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Australia day 13-14: Litchfield to Darwin

Day 13.

The first half of the day was just driving from Jabiru to Batchelor. We stopped at Adelaide River and visited briefly Jumping Crocodile Cruises site (not for us), and then at Window on the Wetlands Visitor Centre for panoramic view of the backcountry and at Humpty Doo to re-supply.

We arrived at ☞ Batchelor Holiday Park around 1 pm. And almost immediately took off to visit Buley Rockhole (quite crowded), swimming on the way at two spots in Florence Creek, and then walked back to Florence Falls via Shady Creek for another swim (very nice and big pool with waterfall). We had enough time to visit Magnetic Termite Mounds and return to our campground for evening bird feeding/watching, just after 6 pm. We were late, but so were the birds hiding for a while from hawk (?) patrolling the sky. We prepared dinner in our cabin.

Bird feeding at Batchelor Holiday Park

Day 14.

We started the day with another half an hour of bird feeding/watching at 7:30 am. We then followed with four short hikes: Greenant Creek to Tajateaba Falls, Wangi Falls with swimmin (huge pool with 2 waterfalls, great fun but we liked Florence Falls more) and walk to the top of the falls, Walker Creek with swimming and very impressive Tolmer Falls and Nature Trail (recommended) – the nicest walk in the area. Temp reached 40℃ for the last time on our Australian trip, but at this point we were swimming/soaking in small pool in Walker Creek. Shortly after 4 pm, we were on the way to Darwin. Our Jetstar flight to Melbourne was at 1 am next morning. That gave us enough time to watch beautiful sunset at Mindil Beach, walk through Mindil Sunset Markets, eat some street food (seafood and fruits) there and top off with Crumbed Crocodile at La Beach Fish and Chips in Cullen. Watched Cullen Bay and Marina after dark for a while.

We dropped off our car “after hours” at the airport parking lot. We drove 1066 km on this leg of our journey.

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Australia day 12-13: Kakadu

Day 12.

The plan for the day was to visit Ubirr but rangers at Bowali Center (stopped there on the way to Jabiru the day before) were not sure if the road would be open. We saw smoke in this area previous afternoon.  It turned out the park closed the road at 10.30 am. We decided to join Burrungkuy (Nurlangie) ranger walk & talk (recommended) at 9-11 am, and try our luck with Ubirr the following day.

We started the day on short hike to Nawurlandja Lookout and quick look at Anbangbang Billabong on our own. The ranger walk was very good, disciplined and informative. We liked rock art accompanied by interesting stories about Aboriginal history and life. Barrk Bushwalk was closed (seasonal). We drove to different parking lot and were back on Anbangbang Billabong loop with panoramic views from Nawurlandja Lookout to Burrungkuy Rock.

Anbangbang Billabong

Temp crossed 40℃ mark at noon. Another short drive and we were on Bubba walk. We had to turn back half-way around the wetland when trail (not well marked at this point) hit a patch of just burnt down bush (still smoldering in a couple of places). Passable, but not fun to walk in such heat. We stopped for photo op at Djarradjin Billabong. Water level was low in billabongs but bird-watching was great.  We then looked for a “mountain” to “climb” and ended up on a short walk to Mirrai Lookout. Woodland savanna to the horizon. It was only then, around 5 pm, that temp dropped to 36-37℃. Tough going in full-sun and high temp started to wear us down. We cooked dinner at our lodge and Joanna went for a swim in the pool.

AC in our car brought some needed relief even if we only used it for short time driving between local destinations. We had AC in our room too, but outside temps at night were quite comfortable mid-twenties.

Day 13.

On good tip from our lodge staff we decided to go to Cahills Crossing (recommended) to watch crocodiles. No Ubirr – at some point we actually went to check the gate, but no luck. We needed alternative program.

We arrived at the Crossing shortly after 9 am when tide was low and water was flowing downstream.We saw first crocodiles along river banks as we checked-out downstream boat ramp and the crossing, stopped at Border Store for info. On another good tip from the staff, we decided to go on 11 am Guluyambi Cruise with ☞ Kakadu Cultural Tours, 4 km from upstream boat ramp up East Alligator River. It was nice and relaxing, many crocodiles were floating just a few meters from the boat.Local guide was good, sometimes hard to hear at high motor revs but we had best seats in front row. We made short landing to walk around a bit, water hole and high rocky river bank.

East Alligator River upstream of Cahills Crossing

We came back at 12:45 pm and immediately started Bardedjilidji Walk (recommended). We considered two other walks, but both were closed: Manngarre (bush fire) and Sandstone River Walk (seasonal). We liked Bardedjilidji, some views on the river and the rest on/around interesting rock formation with some rock art. Fun place to explore and perhaps have lunch-break, but not when we were there: mid-day with 42-43℃ hiking temps in full-sun. We returned to Cahills Crossing at 2:30 pm when the tidal wave was nearing its high – best time to watch crocodiles fishing when sea water pours in. Timing is important (☞ Tidal predictions for Cahills Crossing). Piotr counted more than 30 crocodiles at one time!

Cahills Crossing
East Alligator River
East Alligator River
Bardedjilidji Walk (3 km)

Bardedjilidji Walk from Bardedjilidji parking lot, 3 km loop
Click on wikiloc logo for more info

 

We ate late lunch at Border Store (prawns with yellow curry and tom kha chicken soup), stopped one more time at the crossing – at 4:30 pm the tide reversed, crocodiles were fed and quietly fading away. Altogether we spent three hours watching them. After returning to Jabiru, we walked short loop to Jabiru Lake just to see what the small town is about.