221 | 222 | 223
224 | 225 | 226 | 227
228 | 229 | | 231
232 | 233 | 234 | 235
236 | 237 | 238 | 239
240 | 204 | 242 | 204
244 | 245 | 246 | 247
248 | 249 | 250 | 251
252 | 253 | | 255
256 | 257 | 258 | 259
260 | 261 | 262 | 263
264 | 265 | 266 | 267
268 | 269 | 270 | 271
272 | 273 | 274 | 275
276 | 277 | | 279
280 | 282 | 284 | 286
287 | 288 | 289 | 290
291 | 292 | 293 | 294
295 | 296 | 297 | |
