Having a croc-king time

Flowers in the botanic gardens
see all photos »

20 October I finally arrived in Darwin, after a 17-hour plane journey via Singapore. As I hadn't slept for 48 hours, I collapsed into my dorm bed at 05:30 - only to be woken 1 hour later by the guy from reception saying 'it's time for your trip now, you have to get up'! Apparently, my travel agent in London had booked me onto a trip which I'd wanted to do the following day (bearing in mind I thought I'd be sleeping most of today!).

21 October Today I went on the daytrip to Litchfield National Park. En route we were taken to see some Magnetic Termite Mounds (homes which the termites build for themselves above the ground), some of which are HUGE - about 5m tall & 2m wide! It takes them about 50-80 years for them to get this big! Very impressive to look at.

Gigantic termite mound!
see all photos »

During the day we swam in a couple of plunge pools - at the bottom of Wangi Falls & Florence Falls, and also at Buley Rockholes. It's amazing to have seen such beautiful scenery only on picture postcards before & now to actually have been there! Clear blue waters, tropical greenery etc. Bliss! The only minor downside was having to share the waterways with freshwater crocs - though we were assured that these were the 'friendly' species of crocs (unlike the salties), in that they will only attack you if you aggravate them somehow. Fortunately, we didn't appear to!

Lush swimming pools
see all photos »

In the evening a group of us went out in Darwin to a true backpackers' pub called the Vic. It was almost like being back home in Yates'!

22 October In the afternoon I went on a 'croc jumping' cruise along the Adelaide River. This involved dangling lumps of raw chicken out of a boat on the end of a fishing line & making crocodiles (of the big saltie variety) jump out of the water to grab them (I wasn't doing the dangling, I have to say!). As the travel guides say, it's all a bit of a circus really, but it was good fun to see all the same - despite being able to hear bones being crushed by their huge teeth! At one point we got really close to some of the salties - the biggest one being around 5m long, & boy do they look mean! One, called Stumpy, had his left arm missing - probably lost in combat with another croc. Gross.

Stumpy the croc!
see all photos »

On the way back from the cruise we passed through a town called Humpty Doo - in which there is a restaurant called 'The Hard Croc Cafe'. Groan.

23 October This morning I was informed that a female German tourist had been fatally attacked by a saltie last night in Kakadu National Park (where I'm going tomorrow on a 3-day trip!) Apparently her group of 9 travellers had been told by their tour guide that a waterhole near to their campsite was safe to swim in, as it was only home to harmless freshwater crocs, when it was actually home to 8 saltwater crocs. They didn't really stand a chance - very gruesome indeed. I'm praying that I don't suffer the same fate!

Jabiru stork
see all photos »

Today was a fairly quiet one - pottering around Darwin with a guy from my hostel. We went to the botanic gardens during the day & then watched the sunset on Mindil Beach - very hippy & totally cool!

24 October I set off on my 3 day 'Kakadu Unleashed' tour at 06:00. What is it with these tour companies? I've come away on holiday & keep having to get up at the crack of dawn to go off & 'enjoy' myself!

After arriving at our bushcamp where we were staying the night, we were taken on a bushwalk by our authentic aboriginal guide, whose name was ... Kevin! Hmmmmmm. We learned to dance the 'happy spirit' dance before having to collapse in the shade (it's around 40 degrees at the moment & extremely humid as it's nearing the start of The Wet right now).

Performing the Happy Spirit Dance with Kevin
see all photos »

In the evening we went to a Corroboree (an aboriginal show) which was great fun. Those of us who'd been on the bushwalk this afternoon had to get up & perform the 'happy spirit' dance for the rest of the audience. Very amusing!

25 October Today we went to Jim Jim Falls & Twin Falls. In order to get to Twin Falls you have to swim 500m up a gorge which is simply stunning. We were slightly fearful of doing this at first, bearing in mind the recent croc attack & the fact that there are noticeboards at the entrance to the falls which say, 'crocodiles have been known to enter this area undetected'! However, as the alternative was to remain above water & be either eaten alive by mossies, buzzed to extremes by flies, or exhausted by heat, we took the plunge! Thankfully, we did all make it out alive!!

Ubirr rock art
see all photos »

26 October In the morning we went to Ubirr - an aboriginal rock art site - where some of the paintings are around 5,000 to 8,000 years old. Wow! Once again, we were attacked from all angles by flying insects & so were very relieved to get back inside our 4WD truck - despite the fact that the aircon had broken & the 15 of us were getting increasingly hotter and more sweaty/ smelly!

In the afternoon we had to set off back to Darwin (boo!) - a round trip of around 1,000kms. We stopped off for one more swim, in Barramundie Falls, which was beautiful. In fact, it was one of the only falls that was actually falling (the others dry up as the dry season progresses!) The tour ended with a free meal back at The Vic - though none of us could stay very long as we had to get ready for the 2nd part of our trip - the 3-day journey down to Alice.