Darwin to Katherine:

N: We arrived at the Big 4 caravan park at Darwin and had lunch in the sticky humid weather. After setting up we had a swim in the pool constantly heated by the sun’s immense rays, it was humid, well over 50%. We drove into the CBD which was massive compared to the towns we had recently stayed in. In the city we bought supplies for the rest of the week then went back for another swim. The next day we went to the Aviation Museum home of the B-52 bomber that took up the entire space of the hangar (other inhabitants of the hangar included helicopters, smaller planes, memorabilia, and mechanical equipment. After wandering around there for a while we went for another swim. On Sunday we went to the Mindil Beach Markets. Food was up the north end and useless junk was up the other. Countless varieties of foods including camel, roo and crocodile. Useless stuff included Kangaroo scrotums, cane toad purses, crocodile feet and worthless clothes. Performers doing backflips off bins, juggling fire sticks on a ladder held up by ropes, and playing 6 didgeridoos at once. Also at our stay at Darwin we visited the museum/art gallery home of Sweetheart a giant crocodile that started to attack boats and was captured as a safety measure. After packing up we set of to Merl Camping Area in Kakadu national before going to our camping area we went on a Guluyambi Tour where we learnt about bush tucker, spears, plants and we even saw saltwater crocodiles.

We set up our camp at the Merl camping area which much to our surprise had facilities. When it was close to sunset we drove 20 min down the road to Ubirr rock where we did a twenty minute walk around the area and up to the lookout to watch the sunset over the Kakadu floodplains.

The next day we stayed at Cooinda which had a pool! We had a swim set up camp and after a delicious meal of Irish Stew (my favourite) we had a drink down at the bar.

In the morning we did a 3km walk to Yellow Waters home to storks, cranes, magpie geese and Jabirus (a lot more! too many to name). After the walk, breakfast and packing up camp we set off to Gunlom falls. We arrived at 1:30-2:30 pm and after realising that sand flies inhabited the area and cane toads infested it we headed to Katherine. After setting up camp at Katherine we cooked microwavable pizzas in the camp oven on our stove!!