Darwin - Kakadu National Park

Arrived in Darwin late last night, picked up my rental car with no problems and headed off to my hotel for the night. As I came up to it, it seemed kind of sketchy….it was in an enclosed/locked area which was good, but each room had a screen door that locked and then a glass door that locked. The room itself was very plain which was fine by me because all I wanted was a shower and bed. I got to bed before midnight and had a decent sleep :)

I got up early this morning to check out (the guy at reception was incredibly nice and helpful) and get my act together so that I could get to the store to buy some things I would need (tent, fan, food, etc) and hopped in the car to explore. I headed east towards Kakadu National Park, the drive out to where I was going to stop for the night in/around Jaibru. The roads are pretty lonely out, quite noisy and bumpy out here but the views are beautiful, the grass and trees are bright green which I wasn’t really expecting. I encountered 2 wallabies, 1 kangaroo, a few crazy big black crows with ice blue eyes, some birds on lily pads and a water buffalo!

Along the route, I encountered a bit of smoke off in the distance, my first thought was brush fire. They had a problem with it down in the Great Ocean Road area a day or two after we had visited (no I didn’t start it!!!) so I was a bit concerned. As I came closer to it, I found it very odd. There was no fire, just trees that were smoking at the bottom of them. Some random trees I saw had very tiny flames or red coals but that was it. No WHOOSH up in flames forest! I have no idea what starts it…the heat and sap combo or what? I am going to have to google it at some point unless someone can fill me in on the secret.

As I traveled a bit more, the rocky landscape started to appear closer to Ubirr. Ubirr is an Aboriginal place where they have been able to preserve ancient rock art. Don’t ask me what the mean because all I did was take pictures! LOL the flies out here are friggan brutal! Little buggers for sure! I couldn’t keep them off of me, on my face, near my ears, in my line of sight! I took my backpack off to get my camera out and NO exaggeration there were about 30 flies just chillen out. So once I get the chance to look at the photos and the boards explaining I can update this lol.

I took the walk to the look out so that I could see over the wetlands. Of course the little flies followed me ALL the way to the top. I had to take off my flip flops in order swat them near my head to keep them at bay. If anyone could have seen me, they might have thought I was a lunatic. The view was stunning, but I didn’t stay long due to the pesky flies. I really thought I was going to lose my cool with these things! I am going out and buying a fly net for my hat as soon as I find one, I don’t care how ridiculous I look :)

Anyhoo, it was so hot out today (about 102°F) and the humidity was bad too, just add in flies and I was in heaven lol. I had bought a tent and stuff earlier but because I had no cash on me to camp I found a semi inexpensive hotel. I got a room upgrade, dinner, a swim in the nice pool and even got to do laundry! Wooooooo! Now I am off to bed. I wish I could update my pics but the vertical ones won’t turn. (I have a ticket in to fix that crap, hopefully you will see some soon)