Bucket List #63 Visit Kakadu National Park NT

Kakadu or Kakadont? Judge for yourself. I did.

I missed seeing Kakadu the last time I was through the Territory and I thought being at the start of the season would be the best time to see it but sadly my timing was not quite right. Firstly being so early meant whilst the water is there the access roads are not open. Added to that someone of importance died and pretty much the rest of the places are closed out of respect. I decided to do a flight instead.

I would of preferred a helicopter flight but the cost was a bit out of my budget so I settled on a fixed wing flight for $250 for 60 minutes. We were in the air for closer to 70 minutes. It’s only a small plane with 8 seats. So pilot and 7 passengers. Everyone has a window seat. I sat right behind the pilot. Best position is the copilot seat or the 2 very back seats.

The flight took us over the town of Jabiru, past the Ranger Uranium mine, which will be fully shut down within 5 years, along the escarpment and along the border of Kakadu National Park and Arnhem Land. On the left were the rugged and beautiful cliff faces and the wetlands to the right. We flew over Jim Jim falls, Twin Falls doing loops so passengers on both sides got a great view. We then flew back over Double Falls and another smaller falls.

There was a good amount of water flowing in all the falls but the pilot said Jim Jim would cease to flow in a couple of weeks and Twin Falls would slow to a trickle. I was glad that I did the flight when I did. the plane sits on just over 100knots so slow enough to take in the vastness of the wetlands and the majesty of the rock formations. It’s a vast land and of course so green after such a wonderful wet season.

My opinion. Flight is well worth $250. By the time roads are open up to 4wds and to be able to do a ground tour I think my flight option was a good one.

I did drive out to Cahills Crossing which is the river crossing through to Arnhem Land. There were 2 flood ways on the way that were very shallow so no problems getting through. The Border Store which I had heard a lot about was closed up. The Crossing has a viewing platform and the river sure was flowing pretty fast. As I was walking back to my bus I saw another coaster approach the crossing so I went back and managed to film him crossing. Too deep for me.

I had a night at Jabiru which has a typical mining town layout. They are going to inject over $136million in coming years to make it a major tourist attraction. I also went into Cooinda but the Yellow River Boat was not operating. Jabiru has a nice lake called Town Lake (of course). It is quite picturesque but cannot swim there as a croc was sighted in the lake last week.

So to answer the original question, Kakadu or Kakadont? For me it’s a Kakadu.