Kakadu-du-du, no pineapples, plenty of trees. A long weekend in the NT

[bPeteb]

Continuing with my (my Kiwi partner has been to everywhere before) discovery of Oz, we're just back from a long weekend at Kakadu. Not even close to enough time, but just like with last year's flying tasting-plate-sized visit to Adelaide and surrounds, I now want to go back for the full course.

QF Y BNE-DRW
Darwin Novotel AIrport Hotel one night
Ace Car Rental mystery car
Cooinda Lodge glamping two nights
Yellow Water sunset cruise
Spirit of Kakadu Adventure Tour
QF Y DRW-BNE

 

[bPeteb]

Another long weekend, another Aussie destination.

The Y fares from Brisbane to Darwin weren't particularly cheap but the J fares were particularly expensive so Y it was.

The direct flight to DRW was already running nearly a half hour late before we left home on Friday evening so we had plenty of time for a couple of leisurely drinks and some Mexican from the J lounge cantina.

We had noone sharing our row 6 row of three so room to spread out for the four hours up to Darwin. I had an odd sausage pasta in a box, can't remember what partner had. Two x $6 beers. We caught up our 20 minute delayed departure and made more time up so arrived nearly half hour early. Carry on only and even with a wrong turn out of the terminal door (turn right!) we were pressing the button on the door of the Novotel Airport hotel in under 10 minutes, at about midnight.

I had the choice of the Novotel or the Mercure across the road. I'm sure the Novotel was slightly cheaper and maybe that was right because it was nothing flash! Booked through Qantas but still provided with gold status drink vouchers, even if there was no bar to use them. Didn't hear a sound from the 24 hour ops of the airport.

 

[Denali]

Settling in, looking forward to see/hear if theres been improvements at Cooinda

 

[Major]

What a fabulous photo in your initial post

 

[bPeteb]

Both had a good night's sleep and headed over the road to the Mercure where breakfast was available. $29 each for the full buffet! Ouch. The pool area that the restaurant looks out over looked very nice but it would be a strange place to base yourself if you were visiting Darwin.

This is the Novotel pool, nice but odd. Restaurant and bar that are open for lunch and dinner open on to the pool terrace.



Car was booked through Ace and it should have been a five minute walk to their airport 'office'. Instead we walked up and down a street of car depots until someone finally pointed us to the shed at the end of the street. Literally a two metre x two metre demountable. No wonder the confusion at the other yards - Ace is Hertz, and Hertz was at the other end of the street. We were an hour early but our start and end time were jiggled a bit to give us two full days plus a couple of hours for no extra charge. We ended up with a Toyota Rav4 for the cost of a small car.

We'd tried to book a scenic flight from the airstrip at Cooinda but the latest time available was 1pm and there was no way we could get there in time so we did a circuit of Darwin before hitting the highway.



Instead of going straight to Cooinda we drove on to Jabiru where we filled up the car then back out of town and on to our destination. We stopped at Mirray Lookout and trekked up the kilometre or so up to the top of the ridge.





Definitely not the right footwear. Merrils tucked away on my bag

 

[Captain Halliday]

Looks like you’ve moved on from Novotel, but for anyone else reading this thread in future, Novotel guests can use the Mercure facilities and vice versa.

Meantime, @bpeteb I had almost six years in DRW, so hit me up if you need tips and advice up there.

 

[Denali]

I keep trying to convince hubby we should move to Darwin but no luck yet... Im still trying.

 

[bPeteb]

We arrived mid-afternoon and given welcome pack, again I'd advised hotel of Accor status, with welcome drink vouchers. It's a big place, spread out behind reception and restaurant and bar buildings. We were in tent 3, our first glamping experience. They have 18 tents that only opened in March of this year. Some like ours are for two with one queen bed, some are for families with an addition off to one side with bunks in it

two of the family tent with the bunk add-on, to left of the closer tent, and right of tent behind



We were in tent 3, in the row closest to the bush but that meant it had great privacy with nothing but the road to the bottom row of tents in front. We LOVED the tent. It was like new and for $199 per night we think it was a bargain. Glamping is hell expensive but I suppose dose often include an ensuite...





shower block is yellow building in left of picture. Maybe a 50 metre walk that was well lit all night



aircon, ceiling fan, fridge, jug, water, tea and coffee







space for the cars of the occupants of tents 3 and 4 and then bush



a very unexpected welcome letter and gift from the GM of the lodge. Would have been lovely when first put in the fridge



we're usually very good at both hotel and food photos but in this instance we were rubbish. Not a single image of pool, restaurant or bar. The main pool was nice but full of very loud kids and equally loud adults. We both risked ingestion of a gallon of pee with a quick dip then it was time for our ironically named Yellow Water sunset cruise.

 

[bPeteb]

Looks like you’ve moved on from Novotel, but for anyone else reading this thread in future, Novotel guests can use the Mercure facilities and vice versa.

Meantime, @bpeteb I had almost six years in DRW, so hit me up if you need tips and advice up there.

Thanks CaptH, I'll remember your kind offer for when we return. Yes, we were told about the sharing on check in. The Mercure looked pretty nice, and I would have chosen it in hindsight, but wouldn't be too nice if it was raining.

 

[bPeteb]

For our full day we'd tried to book the very highly recommended Animal Tracks Safari - Details & Price - Animal Tracks Kakadu Tours At $220 pp we thought it looked like great value. Sadly they finish in late September.

Instead we booked the Spirit of Kakadu Adventure Tour Kakadu Tourism Adventure Tours - $219pp, no kids under 8, fit, agile, sure footed, off the beaten track - more on that later

Finally we booked the 4:30 Yellow Water wetlands cruise, two hour cruise with sunset, $90pp

We thought we could walk to the jetty but were told that it wasn't advisable and to be at the bus shelter at 4:10 for 4:30 cruise. We joined the crowd (away from the pool the resort seemed quiet but it was at 100% occupancy) and boarded one of the buses for the under five minute drive to the landing.

Can't remember if there were five or six boats. It seemed crowded with just one other boat out on the with us. With four or five more it would have lost any semblance of 'wilderness'.



Nevertheless, we had a great time. Lots of crocs, lots of birds, lots of hyacinth, a beautiful sunset. Travis our very local skipper was a hoot. We didn;t need either but there was cold water and a loo provided on the boat. We got onto the smaller of the two with only two seats on each side. The larger boat had three. Travis was excellent at spinning the boat around each time he stopped so that people on both sides got close to whatever we'd stopped for.

And so to our cruise...

 

[bPeteb]

the cruise, and the wildlife, continue

 

[bPeteb]

some more birds, more cros, more birds, and the beginnings of a sunset

 

[bPeteb]

the actual sunset, three food pics that look bizarre due to the yellow fluoro lighting, and the moon







crocodile, I think



caesar salad with a twist



mmm... something with noodles



we've taken better moon shots from home!

 

[bPeteb]

The bed was SUPER comfortable. No need for the aircon, we slept like babies with just the fan. It was odd having to go out to the loo but no different to real camping. Daylight saving kicked in during the night and for some reason partner's phone changed from NT time to SA time so he woke me an hour early. I looked at my phone, said it's 5:20, go back to sleep!

A decent breakfast spread for I think less than the Mercure at the airport (it was good as well).

Out and ready for the bus at 7:20.

I was surprised so many kids, some quite young, waiting with families at the bus stop. We said something about looking forward to the climb at the end of the tour and didn't get the reaction I expected. It was more a "what are you talking about?" then "us too".

Cool 4WD bus arrived, names ticked off and we ALL got on, including the families and their pool noodles.

As we drove out of Cooinda the driver went through the itinerary and a visit to a couple of swimming holes with lunch at the Ross River Roadhouse finishing with drinks and canapes at a 'private billabong' was definitely not what we'd booked. My fuse was lit and my partner knew to leave it to hopefully get snuffed out before we arrived at the first stop.

Fuse out, I told the driver we hadn’t booked this tour (Footprints of Kakadu) and explained what we’d booked. The explanation was logical – this was the second last week of the season and the ‘falls’ of the adventure tour were either only trickling or not falling at all. It would have just taken an email to tell us this and not find out after the tour was on the road.

Maguk carpark where we were provided with morning tea



Morning tea then a really nice walk into Maguk.

















A beautiful rock pool with the waterfall dropping into the far end of it. Very clear instruction not to climb the cliffside – someone had jumped in two weeks before and didn’t go home…

 

[bPeteb]

We were at Maguk for maybe an hour then headed further south, stopping first at a giant termite mound on the side of the highway





for our lunch stop at the Ross River Roadhouse. It was apparently because they had nice toilets. Wtf? $220 to drive down a highway and sit on some seats outside a roadhouse (our food and drink was brought with us) so you could have a long drop free pee and or poo? Harden up people.



Anyways, we gave the roadhouse some money by way purchasing more drinks and ice creams.

Then we headed north and stopped at a waterhole that wasn’t signed but can be googled. A small letterbox at the start of the track indicated if any other group was down there as only one group allowed at a time.















It was another nice waterfall and waterhole. More atmospheric than Maguk.

 

[bPeteb]

There for an hour then back on the road to head back towards Cooinda for ‘drinks and canapes by a private billabong’.

On the way a group of three brumbies - mum, dad, foal - ran across the highway in front of us. I picture brumbies as skinny and unkept. These three looked liked show horses. The very protective stallion was spectacular. He could have starred in Black Beauty.

Blurry picture of stallion



The billabong is actually at Cooinda. We had 15 minutes for a quick loo stop while the driver loaded up the drinks and canapes before we driven down a track to the billabong. Two small plates of cheese and crackers, some pringles for the kids and juice and a pretty nasty white wine were not really what either of us were expecting. Luckily the birdlife at the billabong was pretty darn good, especially the black coughatoos.

















We met some really nice people and had an ok day but we could have done Maguk ourselves and gone back up past Jabiru and visited the escarpment and taken out light plane flight for an hour from Cooinda.

 

[bPeteb]

RL grand final night. We joined the mob and actually had a fun evening at the Barra Bistro. Used the drink vouchers for two pints of cider, settled in for happy hour and had a pretty good pizza (the Cooinda)



gone



followed by some ordinary tarts that read and looked better than they tasted.

Another goodnight's sleep on that comfy bed. Car due back at 12 (11 really but we were told it wasn’t checked) so up early for breakfast. Had not even noticed there was another restaurant, a proper one, or another pool, until I went to reception to check out! Mimis was closed though, I think.

On the road at 8



kept an eye out for errant wallabies (we saw three) and at the airport not long after 11. Instead of dropping off car where we picked it up we were instructed to leave it in a Hertz bay and put keys in Hertz drop box. All very logical considering it was a Hertz car.

Actually a very nice QClub at DRW. Big, because I suppose it’s both an international and domestic lounge. Really nice staff. Only one end of the lounge has a (limited) view of the runway.

Flight was delayed about 20 minutes. After take off greeted by the CSM who said “welcome Mr Brown, you’re our only platinum traveling in economy”. I responded with “thanks, oh well, poor me”. At least I was sat in 4A . Wanted to know if I wanted anything and I suppose I should have said J drinks but said I was fine but CSM was back in a few seconds with bottles of water for us and the guy in 4C.

I loved the view as we travelled back across to Brisbane. We live in such an amazing country.













Summing up – we’ll go back. We’ll go in April to see a green Kakadu, and more wetland. We’ll go up in either a light plane or helicopter. We’ll definitely do the Animal Tracks tour. I’m pretty sure we’ll stay at Cooinda again and in a tent again and we’ll go for at least one more night.

Vanuatu next for five days after Christmas.

 

[RB]

Thanks for another great write-up! I recall we did a flight out of Katherine & the pilot of that flight believed April was the best time to do the Kakadu escarpment flight

 

[drron]

Love the bird pics.NT tentatively pencilled in some time in 2021.

 

[bPeteb]

Love the bird pics.NT tentatively pencilled in some time in 2021.

Many, many, many more