An early start today, as we planned to do a 6km return trip walk to the Kubara Pools, and aimed to miss the heat of the day. The walk took us through more savanna and woodland areas. We didn't rush but took our time to soak in the beauty we were immersing ourselves in. As the road that led to this track was a dirt road, we knew that we wouldn't find any tourist coaches on this walk. 😅. The birds were very chirpy and darted around between the trees. There were orange coloured flowering gums, purple turkey bush flowers and all sorts of other pretty little flowers dotted along the way. We saw tracks belonging to lizards of various sizes, and even dingo paw tracks visible in the sandy path. Butterflies flittered around us, and when we walked past the browned long grasses, if you stopped and listened, Matt reckoned it sounded like a rice bubble breakfast, when you first pour the milk on - snap crackle and pop!! There was so much action and insect life in the grasses, that you couldn't see but could hear. Red tail black cockatoos flew above us, and little doves whizzed around and beside us. Matt reckoned these doves flew like the speeder bikes in Star Wars, they were so fast and confident as well, darting about through the trees in a flash. (not like city doves that are inherently stupid and couldn't weave their way under the harbour bridge without hitting something) We had a rocky escarpment that again was similar to what you see in the Blue Mountains, but the weather is a lot warmer here!
We finally reached the Kubara Pools, and hiked up to reach the main pool. Compared to other rock pools that we had enjoyed in Litchfield National Park, it was underwhelming but pretty all the same. We stopped for an hour here, taking in the little fish darting under the slightly murky water. Some had vertical stripes and another type had one horizontal stripe with colourful fins. Matt threw in some crumbs from the pretzels he had eaten and they would rush up to eat them and then fight over them. yeah i know i've upset the ecological balance and they're probably all dead now. well the crocs gotta eat something. Matt ventured up further to see the little waterfall. We headed back onto the track, again enjoying the beauty around us, our church for this Sunday, and returned back to Bridget.
We looked at the time, and decided that we still had time to do something else, and opted to go to the nearby Nanguluwirr Indigenous art site. That would involve a 4km return walk in the middle of the day, but we felt like we could manage it after Matt had lunch, less grumpy that way, then we headed out into the heat. We headed off down the fairly flat walk, and eventually reached the caves with the art work. There were spirits with 6 fingers, barramundi, turtles, people, and more. Some were painted in the 1960's and the oldest has been dated around 20,000 years old. It was worth the heat and the walk to come and see them. We made it back to Bridget and headed back to Jabiru and we were grateful to plug into power and turn on the air con. Matt went and had a swim in the pool (very cold )after doing my IV care so I could have extra IV fluids after being in the heat and the long walk.
We just relaxed in the cool for the rest of the afternoon, catching up with my brother James and sister-in law Natalie, and our eldest son Jolyon on the phone, and writing up my journal and this blog. As I write this up, the Curlew bird is having a sing, with its eerie call. I am hoping these blogs are inspiring others to want to travel to the Top End, and explore for yourselves, our varied and spectacular country.
