Crocodile Hotel

Continuing in the vein of all things crocodilian, here are some pictures of our crocodile shaped hotel. Australians are really fond of Big Things... big prawns, big mangoes, big Captain Cook... and we have been lucky enough to see many of them. This hotel may not fit the strict definition of a Big Thing, but it sure is impressive. You can see it in satelite pictures of the area (search for Jabiru, Australia in Google Maps). In this view we are looking at the head, where the lobby was. The white "teeth" are support poles holding up the covered drive through.




Here is a leg, housing the stair to the second floor.




Another angle on the head, with a nice view of the eye, which glows at night. You can also see the ridge of bumps running down its spine.

Night Critters

These two pictures represent the sorry total of our spotlighting success on this trip. In the past we've seen numerous species of possums, gliders, wallabies, and so on, while hiking at night with a powerful spotlight. This time, although we went out many times in suitable habitat, all we saw were a dingo, a bunch of agile wallabies, and these two fellas. This is a Bush Thick-Knee (or Bush Stone-Curlew), a 2 foot tall nocturnal predator who is apparently endangered. They make an eerie wailing call.




This guy is a Black Footed Tree-Rat. He was big; much bigger than your garden variety rat, and extremely agile, jumping back and forth from the trees to the ground. Check out his giant oblong ears.

Crocodile Rock

We stopped at this conveniently shady rock partly because it was time for a snack, and partly because I decided it looked like a croc head, complete with craggy teeth, and how cool is that!




This is the second gallery of art at Nourlangie, set into the base of the plateau. Although the main gallery was pretty crowded, we only saw two other people here and three people on the trail itself.





These figures are a type of Nayuhyunggi (creators and law-givers) called Namarnde. The informational sign warned that Namarnde eat human flesh, and some "carry dilly bags for their victims liver, lungs, heart, and kidneys."




Some more pretty pictures from along the trail, as we hike around the base of the plateau.




This is the retreating backside of a Black Walleroo, taken at dusk. We finished our hike around mid-afternoon but decided to hang out in the area on the chance we might see one of these guys. Black Walleroos have a very tiny range in Australia, and not much is known about them, so we were pretty happy to find one.

Nourlangie Rock

We spent our second day in Kakadu at Nourlangie Rock, the other major area of Aboriginal rock art in the park. Nourlangie Rock is a large plateau with a couple of rock art sites at its base, and we decided the best way to explore it would be to take the 12km Barrk bush walk, which would take us past the main gallery, up and across the plateau, down the other side to another gallery, and around to the start point. The signs for the walk warned that you should allow 6-8 hours to complete it, which seemed a bit excessive for 12km, but we had packed a lunch and weren't too worried about it. There was some scrambling over rocks and such, but the real challenge became simply finding the trail, since occasionally it was... rather faint. At times we were scanning the trees for the little reflective arrows placed here and there along the path, because the trail itself was completely invisible.

The figure to the right is Lightening Man, responsible for the violent wet season storms.




This is Nabulwinjbulwinj, a dangerous spirit who "eats females after killing them by striking them with a yam."




Yep, that's the trail. And if you are wondering about snakes, we did see one on this day... but it ran away before we could get a look at it. Australian snakes seem to be very shy.




This is how the top of the plateau looked.





There had been a fire in the area recently... so recently that some of it was still smoldering. By the time we finished the hike our legs were black with ash.




We had a nice picnic of sandwiches we picked up that morning from the bakery in Jabiru.






The views from the top of the rock were awesome. Nary a road, building, or power line to be seen.

Ubir, part 2

This next group of photos is to give some context for the rock art in the previous post. It was really a lovely setting.








A nice overhead view of some more magnetic termite mounds, all dutifully pointing North.




The trail to the rock art sites led up to a view point at the top of this interesting sandstone escarpment. I am setting up a self-timer shot..




...which you can see here. Yep, I ran like a maniac down the rocks and over to Darrin in less than 10 seconds, without breaking my neck. Plenty of time! You can see some guy in the background decided to join in our fun.

Ubirr

Here we have the ever-present Barramundi, this time in Aboriginal X-Ray Art form. We spent the afternoon checking out the amazing Aboriginal art in the Ubirr area, which has some of the best examples in the country. Dating the art is difficult, and the area has been in use for a very long time, so the ages range from 10's of thousands to maybe only 100 years old. This is a nice example of the "X-Ray" style, which depicted internal organs and structures in a rather decorative manner.







The galleries were crowded with images, many painted on top of each other, and it was worth spending some time to sort out all the separate paintings. Here there are some long-necked turtles, lots of fish, some hands, and some figures, including a "white fella" wearing a hat, with his hands in his pockets (probably painted in the late 1800's). In the painting of the long necked turtle, there are areas highlighted in light pigment, which represent the tastiest bits, should you wish to eat one.

Click on the picture (or any of the others) to bring up a larger version.




And here I am, looking perhaps a tad overly happy about being here. We are huge rock art fans, seeking it out in various locations in Europe and the States, and at last, here in Australia.

Burger with the lot

For lunch we drove back to the town of Jabiru, and instead of eating at the hotel, we ate at the Jabiru Cafe. It was run by this incredibly hyper Asian man who was taking orders, dishing out food, taking money, and making change all at the same time. There wasn't exactly a line, just a mob of people trying to get his attention. You needed to be ready to shout out your order or he would move on to the next person. Here I am eating some kind of hot open face sandwich with tomatoes, asparagus, and "tasty cheese". At the time, I thought the use of "tasty" in front of cheese, was meant to make the menu item sound more appetizing, but a later visit to a grocery store (where we found large bags of shredded Tasty Cheese for sale) confirmed that "tasty" actually means "sharp", as in Cheddar.




Darrin is having a "burger with the lot", which means in addition to the usual patty, cheese, lettuce, onion, pickles, tomato, and sauces, there is a thick slice of beet, some bacon, and ... a fried egg. Take that, arteries!

And his ghost may be heard as you pass by the Billabong...

On this morning we woke up at 5 am, to make sure we had time to make it to Cooinda for our 6:45 cruise. It was a fair distance, (did I mention how big the park is?) and we had to drive in the dark, which everyone tells you not to do in Australia, on account of the critters not knowing to get out of the way of the cars.

In the distance you can see the other boat full of crazy morning people hoping to see some crocodiles.




A billabong is an area of stagnant water, like an oxbow lake, that is left behind when a river or creek changes paths. The cruise took us through the Yellow Waters billabong, and along some of the tributaries of the creek.




This is a White-Bellied Sea Eagle, a huge bird that was nesting in the area.






Because of the recent heavy rains, the boats were still able to enter this remarkable paperbark forest. Our guide turned off the motor and we just drifted through... it was beautiful.




The main reason most people go on these cruises is to see Salties, and we certainly weren't disappointed, since we saw half a dozen. This little guy appears to me to be a Freshie though, now that I see him again.




And, at last, the star of the show, having a nice nap on the bank. These guys range very far inland, and are obviously not limited to salt water, since we are some 60 miles from the ocean.