Off to See the Wizard - Kakadu to Bark Hut Pub

We had heard a lot of differing opinions of Kakadu National Park.  As it is fairly late in the dry season we had heard that quite a few waterfalls, including the most famous are actually dry.  Also, they are quite a distance from the main road down 4WD only roads, so we decided not to worry about visiting them.  We have said all along that we can’t see every attraction or we will never get anywhere.

We did, however, wish to visit the little town of Jabiru, as it is the main centre.  We arrived on Saturday morning and it was dead!  All there is there is a supermarket, post office (closed), travel agent (closed) and  takeaway shop (defunct) as well as two fuel stations, so we did get some diesel.  There is the crocodile shaped hotel and a large caravan park, but that is about all.

There were a couple of nice murals painted on the buildings, but some d…head had gone around every building in the entire complex with a tin of paint and with their hand painted a stripe. IDIOT!! Such a pity.

We made the choice not to go looking at other points of interest, but to just drive through on the main road.

As we drove along there were loads of pandanus trees.  You really get the sense of being in the tropics now. Although I think we both thought it would be a bit less like the bush and more jungle like.  Mind you, we thought this as we drove to Cairns way back in 1987, so we shouldn’t have been surprised.

We stopped for morning tea beside the South Alligator River.  It is rather large and people were going out there in not very large boats.  Having seen all those crocs the night before I would have wanted a very large boat, or better still, none at all.

We only had a short drive on that day of 190kms to the Bark Hut Pub.  We had heard it was another nice place to stay.  It had been close for four years and has been owned for the last two years by the same fellow that owns the Lazy Lizard at Pine Creek where we stayed a couple of days before.  He is doing major upgrades.  The pub has been renovated, motel units built, camp kitchens upgraded and a new amenities block is nearing completion.  It will be in the same style as those at Pine Creek, complete with beer kegs.

In the afternoon we enjoyed cooling off in the inviting pool.  The weather is seriously hot now and muggy with it, not even cooling down much in the nights.

Just before 5 o’clock a fellow drove around on his four wheeler advising everyone that they would soon be feeding “Harry” if we wanted to come on over.

“Harry” it turns out is a rather large croc.  They estimate that he is about 30 years old.  He used to live at a neighbouring cattle station and was proving to be a problem taking calves.  That has quite a commercial impact.  It looked he was going to be shot, but these fellows caught him and put him in a holding pen on the station until this enclosure was built earlier this year.  He is fed twice a week and we just happened to be there. Apparently, he has been putting on quite a bit of weight since being in this spot, so that must be the right amount.  You will notice that he is missing the end of his tail and his front foot.  Apparently, they can cut off the bloodflow to an injured area and heal themselves.

His enclosure is quite quirky, with an old truck with a crane on it turned into a water feature with the water coming out of the front grille.  Mick is always intrigued with old cranes, so he thought this was pretty cool.

This is for Grace.  In an adjoining enclosure they also had two emus.  

In typical Aussie pub style the loos had fun signs.  I somehow stuffed up the photo of the “Jills” which was a cow backing up to a toilet.

Inside there is a crocodile skull on a baby grand piano.  I wouldn’t want to come across this fellow.

It was nice to just have a short day of driving and a lazy afternoon and evening, ready to hit the big smoke the next day.

The highlight of the day was lazing in the pool.