SYDNEY BROOME TRIP 2006 - Saturday 10 June to Friday 16 June

SYDNEY BROOME TRIP 2006

Saturday 10 June to Friday 16 June

Jabiru National Park to Timber Creek

Blog 7

A dawn cruise on Yellow Water is a spectacular way to start the day. Yellow Water is a wetland in Kakadu National Park.

We saw lots of crocodiles and a great variety of birds and in huge numbers that included sea eagles building a nest that they had stolen from Whistling Kites, Jabirus in their nest high up in the tree large numbers of Magpie Geese also in the trees, beautiful Azure Kingfishers, Egrets, Herons, Ibis, Brolga, Pelicans whistling ducks and many more the names of which I don’t know.

The Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre gave a great history of the local people, the Bininj. The Bininj call anyone who is non-aboriginal Balanga. It described their complex family system, too complex to try and restate. Our last stop for the day was the Nourlangie rock area has aboriginal paintings and a lookout.

We continued our journey in Kadadu National park and drove to the south end of the park to Gungurul where we walked to a branch of the South Alligator River and up a moderate climb to a lookout with views over the South Alligator River Valley.

Bukbukluk Lookout was next with views of the old Goodparla Station which none of us could see but the view over the valley and the escarpment was beautiful.

After collecting firewood along the way we camped at the Gunlom Camping area. The Gunlom plunge pool and waterfall were beautiful and even though the walk to the top of the waterfall was very steep the view from the top was worth it. Dinner around the campfire was a great way to end the day.

We decided to try our hand at making damper which tasted great especially with butter and jam!!! After the damper we needed to walk off the calories so the steep and rocky Boulder Creek walk to Yurmikmik was just what we needed.

We headed back to Katherine and said good-bye to our friends Rhonda and John who were heading back to Townsville for the birth of their grandchild while we continue to head west.

Our next stop along the Savannah Way was Victoria River which has beautiful escarpments and runs through Gregory National Park. We walked to the 312m high lookout and enjoyed the panoramic views. Our camp stop for the night was the Timber Creek Roadhouse where they fed the fresh water crocodiles in the river.