Kakadu National Park, NT, Oz

Much has happened since my last post. We are now more than halfway through our top end walkabout in the land yacht. Ron finally got his tickets and left last Wednesday and we picked up a Ford Transit motor home and off we went. The motor home is a bit spartan and the house battery is about worthless but everything works if the motor is running or if we are plugged in to shore power. It's been very warm so I'm glad we have air conditioning. Our first stop was Litchfield National Park where we saw the famous magnetic ant hills and giant Cathedral termite mounds, some of which were six meters tall. Magnetic ants are not in fact, magnetic. They get their name from the way they orientate their ant hills in a north-south orientation, in order to minimize heat build up. We also saw many waterfalls and swimming holes in the park. Next day we went on to the Nitimuk National Park, home of the Katherine Gorge. We took a nice walk into the gorge and had lunch overlooking the river. We tried to find a camp site there but they were all full so went on to Victoria Crossing on the Victoria River. A very scenic spot with deep escarpments and very red rock formations. Next day we went on through the Gregory National park named for Augustus Gregory who led an expedition through there in 1885. A land of deep valleys and gorges, with towering sandstone landforms and the amazing and ancient Baob trees that look like upside down carrots. We went on to Kununurra on the next day and crossed the state line into Western Australia. The quarantine boys again took all of our fresh fruit and veggies but we did gain an hour and a half as the time zones are different. The next morning we were picked at 0530H for our two hour flight over Lake Argyle and to the Bungle Bungle rock formations in the Purnulu National park. These are truly amazing beehive domes of layers of sandstone that were formed 60 million years ago and are being slowly eroded by wind and rain to give them their unique appearance. We also overflew the Argyle Diamond Mine, the largest producer of pink diamonds in the world. We spent the rest of the day at Lake Argyle, where there is a large hydro electic dam. We went back to Katherine the next day and now we are in the Kakadu National Park exploring the wetlands of Yellow Waters. More information and photos to follow