Ubirr

Ubirr (oo-bir) is definitely one of the places you should put on your to-do list when visiting Kakadu National Park. It was about 92 kilometres from our caravan park at Gagudju Cooinda Lodge and is located in the north east section of Kakadu. On the way we stopped at Border Store to view some basket weaving demonstrations by local indigenous women - fascinating. Border store has plenty of seating in the shade and public toilets - they also sell food and items by local artists. Across the road is the Alligator River and Cahills crossing - we saw men fishing from the rocks even though there are signs everywhere warning of the dangers of crocodiles (I guess they must have been far enough out of the water).

A little further up the road is the Ubirr Rock Art site and viewing platforms - this is open from 8.30 to sunset in the dry months (May to October). We had arrived in time to join the 4 pm guided tour of the rock art. Unfortunately the guide did not turn up but a ranger in the area gave the waiting group some advice on what to look for in the artwork, and suggested we head up the lookout to watch the sunset.

The rock art is amazing with some of these paintings dating back tens of thousands of years. This walkway has wheelchair access. You can walk along this track to view the magnificent rock art before heading up the rock to Nadab Lookout.

You will need to follow Yellow Triangle markers embedded into the rock to guide you to the lookouts. The climb to the rocky lookout is not too difficult but we had our walking sticks. Further up we came to Nadab Lookout - amazing views of the Nadab floodplain towards Arnhem Land. You may recognise this view - it was featured in the Australia movie Crocodile Dundee. The floodplains seem to go on forever. We did not stay to watch the sunset because our accommodation was an hours drive away and we did not want to hit any kangaroos in the dark.