Hello, dear reader, and congratulations on making it to the end of the journey. This will be the last post for a while and will feature more photographas than paragraphs. Blessed relief, I know.
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| A pandanus nut. |
A 7am breakfast. Not quite a sleep in but that is just around the corner. Breakfast done, bags on board, we headed to the bus for the drive to Ubirr, an area that boasts some of the world's best rock art. This is part of the reason that Kakadu has attained dual World Heritage status - according to the Parks Australia website.
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| I just liked the look of it in the morning light. |
The paintings document the indigenous peoples' interaction with the environment largely through the depiction of x-ray art. Most of these paintings are comparatively recent, dated to around 1,500 years BCE, although that is even before there were kings in England. About the same time as the demise of the Roman Empire. There is also a depiction of a Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) that is older because the Thylacine is believed to have become extinct on mainland Australia around 2,000 - 3,000 years ago, possibly as a result of the arrival of the dingo from SE Asia.
I know I've enthused and clichéd my way around the rock art sites, but they are truly breathtaking in their exquisite detail, considering their age. The red ochre leaches into the rock surface and lasts longer than yellow or white, to the extent where you start to recognise the red ochre bleed on rock walls and start to look for art even if it isn't signposted.
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| A white man. |
There were times when standing on the ground, looking up underneath an outcrop, we wondered how they painted all the way up there. The belief, of course, is that the depictions were placed there by the spirit ancestors. Or they popped down to Kennards and hired a cherry-picker.
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| This was at 10 metres off the ground. On the ceiling, not the wall. |
Within the Ubirr site is a lookout that required minor scrambling to reach the top of the sandstone plateau. The 360° views were well worth the scramble.
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| A Black-necked Stork (Jabiru) on a neighbouring outcrop. |
We stopped for lunch on the edge of Kakadu before our next stop, Bark Hut. According to their promotional material, it is a "must-see historic icon of the Northern Territory". It was built in the "wild era of buffalo and crocodile hunting and is now the central hub of discovery for the Mary River Wetlands and Kakadu National Park". So they say.
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| Lunch companion #1 |
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| Companion #2 |
Ok, it's a pub. An old pub with accommodation and a general store. It also has a resident crocodile, a buffalo and allegedly, a snake. The croc and buffalo were easily spotted in their enclosures, the snake not so much - if it existed. Doubts were expressed.
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| Exquisite detail. |
Back on the road, we drove through Humpty Doo, interesting only because of its name and the fact that people, avoiding city life in Darwin, have moved out here. There is much speculation as to where the name originates. Speculation but no agreement.
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| The Rainbow Serpent. |
It was then on to Darwin, the Hilton, shopping, coffee, dinner to farewell our new friends and guides and finally a sleep in. Our flight home was at 1:30pm and our transfer wasn't until 11:30am - most civilised.
The drive to the airport was interesting. It was in a Tesla X. Very cool and most unexpected.
The flight was late leaving but unremarkable and we were chauffeured home courtesy of APT.
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| A Redfern sunset. Home again. |
Our next major trip dear reader is in October/November. We're off to Vietnam and Cambodia. Before then we are having a few days away to celebrate Jayne's birthday. There may be a post or two about that - we'll see.
Thank you for sharing our journey. One last farewell, it's closing time, last drinks people. Enjoy Closing Time by Semisonic from 1998.
Bobo.
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