Rocks and Corrugations

So we skipped away from the border, and went down to the township of Jabiru for shopping (biscuits) and petrol.

Nothing much at Jabiru: a lacklustre shopping centre seemed to about cover it, so we switched onto the Kakadu Highway and headed towards Jim Jim Falls.

We were making good time so we took a little detour into stone country to see Nourlangie Rock and the Anbangbang Rock Art Gallery.

This turned into another hot hike but soon we found ourselves nestled amongst the huge sandstone rocks so the shade and the channeled breezes actually made it pretty comfortable.

The rock art featured mysterious characters such as the Lightning Man who kind of captured Eloise's imagination for a while.

We went up to have a look from a viewpoint and by the time we got back to the All-Terrain Armoured Transport we realised we'd kind of blown our schedule a little and needed to chip off with some rapidity.

So down the Kakadu Highway again until the Jim Jim turnoff where we embarked on a 50km drive down a gravel road, which was heavily corrugated and quite a soporific drive.

Corrugations occur in roads because of the hysteresis in automobile suspension. The wheels hit a bump and the suspension springs absorb the shock but the wheel keeps wobbling up and down for a while. Enough cars, and these wobbles make further bumps in the road. And the bumps cause further bumps, and the road becomes one long crenelation.

It's noisy and annoying.

Still we made it to the campsite before dusk started to gather, nestled in a rather magnificent sandstone valley fringed by cliffs on either side.

The road ran out and turned into a track.

We pitched the tent hammering the pegs in with the rock we'd remembered to pack, gathered firewood, cursed the flies, had tea, watched it get dark while reciting Each Peach Pear Plum.

No mosquitoes. Fantastic.