7th-8th May - Kakadu NP part 2
On 7th we visited the Nourlangie rock Aboriginal art site and did the short loop trail here. Later we did the longer walk to the nearby Nanguluwurr art site - images from both are shown in the gallery below
In the Nourlangie area we also did the Nawurlandja lookout walk, which we had entirely to ourselves and were fortunate to find a pair of Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeons here. Later we walked to the Mirray lookout - this was OK but hot and the view from the lookout was largely obscured by trees.
We went on to the Cooinda lodge for lunch and a sneaky swim in their pool before our Yellow Water cruise. The cruise was generally good, hampered a bit by overcrowding and heading into the sun for too much of the time, but we did get good views of several Saltwater Crocodiles and a good number of waterbirds. However, the only species we added to our trip list was Plumed Whistling-duck (a very common species). It was good to see all the water-lilies in flower and it was a good sunset before our 60km drive back to Jabiru in the dark.
Early on the 8th we made an unsuccessful attempt to find the Bowali track (which we found easily later in the day). However, this failure turned out to our advantage because we found a Frilled Lizard whilst looking for the track, and the wrong track we took gave us our only sightings of Black-tailed Treecreeper and Partridge Pigeon.
After breakfast we made an attempt to get to the East Alligator region but the road was impassable to 2-wheel drive vehicles due to flooding.
In the afternoon we returned to Nourlangie rock to attempt to get onto the escarpment via the Bark walk. This was strenuous, provided no birds and the view was not as good as we may have hoped - but we did get to see the sunset reflected on the rock.
In the afternoon we returned to Nourlangie rock to attempt to get onto the escarpment via the Bark walk. This was strenuous, provided no birds and the view was not as good as we may have hoped - but we did get to see the sunset reflected on the rock.