Monday 5th November – Happy Anniversary

We have a long drive today so it is a slightly different way to spend our anniversary but it was nice to wake up to the sunrise and the wallaby’s for one last time. We had a lovely breakfast before loading up the car, picking up our picnic lunch and heading off by 8.00am. The first part of the drive was the same route as yesterday which gave us the opportunity to fill up with fuel which was a good thing as we had about 300km where we only saw about 5 cars and definitely no petrol stations. Then it was time to start the new part of the journey. Out first stop was Nourlangle where there is a 1.5km circular walk that took us up to an Aboriginal shelter, we then continued the walk along a corridor of rock art, some of it is very intricate whereas others look like they were drawn by a five year old. After looking at the rock art we continued up to Gunwarddehwardde Lookout which gave magnificent views of the Kakadu escarpment and woodlands below, it really shows how large this area is when you can view it from high up and to think that 30% of it will be underwater once the rainy season is underway. It was then time to get back in the car and continue with the drive, other than changing driving and having a bit of a stretch our only other stop was for lunch at Bukbukluk lookout, originally we had planned to drive to one of the waterfalls but all the roads require 4WD and we don’t have that and the hire companies seem to be quite strong on following the rules we had to show a receipt when we handed the last car back to prove we had filled the car up! We decided to have lunch before walking to the lookout and the lunch provided by the Wildman Lodge was really nice, but to be honest we probably only needed to order one as there was a lot! After we finished lunch we did the short walk to Bukbukluk lookout which apparently gave views of Goodparla Station but it wasn’t that obvious but the view was stunning again. Then it was time to get back in the car and continue the drive to Katherine. We arrived at the hotel about 3.00 and to say it is a bit different to the last place is an understatement, we are staying in the Beagle motor inn and it is exactly what it says a motor inn with a clean comfortable bed, what looks like a reasonable shower and a few restaurant choices around the town. To be honest it was just nice to be here and relax for a bit before going out for something to eat.