Kakadu National Park

Today I started my day by heading to Marri lookout(SPELLING)??? Which was about an hour round trip hike. The sign stated it was a steep walk, but I had a good night’s sleep so figured what the hell. Since it is the off season here, there isn’t anyone else around. I MIGHT run into people here and there but most of the times, it is me, myself and I plugging along. I made it to the top of the lookout, of course winded and hot yet again, but it was a nice view. I opened up my bag to grab the camera to take some pics and ummmm not there! God damnit! I know it had it in my hands, only thing I could hope for is that it is in the car when I get back. So I took out my cell phone snapped some pics before heading back. As I looked up, what did I see……2 huge spiders with big webs. How come all of the flies around me don’t fly up there?? For all of the webs that I have seen, almost walked into and so forth, the damn flies cling too close to me.

I headed back down the steep trail, all along hoping that my camera was in the car. On my way down, I ran across 4 people coming up, asking….how much further? I said about 5 min (which was true), I wish I had run into someone on my way up, not knowing sometimes makes it feel that much more gruling. I got back to my car to find my camera just chillen out on the center console, which was a big relief but makes me more aware of always checking before I get on my treks to make sure it is with me.

There isn’t much else to write about with my trip to Kakadu National Park. I did a whole bunch of research on this place and Litchfield National Park and both places had their positives and negatives. Unfortunately, since I am here during their wet season, a lot of tracks are closed due to flooding which is too bad. One place I stopped to grab gas told me that this location called Motor Falls was great and was still open so I could check it out. I figured sure why not! I drove there down a long and winding road, parked my car and started the hike. I came across some signs about crocs and other things, and proceeded with caution. I had to go over a suspension bride where a sign said 1 person at a time only. Ok a bit freaky, but I did it. I got to the other sided and continued on my way, but not for long. The grass on either side of the path was higher than I would have liked it to be. It was past my hips and I couldn’t see if anything was out there or near me. This freaked me out, and of course got the best of me. In this instance I wish someone had been with me so I hopefully wouldn’t have let my fears get the best of me but nope. I turned my ass right around and headed back to my car lol. The lesson here, get more information about the place before you head there so you know what you are getting into and how long of a ride it is TO the car park. A lot of places have you turn off the highway only to then drive another 20 min down a desolate road. Lol! So after this bust I said, I am done here, I am heading to Katherine to hopefully spend the night. I personally wouldn’t recommend Kakadu park to anyone during this season. When they have their dry season, I would maybe try it again because you can see more, but I think for me, this tour was enough.

On my way to Katherine, it was still fairly early and there was a stop on the map called Edith Falls, so I figured it was open, why not check it out. Even though it is the wet season here, the nice thing about being able to see some waterfalls, is they will be very full. Edith falls lived up to that! It may not be the tallest waterfall around by any means but this stubby waterfall is wide and the amount of water it was spewing was amazing. It poured into a large watering hole area that could probably be classified as a pond size I guess, and then it over flowed again into another waterfall into a place that I was unable to see. I am amazed by waterfalls and their beauty, no matter how big or small, with a ton of water or just a little I always find beauty in them and this was no different. After this, I continued my trek to Katherine to hopefully find a place to camp for the night. I found a place and it couldn’t have been more perfect. I started to set up my tent for the night when over hopped a little wallaby. Miniature versions of kangaroos, these little guys are so adorable. I was so excited that it was so close, and thought it couldn’t get any better than this! Oh it did!! This ended up being a mama wallaby and she had a little joey! Talk about being spoiled! This is out in the open, no zoo or animal sanctuary, just real life hopping around. I HAD to get back to the car to get my camera, praying that they were not going to go hop off on me. They stuck around for a good hour, and since I haven’t mastered my camera yet, I didn’t get the BEST pictures but I got some and they are soooo cute! I got a video of the little joey hopping all around, it can’t be more than a few weeks old, it has no real muscle mass to it and it is sooooo scrawny. I was in complete heaven watching the mama and her little one be at peace with me around. Mom ate whatever was on the ground and the little guy would pop back into the pouch to grab a snack and then come back out to check the scene out. It was so surreal to watch knowing that they knew I was there, and were OK with it. As much as I wanted to continue taking pictures I was running out of steam and needed to set up the tent so I could grab some sleep. Or so I thought……

Till tomorrow

XO