Cruising around the top of Ozz...

---

The JUMPING CROCS

On the way to Darwin we stopped on the Adelaide River to see the Jumping crocs!! It was mint! You sit in a fairly small boat and the bloke takes you up the river, within minutes a 6 metre saltwater croc called: Brutus sneaks up right next to me!! The bloke then holds up a stick with a string attached to it, on the string is a gert bit of steak…the croc then repels its whole body (850kgs!!) out of the water to grab the steak! Mint! This continued for an hour, we saw around six or seven crocs, some were more acrobatic than others.

Darwin

Then we drove to Darwin, the Capital of the Northern Territory. It was a lively, modern city with an easygoing lifestyle. It has some good beaches, we enjoyed a morning sat (near) a nudist beach admiring the seemingly lack of nudists!

To a lot of travellers Darwin is the base for trips to Kakadu, Litchfield and Ayers rock National Parks, so it had a youthful feel and good night life (if you compare it to that of small desert towns).

As the sun goes down on the horizon, half of Darwin descends onto Mindl beach night market (Thurs & Sun), with plenty of tables, chairs, grog, crazy live music (psychedelic trance / Didgeridoo / mash up), coconut palms, and food…. plenty of food!! There was Sri-Lankan, Indian, Malaysian, Chinese, Brazilian, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, & Chips (yey). Also there were LOADS of art and craft stools - I bought a boomerang so that I could (i) Fend off potential attackers (ii): catch bush tucka (such as Rib-eye steak with a Philadelphia / parsley sauce and chips, beans on toast, the list goes on…….)

Anyway, Darwin was cool!

Litchfield National Park

Litchfield is only 80km south of Darwin, and is probably the most beautiful National Park in the Northern Territory. It was full of stunning swim holes and creeks that ALL had beautiful waterfalls. As there is no Saltwater crocs at Litchfield it is a great destination in the dry season as swimming is completely safe, this is rare considering you are never safe in the water around this part of Ozz, ie, in summer months…swarms of box Jelly fish (only the most poisonous thing on earth)pass through the coastal beaches , if that’s not enough you could (and probably would) get ravaged by a Salty croc either in freshwater river or the Sea!!!!

On the road into Litchfield we stopped to see the impressive ‘Cathedral’ Termite mounds, also called Magnetic mounds as they point north. Further down the tracks are Buley rockhole, Florence Falls, & Wangi falls - all of which were beautiful swim holes surrounded by sandstone cliffs and sub-tropical forest. There were other swim holes but for 4x4 only, the cow wun’t up for it!

We had stayed at each swim hole for a day then drove to the various free camp sites that were dotted around the place. Litchfield is fairly small, so we didn't have to drive for hours just to get to the next place - like in Kakadu!!

This would be our last rest before the 1500km drive to Alice Springs! We enjoyed every minute of it!

love to All in the England possy

N & A

xxxxxxx

---

Photos

Brutus
One of the larger crocs that lurk in the Adelaide River

Croc jump
check out the size of that blokes head to that of the crocs head!!!!