Ubirr and Litchfield
Aug 15, 2023
Hello! Still here at Darwin, and despite this being our longest stretch in one place, I'm still way behind on this blog. I blame the Matildas - I'm STILL recovering from that penalty shoot out!!
WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!
To take us all the way back to our last day in Kakadu, we had a quiet day with a swim in the pool, and then in the afternoon made our way to the famous rock art gallery in Ubirr. We had hoped to go on a ranger guided tour, but unfortunately the tour guide didn't make it, so we made our way around the gallery. While it was a bit more crowded / less intimate than space in Arnhem, it was still an amazing experience.
Even Toby was tempted by the lovely pool at the Anbinik caravan park in Jabiru!
The main gallery that has a huge collection of pictures of animals. The pictures had a number of meanings - great hunters would commemorate their catches, people would honour the spirits of the animals they had hunted and eaten, and the art would include specific details on how to butcher the animals and which parts of the animals to eat.
Look closely to see the animals, mostly fish, on the walls.
This is a very famous picture of a tasmanian tiger which is thought to have become extinct on the mainland 2,000 to 3,000 years ago.
A close up!
A painting of the creation spirit rainbow serpent, which the local Aboriginal people believed to have been painted the serpent herself.
And just in front of the painting of the rainbow serpent was a brown snake. Eeekk!! Thankfully there was a raised walking platform in front of the rock art, so we (and all the other tourists) were far enough away from the snake to be safe.
As well as all the art, there was an amazing look out with a fantastic view of the floodplains, rivers and woodlands of Kakadu. We didn't stay to see the sunset, but even so it was just beautiful!
So many opportunities for panoramas on this trip!
On Sunday we said sadly goodbye to Kakadu and heading out to Litchfield, stopping at the Bark Hut for lunch. We stayed at a great caravan park near the entrance to the Litchfield National Park, where we had a lovely few days in our very cool cabin.
The cabin had a huge veranda, including some rocking chairs, as well as a bath and an outdoor shower!
Nora and Josie LOVED the rocking chairs.
On the Monday the girls and I went to the Butterfly Farm in Batchelor, which was .... interesting?!?! The place was very hippy and a bit rundown with a full menagerie of animals. On the whole it felt a bit odd, but the kids loved it!
Bunnies!
So many bunnies!
So cute and soft!!
They were cute enough that I could have almost pictured getting one for a pet. But then I remembered the bilbies, and how rabbits are their mortal enemies, and how they have SO many babies, and I looked around at the wee and the poo and knew once again that pets are not for me. Sorry kiddos!
In the butterfly enclosure, where there were some really lovely butterflies who were not at all cooperative to my attempts to photograph them.
Duck and ducklings! There were also other farmyard animals, including pigs, turkeys, donkeys, chickens and geese. But I didn't want to get too close to any of them, especially that last one - those things can be vicious!! Again, I'm really not an animal person....
On Tuesday we went into Litchfield National Park to see some of the main sights, although we were taking it pretty easy so only hit two main spots. First we had a look at some termite mounds, which were very impressive.
Cathedral termites build up and out, away from the floodplains that dry out in the heat of the dry season.
Whereas magnetic termites build mounds in the black soil of the floodplains that are not as tall and are VERY thin, but they are always built along a north-south axis to minimise the exposure heat of the setting sun. Scientists hypothesised that the termites have internal magnetic forces which allow them to sense where the magnetic poles are to know which way to build, and prove this theory correct by introducing magnetic poles and watched the termites build their mounds to align with the introduced poles.
We then headed to Wangi Falls, a very popular swimming spot at the park where just a few weeks ago a gentlemen got bitten by a crocodile. Eek! We did brave a little swim, but I was pretty nervous the whole time so it didn't last long. But it was very pretty!
Ok, have to wrap this up and make some burrito mince for dinner. Will try to get to our Darwin adventures tonight!