Kakadu National Park

As I looked at the storm clouds above, I wondered if the cheap KMart tent I had bought from a guy off Facebook Marketplace was waterproof. I guess I’d quickly find out as it was my home for the next 5 days at least…

Thankfully, it held! The first two nights in Kakadu we had pouring rain after 9pm, which honestly wasn’t too bad as it kept away the mosquitos. Our third night, the rain held off and we had a big fire to try to keep the bugs at bay, but as soon as the fire died down, I ran to my tent and Jo to his car - trying to get in as quickly as possible to avoid followers. Waking up in the morning was horrifying as you could hear the mosquitos outside waiting to bite. I’ve never experienced that many before.

I had extremely high expectations for Kakadu as everyone I talked to raved about the NT and the park. I thought it was fine - not great but not bad. My favorite parts were the first and last days. We started in the southern end of the park at Gunlom Falls, a waterfall and plunge pool where we swam in the top section through a small ravine and to an even smaller mini-falls.

The majority of the park you can’t swim in the water due to crocodiles. With the tropical humidity and mosquitos, this made for some unpleasant nights. The aboriginal cultural center was not very informative or well put together, but the rock art walks at Nurlangie had some of the best work I’ve seen. The creepiest was the 6 finger cannibal story to warn children from entering caves on their own.

After giving up on free campsites, we paid for a night in the caravan park in the heart of the park. This gave us an afternoon at the pool and the ability to go see the sunset at Ubirr without feeling rushed to make it back to set-up camp before the mosquitos came out. Our sunset luck was nonexistent - too many clouds, no clouds, behind trees…

While Ubirr didn’t provide the amazing sunset we were hoping, the views at the lookout over the floodplains made us feel like we were on the savannah.

My other favorite part wasn’t actually in the park. Miriam had recommended the Corroboree Wetland Cruise and it was amazing. We joined the sunset cruise for two hours on the water of the billabong.

We learned about the bully bird who is lazy about hunting fish or prey himself, so instead steals from smaller birds or will even go as far as growing a forest fire to help himself. The cutest birds were the comb-crested jacana, also known as the Jesus bird, as it appears to be walking on the water. Really, they just have incredibly long toes that let them balance their weight on the water. We saw babies that were only 1 week old! The main event was CROCODILES. After spending the last week saying “Be Croc Wise” anytime we passed water, I was eager to actually see one. We saw both salt and fresh water crocs and learned that they are surprisingly picky eaters! Not one to eat rotten meat, if a croc takes down larger prey like a cattle, it’ll drag the body to the edge of the water where turtles and birds will come, making easy fresh eats for the croc. 

For me, learning fun facts and stories helps to bring the experience to life. This makes joining a tour or reading the signs along the track or throughout the museum 100% worth my time. Along with the views and the people I share the experience with, the stories are the most memorable.

Kakadu was not as amazing as I expected, but I’m still glad that I experienced it!