ROAD TRIP (Part 2!!)

DAY 6 – JABIRU 

We decided to go up to Jabiru today via Nourlangie Rock – a place which has Aboriginal rock art and a lookout point. This was one of the few places that were open. 

 Aboriginal rock art

 We stayed one night at Jabiru and ate out at the campsite restaurant which was quite posh really– it was Australian Mothers Day! 

After having a word with the campsite reception, we decided to drive all the way back down to Cooinda because there was nothing open around Jabiru because of the flooded roads being closed.  Ubirr was somewhere that I really wanted to go but was only accessible by 4WD’s because of the water on the road. I had been hoping that the 2m high water we had been told about a few days ago would have now subsided, but it hadn’t.

Arrived at Cooinda and booked the sunset cruise for the next day, seeing as there was not a lot we were able to see now and a few extra days to be occupied!

DAY 7 

We spent some time by the pool and who should walk in but the little boy Daisy had made friends with and his family. They also had a girl who was a bit younger than Em, so they all had fun in the pool.  

DAY 8  

We spent most of the morning by the pool and had it to ourselves – one of the advantages of not being here in the Australian school holidays! We had to meet at the shuttle bus stop at 4.10pm for the sunset cruise. The sun sets around 4.45pm. This time we had a different, experience. It was still hugely peaceful on the water and the scenery is breathtaking. We saw a croc straightaway which looked bigger than we had seen previously but the guide said this was a small female! Then we saw a particularly fierce looking one, which was huge and named Waters! I think these guide’s must get bored and name the crocs for something to do! Although you could never get bored out on Yellow Water. 

DAY 9 

We were headed for Darwin today but not before first trying to see if the road to Ubirr was open. The man at the camp office said he thought we would be ok. We called in at Bowali Aboriginal Visitor Centre which is a Tourist Info and asked there too.

They reckoned we would be ok because yesterday, a camper van and ordinary cars had made it through the flooded road and the water level was down to about 400mm. So we decided to give it a try!

Phew! We made it to the other side, although adrenalin was certainly pumping, seeing as the van wasn’t insured for water!

Once we were at Ubirr, we were so glad that we had risked the floods to see this wonderful place.  Firstly we climbed up to the Nardab lookout - a scramble up sandstone rocks to a huge plateau with the most spectacular views over the floodplains of Arnhem land - a no-go area, and strictly for Aborigines.

Photos can not do this place justice, we just wanted to stay up there all day! On the way up, there is loads of Aboriginal Rock Art some of which dates from 8000 years ago – amazing!
 

 climbing to the lookout

  floodplains

On the way back, we went to the main viewing gallery, where there is most of the rock art, its just amazing to see how some of this could have been painted that high up and in the most awkward of places. 

It was then time to experience the adrenalin rush back through the 2 floods, one of which was moving water and on to the campsite for our last night in Darwin and onto our next leg of our journey…….Sydney!