Kakadu or Kakadon't

So, from Cairns (which, although I haven't touched on the subject: I loved; a really nice place) I made the short flight to Darwin. The main reason being that going here would allow me to see Kakadu National Park which is supposed to be well worth the visit and another UNESCO World Heritage site to cross off the checklist!

Darwin itself was a bit of a hole to be perfectly frank with you, so I'm quite glad I only stayed there a couple of days. There is bugger all to see there, and aside from a mildly pleasant walk along the Esplanade, there was even less to do! Although, my hostel did have a massive pool, and I beat my personal best for reading a book (in a total of about 10 hours I had read Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure which was excellent by the way if anyone is thinking of reading it, even if you are a Dave Gorman fan like me or not!) so the time spent there wasn't entirely futile.

That said, as I mentioned previously, my main reason for going to Darwin was to see Kakadu. Although it was a hefty drive from Darwin I saw some amazing Aboriginal rock art, some of which had been there for up to 70 years!! Ok, so 70 years is not really that impressive, but it was still amazing to see.

And as Aboriginal man Brian Baruwei said:

'If you respect the land, then you will feel the land.
Your experience will be one that you
cannot get anywhere else in the world.'

And you can't say fairer than that really can you!? Although I treat this with slight scepticism as his first name is inexplicicably: Brian! Extraordinary! (Nothing against Brian's mind you; my uncle and a best mate bear this name also, but for an aboribinal man whose people have lived there for an estimated 40,000 years I expected slightly more originality!)

Anywho, following these rock art sites we went on a Yellow River cruise to see the various forms of florae and faunae in the area. This was pretty good, saw a massive croc which was cool, and loads of bats and stuff and about a billion and three mosquitos.

Seeing thousands and thousands of bats in the trees next to the river was cool, and as our tour guide said:

"The sound of 10,000 bats chirping really is a sight to see"

and here was me thinking it would more likely that the sound of bats or the sound of anything come to think of it would be a "sound to hear", rather than a "sight to see", but what do I know!

Tip: for anyone going to Kakadu (or indeed Darwin if you are that way inclined) take plenty of mozzie repellent, or failing that a bee-keepers hat or haz-mat suit!

On the way back to Darwin our tour guide told us the unfortunate story of a star crossed girl who, just a week after avoiding the terrorist bombings in Bali, was promptly eaten by a crocodile while swimming in a billabong in Kakadu. Talk about Providence - when your numbers up I guess theres no getting away from it.

In review, don't bother with Darwin, its nowt spesh. and as for Kakadu, this was Ok. The rock art sites, which were awesome, certainly made up for an otherwise average national park.