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April 17-24
I took the Ghan from Alice Springs on April 16th and arrived in Darwin on the 17th. The overriding memory that I have of Darwin is the oppressive humidity coupled with the heat. The week that I was there the temperature was 35 degrees Celsius with 90% humidity. I can still feel the sweat dripping down my face. Ick. Darwin itself is a port town and distinguished itself as being the recipient of a several bombings by the Japanese in World War II and almost being wiped off the face of the earth by a typhoon a some years later. There are a few nice beaches and museums in Darwin, but I spent most of my time trying to avoid the humidity by dodging from one air conditioned building to another. I am definitively not cut out for the tropics. It requires a degree of adaptation to humidity which I am not willing to acquire. It is amazing to me sometimes how much physical comfort can play in my immediate happiness. It doesn't matter that I am living my dream and seeing the places that I have always wanted to see. If I am dragging a 20kg backpack up
a hill for 10 minutes in the tropical heat I still feel miserable.
On the positive side Darwin is near to Kakadu National park and Litchfield National park. Kakadu is about 20,000 square kilometers and home to many interesting aboriginal rock paintings as well being the filming location for Crocodile Dundee. Unfortunately this film doesn't seem to have had much impact on the international community. I guess most other people go to Kakadu to see cave paintings from thousands of years ago and such. I searched high and low in Darwin for the cheapest possible way to see Kakadu without renting a vehicle. I suppose the cheapest way would have been to try to find a ride with another backpacker who was going that way, but I wasn't comfortable with that for a lot of reasons. One obvious one is that it relies a lot on chance. For organized tours of Kakadu the most recommended was a three day tour costing $505 including park fees. The cheapest was a day trip that cost $250. A reasonable alternative was a two day trip with a company called Kakadu Dreams costing $350 not including park fees which brought the total to $375
although the travel office gave me a $10 discount. I think if was doing the trip again I would definitely pay more for the three day trip as you spend about 6 hours driving one way into the park. Also the tour guide assigned to my group was very annoying. He spent most of the first day flirting with the Dutch girl in our group and then when she decided not to share his tent with him he spent most of the second day being rude to everyone and/or ignoring them. I really expect more professionalism for my $350.
I was particularly struck by how varied the landscape in Kakadu is. There are low wetlands, rain forest, rock caves and lots of streams and pools. Our group got a chance to swim in some of the pools in the areas of the park that are too high to be flooded during the wet season. Apparently flooding in the wet season alows the salt water crocodiles that normally can't climb rocks to be able to move between rivers and streams that are usually inaccessible in the dry season. May is the beginining of the dry season and I was in Darwin
and Kakadu in the end of April so the wet season was just ending and many parts of the park were closed until the park rangers could assess the presence or not of crocodiles. Jim Jim Falls in particular was something I wanted to see, but it is closed during the wet season. 😞
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anonymous
non-member comment
Hi Jenny, A question: Is the crocodile statue just a statue, or is it depicting the actual size of some crocodiles? dad