Michael Turtle

5.00 Australia - 27-Oct-22 -

Visiting Kakadu is extremely dependent on the weather. This part of Australia has two distinct seasons - wet and dry - and much of the national park is inaccessible during the wet season. As the dry begins, different parts of the park open up at different times, as the unsealed roads become passable and areas are cleared of crocodiles. I mention all of this at the start just as advice for anyone thinking of visiting - make sure you think about when you're going and what you'll be able to see. (For the record, wet season can be quite incredible because the waterfalls are in full flow, but you may want to see them by helicopter, rather than road, for instance.)

I visited in dry season, when most things were accessible, and spent three nights in Kakadu. I felt like that was just the right amount of time - anything shorter and I would've left feeling like I had missed things. I certainly could've stayed longer and visited even more parts of the park, but I think I covered all of the main elements.

The landscapes change a lot throughout the park because it's so big (about the size of Slovenia). There are areas of dramatic sandstone escarpments, expansive wetlands full of birds, as well as lots of woodland. You'll get more out of the visit if you're able to experience this variety, and some highlights are stone country at Burrungkuy (Nourlangie), wetlands at Yellow Water, and the swimming hole at Maguk. If you have time, other natural highlights are Anbangbang Billabong and Gunlom.

A big part of the park is the Indigenous culture, and there are usually events at the visitors centre where you can learn about different aspects. But the rock art sites are the real highlights. The easiest to access is Burrungkuy (Nourlangie), but nearby Nanguluwurr is also really impressive without the crowds. Ubirr is also a very significant site.

I think Kakadu is one of the best Australian World Heritage Sites. It's not just visually dramatic, but it has a huge variety of things to see. The blend of natural and cultural is really vivid and one of the things that makes it so significant. Although it is possible to do a day trip from Darwin, I would highly recommend against it because, with all the travel time, you really won't see much. Regardless of whether you'll drive yourself or take a tour, try to stay a couple of nights to appreciate it properly.

Read more from Michael Turtle here.

Zoë Sheng

4.00 Chinese-Canadian - 02-Nov-19 -

You will notice that renting a car in Darwin gives you a grand total of 100km to drive per day unless you want to fork out lots of money. Doing the math I think it's only worth renting and driving all the way to Kakadu if you are 3 people or more or actually do more things on the way. Just going to Kakadu and back as a daytrip is not gonna work. Luckily they have an affordable bus trip that picks you up bright and early (it's not early-early like a "daytrip" to Jordan from Sinai or something silly...) and drops you back at ~8pm so this isn't actually bad at all. I even took a flight out the same evening and got dropped off at the turn-off so I can grab an Uber to the airport just 10 minutes away. The coach is also super comfy with toilet and aircon etc.

The visit via this trip only covers around 1% of what the park really has to offer but I think that's normal for a park this size. The roads are really good but there is not much off-roading. This tour also obviously doesn't visit any waterfalls in the south.

The first stop is gonna be the the rock art. It's really nice although I have to wonder about the modern one. It does follow the same style but I think that when aboriginals painted these ages ago that's an achievement but if an artist does that in the '60s it just doesn't have the same feel to it. You spend a good 30 minutes looking at the rock art with good explanations from the driver/guide. I'm not a big fan of rock art but it's nice to see something different - like, very Australian style. Kangaroos and a different culture it stems from than the rock art in Europe and North America, even Africa. This covers both criteria I and IV and would be enough to get an inscription for sure. However, there's more!

There is a massive wetland in the park, stretching all the way to the north. It's a big problem to contain poachers coming in from the ocean because fishing there is legal, not in the park. The NT law also is super relaxed about needing no fishing and boating licenses from what I hear, and the law is still fuzzy on drinking and boating too! After lunch at the excellent lodge (if you want to stay for some luxury then this is it) it's time to take a boat cruise. Most people seem to get a kick out of crocs - even though they can be found all over the place especially in Australia. If you are into birds then this is also a lovely place to scan the shores and trees. There weren't many mammals because I read most of them are nocturnal. The boat tour gives you an idea what the park is like but there is just so much more to see.

The last stop on the tour is Bowali Visitor Center. It doesn't really have much to see and is more of a stop-over for shopping. If you opt for the flight tour instead you are probably better served because I thought the visitor center was not worth the time. I can't say if the flight is great but the feedback from those who were on it was very positive.

If you plan to go further south, Jim Jim Falls is very popular. However, I watched this documentary about how they catch and remove crocodiles to make visiting the falls safe for tourists to swim there - I find that highly controversial.

The town of Jabiru is going to have some changes coming up when the mining contract expires. It may turn into a ghost town and visiting here could be tougher if there is nothing but tourism in the area. Then again, mining in a UNESCO national park ...hmm

Joel on the Road

5.00 Australia - 25-Jun-19 -

In my opinion, Kakadu National Park is one of Australia's most impressive sites. Home to ancient culture, gorgeous natural scenery, and a colossal variety of plants and animals, there's a lot to love about Kakadu. We visited the park over three days in June 2016, which gives you ample time to explore the various areas.

To reach Kakadu, your best option is to drive in from Darwin - a roughly 2 hour, 150km drive. It's best to go during dry season (May-October) as this is also the coolest time of year. Wet season from November-April is hotter, stickier and of course wetter: many roads in Kakadu will be flooded and impassable.

Aboriginal Australians have lived in Kakadu for around 50,000 years, and it's the oldest continuous culture on earth. Locals today can look at ancient rock paintings and understand the stories as if they were painted yesterday. The best rock art in Kakadu is found at both Ubirr and Burrunguy (formerly Nourlangie Rock), where you'll find a lot of interesting stuff: animals, humans, and spiritual art like the Rainbow Serpent who created the world during the Dreamtime. Ubirr Rock is also a mesmerising place for sunset.

For bird-watching, Yellow Waters Billabong near Cooinda is the best place. A great option here is to grab a sunrise or sunset boat tour - we managed to do both and preferred the sunrise tour as we saw more, though this is probably dependent on luck and the skill of your boat guide. There's over 300 species of birds in Kakadu, and something like a third of all bird species in Australia either live or pass through here.

Despite the crocodile threat, Kakadu is also a great place for swimming. Make sure you check out Jim Jim, Maguk, Gunlom, and Twin Falls. All of these can be swam at, but if there are closures due to crocodiles don't risk it. Also, some of these will need guided tours as they're accessible only via 4WD tracks. Don't attempt to take your rental Corolla down a 4WD track, please!

And finally, if you're intrigued by crocodiles (and who isn't!), make sure you stop at one of the Jumping Croc cruises on the Adelaide River, about halfway between Darwin and Kakadu. It's outside the World Heritage area, but seeing enormous crocs surge out of the water to grab dangling hunks of meat is quite a spectacle!

Read more from Joel on the Road here.

bob

australia - 01-Apr-14 -

I had the great opportunity to travel from the University of Melbourne all the way to Kakadu with a group of uni students. We hiked up Jim Jim Falls for 5 days. The experience was unforgettable, as we camped under the stars only in our sleeping bags (lugging tents while hiking up the falls was not an option). I truly felt at peace, spending my days swimming and hiking. This is a heritage site not to be missed!

jay

australia - 23-Mar-14 -

Even though I was in Kakadu only for two days, I enjoyed it a lot. This place is immensely fascinating and truly deserves its place on the WH list. The wildlife is great - yes, you can easily spot crocodiles -, the flora stunning, and the rock carvings and paintings add another interesting feature as well. I was there during rainy season, you could hardly go anywhere without a boat, and it was raining most of the time, but still this is one of my favorite places in Australia, if not the world. I hope that Kakadu will remain the wild place it is now, since I have heard that UNESCO has reprimanded Australia for allowing mining to continue in the park.

Els Slots

4.50 The Netherlands - 13-Apr-11 -

I visited Kakadu in early April, and it was still very wet. It had rained extensively over the past months, and most of the roads were closed due to flooding. Only the two main roads through the park, the Arnhem Highway from Darwin east to Jabiru and the Kakadu Highway from Jabiru south to Pine Creek, were open. It was still raining slightly during the two days I spent in the park. Fortunately, two of the best things to do in the park are open in the wet season too: Nourlangie Rock and the Yellow Water Cruise.

Nourlangie Rock is located a few km from the main Kakadu Highway. The road to it is sealed, and it leads up to the large sandstone escarpment that cross-sects the park – so it is accessible all year round. There are a couple of short hikes you can do here. I did the loop walk, which takes you past the various rock paintings. Their setting is similar to those at Bhimbetka in India, which I saw earlier on this RTW trip: they are under overhanging rocks or rock shelters. The quality of the paintings is pretty spectacular, and the images are different from rock art elsewhere in the world. Of course, they display typical Australian animals like kangaroos. Several of the paintings are large images of aboriginal spiritual beings. There’s also “contact art”: paintings made after contact with European explorers, for example in the form of a gun.

The Yellow Water Cruise is a commercial tour offered several times a day by the Gagudju Lodge in Cooinda. I went on the 6.45 a.m. cruise, at sunrise. Getting there so early meant a 54 km drive from Jabiru in the dark. Although driving at night is discouraged in Australia, all went well: I did not encounter nor hit any large animals.

The 2-hour cruise takes you out on the Yellow Water Billabong & the South Alligator River. It is a bit like going on a safari in Africa: the rangers know where to spot the various animals and can almost guarantee you sightings of specific species. We spent the first half-hour in awe looking at an eagle, pretty up-close, calling out for her mate. Then we went to visit a Comb-crested Jacana, with his 3 little chicks (the male looks after the kids). Although the park is infested by them, so far we hadn’t encountered a crocodile. We finally saw a female saltwater croc guarding the flooded spot where she had laid her eggs. The guide had found her here every day. The scenery overall during the boat trip is very pretty, and there are birds everywhere.

I did enjoy my stay in Kakadu even despite the rain and the resulting limited possibilities. The wildlife, especially the birdlife, is so abundant that you will see things of interest even from the main roads. It was also very quiet everywhere: I spent 20 minutes tracking a pair of Brolga along the main Kakadu Highway. I just left my car parked on the left lane of the road, no other car passed by.

Emilia Bautista King

U.S.A. - 25-Feb-06 -

I had the great opportunity to travel from the University of Melbourne all the way to Kakadu with a group of uni students. We hiked up Jim Jim Falls for 5 days. The experience was unforgettable, as we camped under the stars only in our sleeping bags (lugging tents while hiking up the falls was not an option). I truly felt at peace, spending my days swimming and hiking. This is a heritage site not to be missed!

Klaus Freisinger

5.00 Austria - 01-May-05 -

Even though I was in Kakadu only for two days, I enjoyed it a lot. This place is immensely fascinating and truly deserves its place on the WH list. The wildlife is great - yes, you can easily spot crocodiles -, the flora stunning, and the rock carvings and paintings add another interesting feature as well. I was there during rainy season, you could hardly go anywhere without a boat, and it was raining most of the time, but still this is one of my favorite places in Australia, if not the world. I hope that Kakadu will remain the wild place it is now, since I have heard that UNESCO has reprimanded Australia for allowing mining to continue in the park.

Rob Wilson

UK - 01-May-05 -

I only spent a few days in Kakadu, but I wish I could have spent a month. This is a truly beautiful place, that should be a must for all visitors to northern Australia.