July 27, 2007

Kakadu

Did some hiking around Kakadu National Park. Saw a lot of Crocs at White Lily Billabong. Even saw one go after a bird, but the bird got away. It was really cool to see the crocs out swimming, didn't get to see that on the Daintree. Really impressive to see them move along effortlessly with just a tiny movement of their tail.

After that went to Barramundi Gorge. Really nice swim after hiking in the hot, dry Top End weather. Even did a little cliff jumping, I seem to be getting over my fear of heights.

The next day was really the highlight of the trip. We hiked to the top of Jim Jim Falls. It was a really spectacular view up there. Had a little swim up there which was really refreshing after hiking for hours.

After that we went to Twin falls. Took a boat up the gorge which was nice after all the hiking at Jim Jim. On the boat ride back, we ran out of gas. so a bunch of us improvised some paddles. we used a pole, a broom and a dustpan to paddle our way back.

That night I was in charge of building a fire, so I built the mother of all bon fires. Chris, one of the people in the group had the awesome idea of fire drawing. What you do is set up a camera on a tripod and set it to as long an exposure as you can. Then take a stick that is burning at one end and move it around. Then in the picture you end up with the drawings. I'll post the drawings I made as soon as Chris sends them to me.

The last day we saw some Aborigine rock art, and stopped for lunch at a beautiful billabong.


White Lily Billabong


Crikey! She's a beaut!


Baramundi Gorge


You can swim down this little pool and through a cave to get back out to the main pool


Some cliffs to jump off


Sunrise at camp


A huge cathedral termite mound


View from the top of Jim Jim Falls


Its a loooong way down


Jim Jim Falls from the bottom


Twin Falls from a distance


Twin Falls close up. See the rainbow at the bottom of the falls?


The fire I built.


Rock art


Nice little billabong


More rock art.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Andrew:
Wow another exciting trip, we are all getting to see Australia. I don't care what you say, be careful of the crocs and snakes. Be Careful Out There!
Love Mum

Unknown said...

Hi Andrew:
Why are some of the pictures missing from the Whitsundays post.
Mum

Andrew said...

oh there was a double post and I deleted the double, but that apparently took the pics with it. I'll have to re-upload them.

Anonymous said...

Your trip looks and sounds amazing! I'd love to visit Australia if it didn't take so long to get there. I'll have to wait until some faster planes are built.
Those highways with the 130 speed limits must be wild - I wonder if they have lots more traffic fatalities than other countries.
Sharon M.

Andrew said...

Well Air Canada is soon going to have 777s that can fly from Vancouver to sydney in about 14hrs.

And before it was 130 there was actually no speed limit, so Territorians would drive down the road over 200 km/hr. I'm sure they had a lot of fatalities, if you hit a roo at tha speed you don't have much of a chance.