Happy Birthday Tom, hope you have had a wonderful day, dinner is cooking and we will be having a cheers to you soon – ok well maybe a few!!
We have just got back from what was the best 2 hours I think
I have spent on this holiday, but more on that later!! No skipping to the end 😛
Went exploring around 9ish this morning, drove out to Nourlangie and did a bit of a walk to see some rock art. There were some quite good bits of art and some that was pretty ordinary.
Greg and I have been having a discussion on Rock Art these last few weeks. I am confused – the art we saw today was 2000 years old and what we saw a few weeks ago was 40,000 years old I think – I don’t believe that the art could possibly last that long. There is so much water up here in the wet and the wind is always blowing – surely it would have eroded away by now. Greg tells me that the Art is redrawn, I didn’t know that, but it makes more sense. I
just googled Aboriginal Rock Art erosion and came up with this
The only rock art, the only petroglyphs that you are going to see 100 years from now are those very, very deeply carved. And they of course are a small minority.
—Robert Bednarik, epistemologist, in 2008
Read more: http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/arts/aboriginal-rock-art.html#ixzz1VZ9MjgV7
I also read that in National parks the art is no longer able to be
redrawn, so I guess by the time our grandchildren are much older there will be very little Rock art left!
After Nourlangie we went to Anbangbang Billabong walk – was a
beautiful wetland, lots of birds and we saw our first crocodile – I was impressed we managed to see it on our own – in its natural environment without a tour guide!
On the way back to the Van we stopped at the Bowali Visitor Centre
– had a good exhibition of everything Kakadu.
We relaxed for a few hours at the Van, then headed out to the
Yellow Water Wetlands for a boat cruise.
On the way we stopped at Mardugal Billabong walk – was a lovely walk through woodlands – but not much life on the Billabong that we could see.
The highlight of my day was the Yellow Water cruise (www.gagudju-dreaming.com) started at 4.30pm – the last cruise of the day and lasted for 2 hours, we were hoping that we would see lots of wildlife at this time of day. The Wetlands were alive – there were so many
different types of birds, we saw Jabiru up much closer – they are so big! There were a pair of Brolga, various forms of kingfisher, egrets, ducks, geese, hawks, sea eagle, osprey, shags, bee eater
and they are the ones that we can remember.
I have never seen so many different birds in my life and the wetlands were stunning – I was mesmerised. We also saw at least 15 crocodile. We took so many photos! I can’t wait to have a
look at them. Oh yes the sunset was magical too. This cruise absolutely rates in my list (yes I know my list is quite long!!) of best things I have ever done on holiday – I loved every moment of the two hours – has been the highlight of this holiday for me.
I am off now to check out the photos – we have decided to have a
relaxing day tomorrow, so hopefully have time to post some photos for you. 😛
