JABIRU IN KAKADU NATIONAL PARK

Dear all,

I'm trying to catch up on our Blog. I'm about 1 month behind.

We are presently (28/9) in Broome, but in our Blog, we're now in Kakadu National Park. If any of you ever have the chance to visit Kakadu, take it .... it is absolutely fabulous.









Our destination from Corroboree was Jabiru (283 kms east of Darwin), but specifically Merl Campground. Merl promised to be a national park type camping ground and we thought it would be an oasis hue.

It was really nice and the camp sites were separated by about 50 metres of bush and each had a camp fire with picnic table and bench seats. The amenities block was brand new and each afternoon they had indigenous people visit and show basket weaving or just talk about their culture ... but we went to Ubirr to see the Aboriginal rock art and the sunset.

Ubirr (pronounced Oobeerr) is a spiritual place for the indigenous and so interesting. The rock art is fabulous and there is so much of it.







We climbed up rocks to a flat rock tableland with a magnificent view over the floodplains. There must have been 80 people up there when we finally arrived waiting to see the sunset. It wasn't a hard climb, but it was quite steep in places. The view to the west was fabulous with hundreds of kms of flat, green grasslands and the sunset beautiful ... but that was before the drama unfolded!

While we were there, the park rangers commenced control-burning of the floodplains before us (like everything up here, they burn the ground before "the wet"). It was quite beautiful until the wind changed and all of a sudden, we were engulfed in smoke and the flames were heading in our direction.







We decided to make a run for it but as we got to the bottom of the cliff, the flames were rapidly heading our way. Ken grabbed my arm and pulled me back up the rocks and back to the top of the cliff. The flames were now in full view in front of us and, together with everyone else up there, we were cut off. We could hardly breath and our eyes smarted from the smoke, and one of the rangers who was up there with us, took off to get everyone out of the park below. The remaining ranger got everyone to move back to the face of a cliff with the promise that we would be evaculated by helicopter if the fire didn't abate. Ken pulled me aside and said "when the helicopter arrives, make a run for it!" We (and all of the others) were worried about our cars in the car park, but the ranger who stayed with us was on her walkie-talkie and said that there was a fire truck at the car park and another was on it's way to us. It was really terrifying, especially when the flames reached the top of the ridge we were on and the trees and spinifex burst into flames. About 2 hours into our ordeal, out of the smoke came 2 firemen who told us that the park below was still alight but they would take anyone down the cliff who wanted to leave.

Amazingly there were only 6 people who went with them, 2 of them being Ken and Frances! When we got to the bottom, the fire was still smouldering and there were small flames at the bottom of the trees.


So ... we live to tell the tale. However, we then went back to our campground at Merl ... that is another story!

It was now, obviously, dark and we had always said that it would be nice to cook our dinner on the campfire .... that was one of the reasons why we chose Merl - but we didn't count on the insects! The insects up here could carry you away! We covered ourselves in so much repellant which kept them from biting, but it didn't stop them from flicking our arms and legs. It was too hot to have long sleeves and jeans, so we were driven inside. After dinner I decided that if I went to the amenities block to have a shower, I would have to walk back without repellant, so, for the first time, I had a shower in the caravan. Fantastic! Mr. Big copied me!!

Sleep, then the next morning out of here to civilisation called Jabiru. I must say, however, before leaving Merl Campground, off to the loo only to find there was no water for showers and toilets. They'd used it all to fight the fire!!!

Jabiru ... home of the mightly Ranger Uranium Mine - HUGE! Aurora Caravan Park - why Merl Campground for goodness sake ... this is fantastic.

Don't forget to double click on the photos if you want to see them properly.

Love from us.

PS. It was lovely to talk to the Esso girls yesterday! I raised a glass or 2 with you from Broome!