Cakelaw's Travel Tales

On the last day of our tour, we bade farewell to Kakadu and visited Litchfield National Park and Howard Springs Nature Park.  It was another scorching hot day in the Territory, so I was pleased that we were going to be near water.  Even better, we were promised a swim in the rock pools if we desired it - hooray! Our first stop in Litchfield National Park was at the Magnetic Termite Mounds and Cathedral Termite Mounds.  The Magnetic Termite Mounds are so called because they are aligned north to south, and there are heaps of them  on display in a large field.  There are many more than in this photo: Here's a close up of one of the mounds: Just across the way from the Magnetic Termite Mounds are the Cathedral Termite Mounds, so called because of their towering structure: This mound is over four metres tall.  It is hard to believe that something as small as termites could build such a magnificent structure. Having seen the termite moun...

On our second day in Kakadu National Park, we spent the early part of the day looking at Aboriginal rock art at Ubirr, before going on another cruise, this time on the East Alligator River.  This cruise was very different to the wetlands cruise, and demonstrated how diverse the landscape is in Kakadu National Park.  Our cruise was by Guluyambi Cruises, which are run by the Aboriginal people of the Top End. We were taken down the river in a boat by our Aboriginal guide from Arnhem Land, who skilfully negotiated the many snags in the river.  Along the way, he gave us softly spoken commentary about what we were seeing and its significance to his people. This plant is used by the Aboriginal people to make fibres and medicine: Some of the river bank was lined with sandy beach: Don't you just love the contrast of these ghostly trees against the bright blue sky: The scenery along the East Alligator River was breathtaking, but in a much more understate...