Thurs, Sept 6 - Fogg Dam to Kakadu

Thur, Sept 6

We birded Fogg Dam for a couple of hours, returned to the Eden for breakfast, checked out and headed east on the Arnhem Highway to Kakadu National Park. We managed to avoid a couple of jumping crocodile cruises, but has had several interesting birding stops along the way, once seeing about thirty Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, very large, noisy beautiful parrots. But most of the 200 km we drove through consisted of more flat scrubby woodland that seems to support only a few species of thin Eucalypts, Melalucas and Pandanus Palms, a cycad-like plant with huge cones.

Even though the area receives about two meters of rain a year (four time the amount Santa Barbara gets) all the rain comes in the summer, flooding the land, evaporating quickly and then all winter long the area is dry and baking. In addition, the Aborigines have been burning off the vegetation for thousands of years, so it’s a challenge for anything to live there.

We got to the tiny town of Jabiru about four and checked into the Crocodile Holiday Inn that amazingly is shaped like a crocodile! You enter the lobby through the croc’s mouth and climb upstairs in one of the claws. The hotel unfortunately doesn’t have wireless, but does have a guest laundry, which after three days of birding in 90-degree weather we really needed.

We decided to drive out to see the Nourlangie Rock Art site and were thrilled to see hills emerging on the horizons and more interesting vegetation appearing as we gained a little elevation. The Arnhem Escarpment consists of rugged red sandstone clifts rising 1000 feet from the plain with vertical black and white streaking. The Aborigines stayed here during the wet months and painted many beautiful drawings on the overhung walls of graphic depictions of men and women, creation myth figures and lots of animals. I was feeling peckish as we’d only had a Magnum ice cream bar for lunch and demanded that we return for dinner. Huge bus loads of tourists had arrived and they were crowded around the buffet, but fortunately, as we are traveling solo, we could order of the menu and had life-giving soup and curry.