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Kakadu 5 Day Top End Explorer
After returning to Brisbane for a final night out following my weeks sailing in the Whitsundays, I headed off to sunny Darwin. I didn't really know what to expect of Darwin but when I arrived my worst fears were realised, it has to be the most dullest place I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. After arriving early in the morning I checked into the YHA, which was most disappointing, but provided me with a comfortable bed for the next two nights. Having checked in I set off to discover the town and after approximately an hour I had seen it all so retired to an Irish bar on the main backpackers street. The next couple of days consisted of sitting around the pool and drinking beer at the many local bars.
Day 1 - Lichfield National Park Day one of the tour started early at 6:30am prompt. On arriving at the pickup location I was told that I had to much stuff so preceded to empty what I needed for the five days into several plastic shopping bags. My remaining belongings were then very kindly stowed away in the
backpackers bagage area.
The trip was a five day tour of Lichfield National park, Katherine Gorge and Kakadu National Park and was with a tour company called Wilderness Adventures. Wilderness Adventures also own a backpackers lodge in Darwin which is where I picked up the tour from. Although I did not stay at their backpackers it looked pretty nice for the small time I was there for.
There were seven of us on the tour, with one tour guide and another who was training. The people on the tour were as follows; James (UK - that me!!), Zahida (UK), Lesley (UK), Sarah (UK), Emma (UK), Nick (UK) and a German Girl whoms name I cannot remember.
Zahida and Lesley are both from Leeds and were on a year long trip around the world. They had been to some pretty awesome places during their trip, all of which I was very jealous of and are now on my to do list. Sarah lives and works in Melbourne and is shit hot at swimming. In fact she had just competed at the Australian Championships in Darwin and seemed to take great pleasure in beating the Aussies at their own
game. come on the POMS!!!. Emma was visiting Sarah and is a recruitment Consultant in the UK. Nick was from somehwere in the UK and is living and working in Sydney for JP Morgon. During the trip he was good enough to be my tent buddy for the week and put up with my snoring and talking in my sleep.
Once we had all met and eaten pies, bacon sandwiches and drunk coffee for our breakfast at one of the local servos we headed south from Darwin towards Litchfield National Park for the day. During this time we visited a few waterfalls in Litchfield , all of which I cannot remember the names for. During this time we swam in many rock pools and tried some pretty daring jumps from the adjoining cliffs/rocks. Probably the best location we visited today was Tolmer Falls which provided us with the perfect location to watch the falls descending from a narrow gorge into a beautiful plunge pool. Wilderness Advetnures hold a special permit that allowed us to access the upper falls area, so after a scenic bushwalk we swam in a secluded location at the top of the falls. Following an energic
day of swimming and walking we left Litchfield National Park and passed by floodplains scattered with hundreds of Meridian Termite Mounds. These termite mounds were taller then me and contain many thousands of inbitants. The termite mounds are also designed to face north so as to utilise the shade/sun to control the temperature inside the mounds. The queen termite is able to lay thousands and thousands of eggs and is able to determine what type of termite she needs to lay, for example a soldier or a male etc etc. After visiting the termite mounds we headed south to an overnight bush camp near Katherine.
The bush camp comprised of a flat area just off the side of the main road into Katherine. It was very peacefull and picturesque. Having found our bush camp and set up all of our tents, we made a fire and started about cooking our dinner. After a hearty meal we all sat down and played the dingereedo and watched the stars before falling off to sleep.
Day 2 - Katherine Gorge Today we headed off to Katherine Gorge where we went on a boat cruise down the river. Unfortunatley we
were unable to go kayaking down the river as originally planned due to the heavy rains and the large number of salt water crocodiles currently in the river. It is only possible to kayak down the river once all of the crocodiles have been moved on as they have a tendency to eat the humans swimming/kayaking along the river. The cruise however was great fun and allowed us to take in the exceptional views and the great wildlife.
After lunch we made our way to Barramundi Gorge where we enjoyed an afternoon swim in the cool clear waters. We then spent time exploring above the falls and swimming in a series of beautiful rockpools located in the gorge.
We then made our way to the evening campsite, which this time had toilets, hurraaaay!!.
Day 3 - Kakadu National Park Today we headed to several waterfalls, the most spectacular being Twin Falls. Prior to lunch we walked to the top of the falls, which proved a challenging walk, however, the views at the top were absolutely amazing and made all the hard work more then worth it. Once we had made it to the top
we swam in the rock pools and small waterfalls. Thyere is nothing stopping you swim over the edge though, which proved to be rather hair raising. After lunch we walked down to the end of the gorge, we reached a beautiful white sandy beach at the base of the falls, where we relaxed for a hour or so.
After a hard days work we retired to our campsite which not only had tiolets but also had hot showers. By this time we were all smelling pretty fresh, so a shower was a great relief. After showers we preceded to put up our tents and set up camp, only to find that two of the tents and one of the swags had fallen off the roof. We made do by all squissing in together and sewt about having dinner and a few beers.
Day 4 - Kakadu National Park The day started off with an aboriginal show at the campsite we had been staying at. The campsite is owned and run by the local aboriginal community. During the show we learned how to throw a spear and play the dingeredoo. We also learned that alcohol and aboriginals
do not mix well as there was a massive row between a few of them during our show. I proved pretty useless when it came to throwing spears, lucky I didn't have to catch my dinner last night.
After the show we visited some fantastic art sites and learned more about Aboriginal lifestyle and culture. We then completed a short climb to the top of Ubirr Rock which proved extremely rewardarding when we saw the 360 degree view over floodplains and the Arnhemland Escarpment. We then headed down the Arnhem Highway into Mamukala Wetlands we were treated to a crocodile and wildlife boat cruise on Corroboree Billabong, a part of the Mary River system. During the cruise we saw an abundence of wildlife including a buffalo, several crocodiles and a wide variety of birdlife including wedge tailed eagles.
After the cruise we headed back to Darwin for a well earned night out on the town.
Next stop Darwin to Broome along the Gibb River Road and the Bungle Bungles.
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