F: 1 to 5 Sep Kakadu, and Darwin at last

Alison, wondering where the hell I am:

Park Ranger giving lecture on the management issues of the Kakadu National Park. East Alligator river floodplain is behind and Arnhem Land in distance. The floodplain is totally under water in the wet season:

We visited the extensive rock-art area at Ubirr. This has some of the country's best examples. This one depicts a white man as seen by the aborigines - hands in pockets and big feet with shoes.

I think this sign means fast swimmers only:

Part of the Bardedjilidji rock walking track. Some of the track went alongside the East Alligator River. Crocodile footprints were not far off the track.

This is Cahill's crossing (East Alligator River) with an incoming tide. This is a favorite time for the crocodiles to snap up some Baramundi. We counted 10 in this spot. Here we see a crocodile lurking to catch a Toyota. We are planning to cross here tomorrow, so we watch with interest.

More Ubirr rock art:

We bought permits and crossed into Arnhem Land on Thursday to visit the Injaluk Arts and Crafts Centre. We spotted this on the way and thought it might have been a depiction of an aboriginal encounter with Batman. On closer inspection it revealed itself as two adjacent termite mounds:

Although our permit did not allow us to stop we were able to take some photos from the car. This is part of Gundabalanya which is not far over the border from Kakadu:

The local supermarket. Its probably a lot nicer inside:
The dogs here find the heat hard going:

We bought some nice artifacts at Injaluk arts centre, we were allowed (with their permission) to photograph the artists outside:

The billabong near Gundabalanya:
Back at Jabiru I took a stroll around the town lake. This is a view across to the Arnhem Land plateau, the Ranger Uranium Mine is not far:

And back towards town, the clouds are building up and our days of clear skies appear to be over:

We were very pleased with our caravan site which came with an ensuite bathroom better than ours at home:
Next day we arrived in Darwin, after about 5,500 km on the road. We can now luxuriate in some big city things like - a nice coffee and a choice of restaurants, a full range of digital TV services, and even purchase a Sydney Morning Herald ($6.70 for weekend edition). We are here over a week before we head off to Bali and can buy clothes and replace broken items of equipment like our canister gas stove and the little wheel on the jockey wheel which disintegrated.

Our caravan fridge is now ok - we found a hidden plug had become disconnected. I have solved the email problem that we had, so we can now send as well as receive using our normal email addresses.

It appears the wet season is coming early this year, we are getting several downpours a day. Without the air conditioning in our caravan we would find it a bit uncomfortable.

Darwin's Anglican Cathedral, nice architecture in a lovely setting:

This is an interesting photo taken in 1939 at the first "talkie" shown at the Star Cinema.This cinema along with most other things was destroyed by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. The photo shows some people (whites included) covering their face for fear of losing their soul in the camera. The man with the hat on his rifle is a hunter.