Right, firstly, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, I've just been busy! And rest assured I'm not still in Darwin, in fact I'm already all the way back to Sydney where things started three months ago, so as you can imagine there is quite a lot to catch up on... so let's begin!
Now, some might think that travelling round the Northern Territory during the Wet Season, albeit the very end of the wet season wasn't such a great idea. Now in one way they might be right, and in other ways rather wrong! On the one hand, we couldn't take the road straight into Kakadu national park from Darwin (Which should take about 2.5 hours) due to flooding, instead we had to drive around the park south to the Kakadu Highway, adding about 3 hours onto the first drive, however this was nicely broken up by a "Jumping Crocodile" river cruise, which was rather good fun! The 15 people on the tour bus jumped off our lovely sir conditioned 4x4 and onto boat with suspiciously large amounts of meat on board (Not just the tourists!). So off we set for a hour cruising on a Salt Water croc infested river... it wasn't long till we found our first, and one of the crew started teasing the 4 meter croc! Now the aim of this was to get the crocs to show just how far they could jump out of the water when suitably motivated, and jump he did! A good 50% of his body leapt out of the water snapping at the fresh meat (Once again... not the tourists!). It was quite spectacular, and was just about the biggest croc we saw during the hour, but we saw plenty, and naturally there were plenty of opportunities to get photos, and to get to know the people on the tour (All thoroughly lovely people I'm pleased to report!). Once we'd had our hour and it was time to put foot on terra firma once more, we had the opportunity to handle a Python, so as the opportunity was there I had another reptile draped around my neck, considerably more lively than the one I handled on Magnetic Island, and a lot more active! Then it was the start of another big drive into Kakadu itself. After about 4 hours or so on the road, with the necessary breaks for buying snacks and the
like, we finally got into Kakadu itself, and stopped off at a lovely waterfall for a dip in some rather refreshingly cold water. We all swam around grinning like idiots enjoying a break from being on the road, and finding semi submerged rocks to sit on! After 30 minutes or so it was time to push on for another hour or so to the camp site where we'd be spending the night.
Along the way we were given a visual feast of scrub land dotted with deep green trees, and wetlands smothered under the rainfall of the last few months. It was quite a spectacle, and well worth attempting to fight the sleepiness that had started to creep in by mid-afternoon!
The camp itself was quite fancy, permanent tents that slept 6, and a kitchen/eating area that was also a mossie proof tent... not too shabby, one of the luxuries of travelling in the wet season up north (No swag camping allowed!). The evening was spent enjoying a drink or three... or seven, getting to know everyone on the tour that little better. We all introduced ourselves (Although by that time it was almost unnecessary!) and then spent time chatting about the usual, where are you going, where have you been, how long... so on and so on! Before we knew it, it was 1 in the morning, and with another early start ahead of us (5:30!), it was well and truly time to turn in for the night!
After a pretty decent night's sleep, and a bleary eyed breakfast of toast and tea it was time to hit the road again, ready for another hot and humid walk. Not, on getting put of the beautifully air conditioned bus we were hit with a wall of humidity, now the walk was only going to be at most an hour, but 15 minutes in we were really feeling the heat, and with walking boots and thick walking socks on my feet felt like they'd spent a good few minutes in the microwave! After a hot and stick 45 minutes we heard the not so distant sound of water, with our spirits lifted and a new spring in our step we jogged down dusty paths and clambered over boulders for just a few more minutes and there it was, a stunning waterfall with a lovely big water hole beneath for us to take a well earned swim in! After a lot of relaxing and a fair few photos being taken, it was time to hit the trail again! Now ahead of us was a walk back along pretty much the same trail that we walked down on, before veering off near the end towards another waterfall. Now the last waterfall was beautiful, a high churning tirade 30-40 meters or so high... this next one had quite a lot to live up to...and live up to it it did! It was s multi tiered fall, we could see two tiers although we were assured it was five in total. Each tier was relatively small, no more than 10 meters high, perfect for swimming under to get a
aquatic shoulder massage! As lovely as this was, a few of us couldn't help but wonder if the next step up, set back about 20 meters back from the top of the bottom fall was any better... our guide Bullfrog assured up it was, so a few of us made the effort to scramble up the rock to one side of the fall to make up our own minds. What we found was not only a fall that you could climb, and sit behind, but also a lovely view over most of the trees, out onto the area we had been walking, well worth the short climb up we thought!
After another half an hour or so lounging around under the falls and in the water, munching on an apple or two, it was time to push on for another hour or so in the truck to fin a nice spot for lunch. After salad wraps with a cold Sausage or two, we spent another couple of hours on the road, making our way up to an Aboriginal rock art site, where we spent an hour or so wandering around seeing a number of art sites, being told the stories behind what we were seeing. Now as the afternoon was drawing on the weather had begun to close in, and by the time we were wandering round the skies had decided to open. This didn’t deter us intrepid travellers from walking up to a lookout at the end of the rock art trail to see a view of Arnheimland... well... that was the idea anyway, but by the time we got to the top, we were all soaked to the bone, and visibility had been reduced to all of about 20 meters or so. Instead of a beautiful vista, what we got was a sheet of grey... you might think that travelling round the Northern Territory during the Wet Season wasn't such a great idea ;-) Well this didn't dampen our spirits, and on the way back to the shelter of truck you could see six or seven of us line dancing, and belting out a rendition of "Singing in the Rain"!
Then we had just a short drive we were at another camp site for another night in a swanky permanent tent, an intimate 2 person affair this time, well, 2 people and a load of mosquitoes! Thankfully the ever resourceful Amy got a mossie coil going do dispatch of the unwelcome guests! After another long day we were all suitably tuckered out, and we were all in our sleeping bags nice and early. Once again, we had another long drive, this time to get out of Kakadu, and drive west towards Litchfield NP, for another set of waterfalls! Naturally we all took the opportunity to catch up on some more sleep! It's surprising just how easy it is getting to sleep in the back of a 4x4 going over bumpy washed out roads! The waterfalls were once again beautiful, although I think the second was preferred by most people, mainly due to the fish in the first that thought they'd find out what tourists taste of (Lets hope they don't send the culinary review to the crocs)! Thankfully I managed to get away wound free, although I think I was just about the only one!
As the day was closing in, it was time to head back to Darwin to get off the bus and say farewell to those people not continuing down to Alice Springs. Now of course the only way we could do that was by spending the evening in one of the pubs in town, The Vic, a bit of food, a few drinks and some silly games! Games included Knights, Knaves and Mounts, The Box Game, Drinking Contests, Making Paper Planes and playing the Didgeridoo (Well part of an old vacuum). We had
mixed success with the competitions, although I did win the Didge playing, although in all fairness it was only due to my supporting team making more noise than anyone else! After a bit of dancing to finish of the night it really was time to say goodbye to a couple of people we all would have liked to be staying with us for the rest of the journey, cheers Susan and Mr. T, it was a lot of fun! With that done it was time for us to turn in for the night, getting ready for an early start, and the big 3 day drive down to Alice Springs.
Now I think that's quite enough story telling for the time being, watch out for the thrilling tale of a Km drive through nowhere, coming to a Blog near you soon!
Much love to all that deserve it!
Now, some might think that travelling round the Northern Territory during the Wet Season, albeit the very end of the wet season wasn't such a great idea. Now in one way they might be right, and in other ways rather wrong! On the one hand, we couldn't take the road straight into Kakadu national park from Darwin (Which should take about 2.5 hours) due to flooding, instead we had to drive around the park south to the Kakadu Highway, adding about 3 hours onto the first drive, however this was nicely broken up by a "Jumping Crocodile" river cruise, which was rather good fun! The 15 people on the tour bus jumped off our lovely sir conditioned 4x4 and onto boat with suspiciously large amounts of meat on board (Not just the tourists!). So off we set for a hour cruising on a Salt Water croc infested river... it wasn't long till we found our first, and one of the crew started teasing the 4 meter croc! Now the aim of this was to get the crocs to show just how far they could jump out of the water when suitably motivated, and jump he did! A good 50% of his body leapt out of the water snapping at the fresh meat (Once again... not the tourists!). It was quite spectacular, and was just about the biggest croc we saw during the hour, but we saw plenty, and naturally there were plenty of opportunities to get photos, and to get to know the people on the tour (All thoroughly lovely people I'm pleased to report!). Once we'd had our hour and it was time to put foot on terra firma once more, we had the opportunity to handle a Python, so as the opportunity was there I had another reptile draped around my neck, considerably more lively than the one I handled on Magnetic Island, and a lot more active! Then it was the start of another big drive into Kakadu itself. After about 4 hours or so on the road, with the necessary breaks for buying snacks and the
like, we finally got into Kakadu itself, and stopped off at a lovely waterfall for a dip in some rather refreshingly cold water. We all swam around grinning like idiots enjoying a break from being on the road, and finding semi submerged rocks to sit on! After 30 minutes or so it was time to push on for another hour or so to the camp site where we'd be spending the night.
Along the way we were given a visual feast of scrub land dotted with deep green trees, and wetlands smothered under the rainfall of the last few months. It was quite a spectacle, and well worth attempting to fight the sleepiness that had started to creep in by mid-afternoon!
The camp itself was quite fancy, permanent tents that slept 6, and a kitchen/eating area that was also a mossie proof tent... not too shabby, one of the luxuries of travelling in the wet season up north (No swag camping allowed!). The evening was spent enjoying a drink or three... or seven, getting to know everyone on the tour that little better. We all introduced ourselves (Although by that time it was almost unnecessary!) and then spent time chatting about the usual, where are you going, where have you been, how long... so on and so on! Before we knew it, it was 1 in the morning, and with another early start ahead of us (5:30!), it was well and truly time to turn in for the night!
After a pretty decent night's sleep, and a bleary eyed breakfast of toast and tea it was time to hit the road again, ready for another hot and humid walk. Not, on getting put of the beautifully air conditioned bus we were hit with a wall of humidity, now the walk was only going to be at most an hour, but 15 minutes in we were really feeling the heat, and with walking boots and thick walking socks on my feet felt like they'd spent a good few minutes in the microwave! After a hot and stick 45 minutes we heard the not so distant sound of water, with our spirits lifted and a new spring in our step we jogged down dusty paths and clambered over boulders for just a few more minutes and there it was, a stunning waterfall with a lovely big water hole beneath for us to take a well earned swim in! After a lot of relaxing and a fair few photos being taken, it was time to hit the trail again! Now ahead of us was a walk back along pretty much the same trail that we walked down on, before veering off near the end towards another waterfall. Now the last waterfall was beautiful, a high churning tirade 30-40 meters or so high... this next one had quite a lot to live up to...and live up to it it did! It was s multi tiered fall, we could see two tiers although we were assured it was five in total. Each tier was relatively small, no more than 10 meters high, perfect for swimming under to get a
aquatic shoulder massage! As lovely as this was, a few of us couldn't help but wonder if the next step up, set back about 20 meters back from the top of the bottom fall was any better... our guide Bullfrog assured up it was, so a few of us made the effort to scramble up the rock to one side of the fall to make up our own minds. What we found was not only a fall that you could climb, and sit behind, but also a lovely view over most of the trees, out onto the area we had been walking, well worth the short climb up we thought!
After another half an hour or so lounging around under the falls and in the water, munching on an apple or two, it was time to push on for another hour or so in the truck to fin a nice spot for lunch. After salad wraps with a cold Sausage or two, we spent another couple of hours on the road, making our way up to an Aboriginal rock art site, where we spent an hour or so wandering around seeing a number of art sites, being told the stories behind what we were seeing. Now as the afternoon was drawing on the weather had begun to close in, and by the time we were wandering round the skies had decided to open. This didn’t deter us intrepid travellers from walking up to a lookout at the end of the rock art trail to see a view of Arnheimland... well... that was the idea anyway, but by the time we got to the top, we were all soaked to the bone, and visibility had been reduced to all of about 20 meters or so. Instead of a beautiful vista, what we got was a sheet of grey... you might think that travelling round the Northern Territory during the Wet Season wasn't such a great idea ;-) Well this didn't dampen our spirits, and on the way back to the shelter of truck you could see six or seven of us line dancing, and belting out a rendition of "Singing in the Rain"!
Then we had just a short drive we were at another camp site for another night in a swanky permanent tent, an intimate 2 person affair this time, well, 2 people and a load of mosquitoes! Thankfully the ever resourceful Amy got a mossie coil going do dispatch of the unwelcome guests! After another long day we were all suitably tuckered out, and we were all in our sleeping bags nice and early. Once again, we had another long drive, this time to get out of Kakadu, and drive west towards Litchfield NP, for another set of waterfalls! Naturally we all took the opportunity to catch up on some more sleep! It's surprising just how easy it is getting to sleep in the back of a 4x4 going over bumpy washed out roads! The waterfalls were once again beautiful, although I think the second was preferred by most people, mainly due to the fish in the first that thought they'd find out what tourists taste of (Lets hope they don't send the culinary review to the crocs)! Thankfully I managed to get away wound free, although I think I was just about the only one!
As the day was closing in, it was time to head back to Darwin to get off the bus and say farewell to those people not continuing down to Alice Springs. Now of course the only way we could do that was by spending the evening in one of the pubs in town, The Vic, a bit of food, a few drinks and some silly games! Games included Knights, Knaves and Mounts, The Box Game, Drinking Contests, Making Paper Planes and playing the Didgeridoo (Well part of an old vacuum). We had
mixed success with the competitions, although I did win the Didge playing, although in all fairness it was only due to my supporting team making more noise than anyone else! After a bit of dancing to finish of the night it really was time to say goodbye to a couple of people we all would have liked to be staying with us for the rest of the journey, cheers Susan and Mr. T, it was a lot of fun! With that done it was time for us to turn in for the night, getting ready for an early start, and the big 3 day drive down to Alice Springs.
Now I think that's quite enough story telling for the time being, watch out for the thrilling tale of a Km drive through nowhere, coming to a Blog near you soon!
Much love to all that deserve it!
