This rock, like a piece of cliff separated from it's ridge, stands proud in the middle of a flood plain, which is bright green in the wet season and bone dry hessian coloured in the dry. The rock itself is the yellow and orange of the granite in this region, and run though with ledges and caves in which the aboriginal inhabitants of this region have detailed their history and stories. Stylised stick figures represent the men and spirits of the dreaming who are depicted interacting with the native animals and landscape on these famous walls – the most visited of which is called Anbangbang. My favourite is Namarrgon, the lightning man who is surrounded by white lines.

You can see Nourlangie coming on the left hand side of the Kakadu Highway, but there's a walk to actually reach and climb on the rock, then another walk between the rock art sites.

The skies here are very clear and in 1986 I saw Halley's comet from on top of Nourlangie, but even without the comet this is a pretty special place to be in the evening and watch the sun go down. You can't help but consider the aboriginal people doing exactly the same things hundreds and hundreds of years before as they watched and patiently waited for the landscape to show them signs of the changing seasons.

Written by  Kat Mackintosh.

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