"The painting is a ceremony in solitude." Émile Chartier

On Tuesday 21 July, After our farewell to the team Litchfield Café, TS we entrust to the care of the employees of Ktyres and will wait in the freshness of Palmerston library, taking advantage of the free Wi - Fi. Around sixteen hours a SMS warns that TS is ready and we'll retrieve it after us be starved of 450$ (~ €320). We have not left the destinations that a sudden loud noise made us place ourselves on the side of the highway ... would we have lost something ? ! Monsieur revient en arrière à pieds et a la chance de retrouver l’un des plombs utilisés pour l’équilibrage des roues ! Back to Ktyres where we repeat the operation by saying that sometimes happens ...

Second start, good this time, even if we do not go very far and spend the night, surrounded mosquito, Beatrice Hill on the morning when we pay cables and batteries to help another 4×4 to start ... it is not for us car trouble ! Ai-je oublié de mentionner qu’avant que nos voisins aient du mal à démarrer, Monsieur venait de passer de longues minutes à démonter une nouvelle fois le mécanisme de la vitre arrière ? 😀 Avec succès, puisqu’il a trouvé le mécanisme qui était grippé probablement à cause de la poussière des pistes, un peu de graisse et le souci est définitivement réglé.

Aigrette

Wildlife Mamukala

De retour sur l’Arnhem Highway, nous nous arrêtons aux étangs de Mamukala où des milliers de canaroies semipalmées, de jabirus, d’aigrettes, de canards et autres volatiles picorent en jacassant. After the town of Jabiru we turn on the Kakadu Highway to stop at Bowali information center where we buy two tickets for the national park - 25$ (~ €18) per person valid fourteen days, which may not be worth the same dollars spent Uluru-Kata-Tjuta.

Art in Anbangbang

Dance Anbangbang

We continue our progress on land whose Bininj / Mungguy care today, having been the neighboring clan of former owners : the people disappeared Warramal. A short walk of five kilometers takes us through the rocks Burrunggui and Anbangbang - not Nourlangie, term mistakenly used by non-Aboriginal people, deriving from Nawurlandja which is another place around - exploring the “rock art”, Indigenous transmitted by spirits Mimi, ancestors of creation in mythology. Naturalist painting animals, sometimes seen with X-rays, reproductions ceremonies, dances, Hunts… the artists of Lascaux were not bad but I have a heart for the world's oldest art. Old tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal art has been passed down from generation to generation sometimes to the stories of the most ancient and symbolic representations of us be explained today as if the painting were still fresh.

Ending this pictorial walk, nous nous installons sur l’aire de Malabanjbanjdju pour la nuit après avoir glissé les cinq dollars demandés par personne dans l’honesty box. Le coin est sympathique si ce ne sont les moustiques hyper actifs même le lendemain matin avant que la température ne monte un peu et qu’ils soient remplacés par les mouches ! 😉

Ibis and royal spoonbill

Yellow Water

Semant ces dernières nous nous réfugions dans la lumière tamisée du centre culturel de Warradjan – tortue à nez de cochon dont le bâtiment a la forme – pour en apprendre un peu plus sur les Aborigènes du Kakadu. Puis nous allons marcher au-dessus de Ngurrungurrudjba, ou les marais de Yellow Water, qui s’étendent autour du South Alligator River, observant comme à Mamukala la vie ailée de la région.
Nous n’irons pas voir les Jim Jim, ni les Twin Falls, qui au bout d’une mauvaise piste de plus de cinquante kilomètres sont de toute façon quasiment à sec, à savoir que lorsqu’elles valent le coup d’œil pendant la saison humide… elles sont inaccessibles par la route ! 😀

Above Gunlom

Kakadu National Park

Deux courses à Cooinda, un lunch au point de vue de Bukbukluk – nous nous demandons encore ce qu’il y avait à voir – et nous nous engageons sur les trente-sept kilomètres de piste qui mène à Gunlom. Au pied d’un filet de cascade, a body of water where you can enjoy only a small part, crocodiles have been sighted in the deeper places. We prefer to tackle the kilometer climb to reach the top of the falls where the water holes succeed and where you can swim almost alone, enjoying the view of the south of the national park. A last swim with crocodiles to back down and we decide to camp on site - 20$ night - to enjoy showers.

Friday 24 July I try myself to driving on track before we left the park - which we almost preferred Litchfield whose access is free - and drove to Pine Creek. We're back on a road already traveled in the other direction, la Stuart Highway, we return to Katherine where we planned a week of HelpX in Vina before taking another highway leaving the city to Western Australia.
We are expected in the afternoon and do a first incursion in the north of Nitmiluk National Park east of the city for lunch and a swim in the waters of Leliyn Edith Falls, before being well received in our new home by Jim, twelve years, BD and Ted, eight legs. Chris returned from his week of work on the roads and Vina and we dine with our hosts that we feel already as casual as Britta et Nick.

This makes me think that we just mentioned our canine friends, first Igor, dog Peter (Bloomfield), I've never seen a dog sleep as much ! He rose from his night niche you can grab a good seat at sunrise, get back to snore as dry. Then Ted and BD, Frankly these two jobard, the little Ted was going crazy by following reflections and shadows, BD welcomed you licking your feet, even if you were walking and he barked only when stopped to stroke !

I keep you Alfred for later (parce que c’est maintenant et qu’il n’y aura pas d’anachronismes). 😉