The day started off everybody having a good night’s rest… and a big surprise for Nathan! We all signed a boomerang that was Nathan’s birthday gift, crowded outside his cabin at 8AM and surprised him by singing ‘Happy Birthday’, and having a chocolate mud cake (which later eaten after dinner).
At 9AM, after breakfast, we met our Kakadu Cultural Tour guide Ryan and all got on the bus to visit the Kakadu National Park – Bowali Visitor Centre. We looked at the different displays, signs and statues in each room. We were all told to find the names of the four birds which are endemic to Kakadu, and turned out to be more challenging than we thought! We then went into the little mini-theatre to watch a documentary about the park and it was quite interesting. We learned that there was an introduced species of plant known as the Mimosa which is threatening the livelihood of the park. We were shown a video of rangers on a power boat speeding through the park’s wetter areas looking for introduced plants and weeding them away. The rangers in the video said that the mimosa plant doubles in growth. So in a year, there could be 100 mimosa plants growing, but the year after there could be up to at least 300 plants growing. The video and visit to the park was very interesting!
After lunch at the Border Store, we all went on a cruise along the East Alligator River to see the crocodiles live in action! It was cool to see crocodiles up close in their natural habitat. Unfortunately, it suddenly began to rain heavily when we were halfway along the river cruise so the boat had to turn back. After the rain had stopped, we got on the bus to the walk along the Ubirr walking track and learned that we would see the sunset up on the Ubirr Rocks. Our tour guide Ryan accompanied us again and began to show us the fascinating Aboriginal rock painting found in Kakadu. We were told all about what the different pictures could mean, and learned that not all of the paintings were necessarily meant to be art. We worked our way along the short track, stopping at every display to marvel at the paintings, before arriving at the lookout. We were all shocked at how fantastic the view was, and after taking a few photos, we all realised that photos simply could not capture just how amazing the view was.
However, we were all in awe when got to sit on the rocks to watch the beautiful sunset. Everybody was quiet after a few minutes of talking about the view and then sat down to admire it sunset some more. When we arrived back on the bus, we were dropped off at the Border Store again for a fantastic dinner.
Our first official day in Jabiru trip has been absolutely incredible.
Love,
Max and Sunny on behalf of the Australia Group 🇦🇺🌅
Thanks,
Linda