Arrival in Darwin & Kakadu

---

We arrived in Darwin in the late afternoon and pulled up at the YHA. Mikey wanted to stay here because the ashes tickets he had purchased were being sent here. As we walked into reception to check in it was quite obvious that they were having a big refurb. We checked in and found the facilities quite basic - the kitchen was hideously small and cockroaches were all over the place. I was in a bunk above a bloke from London, Liam. Unfortunately he was a Gooner like alot of the people I had met on my way up here. Alot was going through my head when we first arrived in Darwin and i felt obliged to come home as the credit card had been severely dipped into. I even went to the extent of phoning Japan Airlines and asking them what the earliest date would be to come home. I had convinced myself I was going home! Japan Airlines informed me that all the flights over the World Cup period were booked up so I was destined for a long stay in Darwin.

I had an exceptional time in Darwin and this is typified by our first night. Attached to our hostel was a bar called Globies in which we spent a fair bit of our time. It was a pretty basic establishment - had a pool table and a few screens to watch the football. Mikey and I walked in there for something to eat and have a few drinks and we were greeted by a friendly Scotsman - Michael. Little did we know the amount of time we would spend with him and Aileen his girlfriend. It was nice, the first day arriving somewhere and immediately falling into conversation with people. We chatted away much of the night before the World Cup started. By the time of the game a big crowd had devloped and alot of Germans were in. The $6 (2 pound 50) jugs of beer were going down a treat and we drank late into the night. Michael is a nice jovial chap who I immediately got along with - he was work shy and quite lazy but that was quite amusing in itself. Aileen was absolutely lovely - gorgeous blonde, great personality, great laugh and most important of all - the bar maid at Globies. During the World Cup I was down at Globies nearly everyday. The evening would start off with a meal and then followed by a few jugs of beer before the football started. The atmosphere was great fun - there was always a big crowd for the England, German, Swedish and Dutch games and it was nice to see the different sets of fans mixing and having alot of banter between each other. England v Sweden was a slightly different affair when the two sets of fans were basically winding each other up. The English fans were in good voice with there songs such as the "you can stick Ikea up your arse". 1 Swedish bloke in particular didn't take the abuse to kindly. I spent much of the evening in a deep footballing debate with a Swedish girl - yes a female who actually can speak some sense about the great game (sorry if that sounds slightly sexist but I am talking about the majority of the tail-less kind).

After watching the first England game against Paraguay myself and Dutchy decided to book up a trip to Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. Mikey decided against it as he would wait until the other came up before he went anywhere. Dutchy and myself got a basic car which meant we couldn't go off road but we were informed that there were limited oppurtunities for such an excursion as most of the roads are tarmaced and the ones that were not were closed off due to flooding. We set the date so that I could be back to watch the second England game v Trinidad and Tobago.

The first England game against Paraguay did little to calm the nerves as to the performance of the national team. We were shockingly awful and I was again a bag of nerves to everyone elses amusement. This night was the first time I met Peter from Ireland - again little did I know how much of him and his girlfriend Catherine I would be seeing. Peter is immediately likeable and his warmth draws people to hime like a magnet - nobody can say a bad word about this man, he doesn't have a nasty bone in his body. We all chatted away for a fair bit of the night - even if we found understanding Peter and his broad N.Irish accent not always easy - I must have sounded quite rude asking him to repeat what he had just said or just nodding like and idiot when I didn't have a clue what he had just said. I did provide some amusement for everyone that night. The lovely barmaid who recognised me from Sydney (yes travelling is a small world) - and I was slightly embarassed not to recognise her decided to collar me and draft me as the first person to have the face painted. I had the St George's cross painted across my face and according to Mikey I looked like a right pillock (not his exact words but I have to censure at certain times). A few others had their faces painted but I was certainly in the minority. After we scraped the 1-0 win i celebrated with the other relieved England fans and then stayed around for a few more drinks and a few more games. At the end of the night I had completely forgotten my face had been painted so I am glad I went to the toilet before getting into my bed - getting up in the morning and going to have breakfast would have been quite interesting/paranoia inducing. The next day I met Catherine - The wee Irish lass and girlfriend to Peter. She was very quiet and seemed quite shy - which made conversation quite difficult to initiate at first. But as I got to know her she started coming out of her shell and now she is a brilliant friend that has had to put up with my antics for a longtime now. Catherine also has to put up with Peter - especially after he has had a few to many to drink and just runs off. Peter is always moving about and can never rest - a few times after a night out he seemed to just dissapear or would run off - it was quite amusing, but Catherine insisted it was perfectly normal and that he had done the same in the dark streets of Belfast before.

Mikey was a happy bunny - Sian his whirlwind romance from Alice Springs was arriving and so was looking at spending 'some quality time together'. It was nice to see her, but we didn't see much of the both of them for a fair bit. To be fair the whole time Sian was there seemed to be a bit of a rollercoaster - or should I say a rollercoaster that was about to begin its descent down the big dip. Mikey booked them into the Holiday Inn which was situated next door to the YHA and cost him a fair bit - he was paying for his bed at the YHA as well. I was treated to exclusive looks of their room which I have to admit was rather nice. Satellite television, Minibar (which was expensive and used), balcony with view...etc etc. The first couple of nights seemed to go well and I saw them both fleetingly but the 3rd night all seemed to go pear shaped (understatement of the century). They both came down to Globies to watch another World Cup game (cant remember they all seem to mould into one). Things were going well and everyone seemed to be having a good laugh - the drink was flowing to well. After one of the games Mikey decided it was time to head off and said his farewells. Surprisingly Sian did not leave instead insisting that she was going to stay and drink into the night. It was quite clear that Mikey was "mightily pissed off" (own words) but left instructing me to make sure she got back safely. I agreed but was slightly bemused myself at her behaviour. From what Mikey says and what I have seen myself, drink never really went down well with Sian and she would become slightly obtuse. A group of us continued to drink and eventually Sian decided to go back (I admit there was some slight encouragement for her to leave on my behalf). I walked her back to the Holiday Inn and then headed back to watch the next game in the World Cup. Bearing in mind I was off to Kakadu in a few hours time I shouldn't have been out getting drunk but i told myself Dutchy would drive anyway and I would sleep it off. I got back to the hostel and most of the others had gone to bed. Liam was sat down so I went and chatted to him for a fair while. To my surprise i got a phone call from Mikey (it must have been about 2am at least). He said that he was coming back to the hostel and would I wait for him to give him my key. I of course was still in the bar so that wasn't a problem. Mikey arrived about 5mins later not exactly looking like a spring chicken with his bag in tow - i knew something had gone horribly wrong. I asked him if he was ok and he just responded that she had acted like a nasty piece of work when she got back to the room. I gave him the key and off he went - little did i know that this wasn't the end of the festivities!! It cant have been 10mins (memory gets a bit hazy after the ** jug of beer) when Sian was to phone me asking where Mikey was. I thought it has nothing to do with me so just said he has come back to the hostel. Mikey dropped the key back to me and I told him that I had spoken to Sian and told him what I had said - he wasn't pleased with me one bit, I just wanted them both to sort it out so everything would be rosy in the morning. A minute or so after Mikey had left me Sian storms through Globies doors and comes straight up to me. I cant remember exactly what she said but it was something like "where the hell is that so and so". I said he was in the room and she told me to get him. I said it has nothing to do with me and handed her my room key and told her to sort it out herself! I sat back down with Liam, slightly annoyed that a good convo I was having with him had been interrupted. Minutes later Sian come flustered/angry up to me and demands to know where Mikey has gone. It turns out Mikey left the room when he found out Sian was on her way. I told her to phone him - she had tried that and then i tried to call him myself - no luck! She then got quite ridiculous demanding that we go and search for him on the streets of Darwin - I laughed and said something along the lines of needle in a haystack. I got a text from Mikey saying he was away staying elsewhere. I was at wits end so went up and asked Dutchy's advice and backup mainly. Thankfully Dutchy agreed with me and decided she should go back to the hotel room and get a good nights sleep. I walked her back for the second time this time making sure she actually went in instead of doing anything stupid. The walk was frustrating as she was being so nonsensical - it didn't help that i was getting annoyed and tired and as such was saying things that irritated her even more, "just go back and enjoy the hotel room" - wasn't one of my most thoughtful quotes of all time. I headed back with Dutchy - both of us tired and angry. I got to bed and had about 3hrs sleep before getting up for the trip to Kakadu.

The day before the trip we had collected supplies (Dutchy is very particular and chose to ensure we would have a good enough time of it - we would have survived a week in the Siberian winter on the rations we took!). He took all of his camping supplies which I have to admit were completely over the top! I was feeling absolutely awful as we walked to collect the car and for much of the morning. Mikey has phoned me explaining where he had stayed and that he was coming to Kakadu with us. Dutchy and I talked about it and decided it was to late - we had got the suppiles for the two of us and there wasn't enough room for sleeping in the car anyway. I also couldn't be dealing with any fallout from the whole debacle just a few hours earlier! As was the consequence of this frustration and tiredness with Mikey and Sian i decided to take the easy way out and not answer my phone so I didn't have to tell him directly he couldn't come. Dutchy did not like this logic and looking back on it now i wish I had just told Mikey straight instead of ignoring the situation and possibly making the situation far worse for when i got backto Darwin. As we were loading the vehicle back at the hostel with all our supplies who was to make my morning all that 'better' - yes Sian!! She came up to me and I couldn't look at her i was seething. She apologised for the events and thanked me for my help, i just ignored her and continued to load the vehicle as quickly as possible just to get away. The one thing I did say was that I am not commenting on Mikey or their situation as it had nothing to do with me. And with that myself and Dutchy hit the road to explore the Kakadu National Park (prob most famous NP in Australia) and to escape the troubles of the previous hours.

Our vehicle was a nice new and clean Toyota Camry - that was until we had finished with it. As Dutchy was in far the better position to be taking the wheel I did not complain - I was shattered and slightly affected by alcohol. My job as map reader was a farce in itself as I closed my eyes before we had even got out of Darwin. Its lucky my eyes reopened when they did as Dutchy went driving straight passed our turnoff. I felt quite bad at the beginning of the drive because I wasn't keeping the best company but as the morning wore on i began to freshen and awaken. Our first stop was Window on the Wetlands Lookout centre. This is basically as it says on the tin. It had lots of informative information about the local wildlife and lots of stuff for kids to do. At the top of the visitors centre was a viewing deck which allowed you to lookout over a vast expanse of wetlands. The mix of colour between the green and the blue of the water was quite nice but we soon got bored and decided to get some more Ks under our belts. We drove on a bit further until we reached the official entrance to Kakadu - this is signified by the Gates which welcome you to Australias most famous national park. Our next stop was the Ubirr rock paintings. These have apparently been around for donkeys years and painted by the aboriginals of the area. The paintings were quite interesting but needed the explanatory signs to help decipher them. I have to say i'm a bit sceptical about the drawings as alot of them look like they should have eroded away with the exposure they get from the sunlight and the wet season. Dutchy basically couldn't care less about the aboriginal pictures and I wasn't far behind in my level of appreciation. Ubirr was the best place in kakadu for me for one reason and that was the view from the top of the hill. To get to the top you have to climb a multitude of various boulders and up rocky escarpments. But once you get to the top the view out over more wetland is superb. From up here we could see bush fires in the distance as well as the bright green of the vegetation. The colour are definetly a sight to behold. The drive down here was also quite good. There was a fair thicket of trees but through these you could make out lakes and vast wetlands. There was also fords which Dutchy had never been across. The Fords were pretty much small rivers which we had to drive through - Dutchy loved it and was in his element - even asking me to drive through it a few times so that he could get some quality pictures!! On the way back we had to drive through a ford and Dutchy was obviosuly not used to road etiquette where a ford is found. Another vehicle was coming the other way so he decides to continue at the same speed and stay on the driving line. Unfortunately for the pensioner coming the other way our vehicle created a bit of a tidal wave and entered his open window and he got an absolute soaking. I told Dutchy to just keep driving and not look back - it was absolutely hilarious and has to be one of the highlights!! After being in stiches for a good few minutes we decided upon a spot of lunch. We stopped at a location that had picnic area marked. There was nothing special about this luncheon spot other than the fact it was situated by a river that was full of saltwater crocodiles. This is not abnormal in itself in the Northern Territory but fishing at the rivers edge I found quite strange. Personally if i saw a sign which read 'EXTREME RISK OF SALT WATER CROCODILES' I would go nowhere near the water. As we approached to see if we could see any Crocs from a safe distance we were surprised to see 3 men fishing. The first bloke greeted me and then I asked him what the hell he was doing fishing there. He said its a good spot for fishing and if any crocodiles were in the area he would see them anyway. He said that he would be ok because he was standing on the boat ramp but his 2 other mates would be in more danger as they were standing on the bank of the river. I'm no Steve Irwin (RIP) but i'm sure crocodiles are so dangerous because of the stealthy way they attack their prey! He was a nice enough chap if not a bit simple so we said our goodbyes and retreated to a safer distance. Jabiru is the 'capital' of Kakadu. It is basically just a tourist resort for people staying overnight in Kakadu who cannot put up with camping. The accomodation is provided by a hotel shaped as a crocodile. The picture is in most of the Kakadu promotional books but when your actually there it looks quite rubbish and cheap! We topped up the car with fuel and headed on as quickly as possible.
Our most dangerous and possible the most stupid driving caper was when we decided to drive a short way down one of the dirt roads. This completely contravened the rules stated by our hire company. We thought we would be ok as the drive was relatively short but as we progressed the dirt track got worse and worse. It was bumpy and the amount of red dust we were kicking up was incredible. Worst was still to come as i saw the road was broken by a river!! Yes this couldn't be considered a stream or a ford it was definetly 4WD territory. We both got out of the vehicle to observe our obstacle (we had already been driving for a good 15mins so didnt want to turn back) and thought we could skirt the edge at the shallowest point and get through. I drove and we found it was relatively easy with the water only slightly coming up part of the door. We were well chuffed with ourselves as we headed on but then the next obstacle emerged - another river that was bigger and faster flowing. This time our debate lasted a bit longer before deciding - sod it, it will be a laugh!!! Again I teetered my way through at the shallowest point while Dutchy guided me while standing in the river. This time the water was coming up quite high and I could feel it pushing the car as I went though. We made it and just hoped that we didn't get to a third bigger river! Fortunately a corner was a short way ahead and around this corner was the location of the hot springs and some campsite. The majority of the other vehicles were 4WD - indicating to us that it wasn't the most sensible thing to take a Toyota Corolla down such a road. We parked up and walked down to the river. The river itself was normal temperature but still very scenic. There were sandy sections of the river and it was nice and gentle to walk up through. Luckily there were only a couple of other people there so it was a nice peaceful spot unlike some of the other water holes we would come to later. After walking a bit up stream we came to where a series of streams fed the river. These streams were flowing from the hot springs and were therefore carrying the hot water. It was a weird sensation but also quite nice. Some of the pools in the area were warm/hot and we sat in these until we could no longer stand the temperature. We stayed here for a good while just exploring and then found a large pond. Some of the streams that were feeding the river came from this lake. Quite clearly this lake wasn't for swimming with the smell of sulphur stifling and the apparent temperature of the water. The water was bubbling at several locations and when we put our feet in the water we were soon taking them out again. It was a strange place because its something I hadn't expected. The only way back was the road we had came so we slowly went about making our way back. Dutchy had to get a few more pictures of the car driving through the rivers.

The next stop on the Kakadu map was more rock art sites. Ducthy and I decided we couldn't be dealing with looking at anymore of these so headed on. We decided to stop at a big hill and climb it. The Mirrai Lookout car park was empty except for one car. The hill itself was quite steep and took about 25mins to climb. The climb required you to dodge through thickets and bush while scrabbling up the rock. At the top the view was nice but hardly worth the effort. Because it was so overgrown it was hard to really admire the view out of Kakadu. Climbing the viewing platform helped things but even still the view was fairly restricted. The view we did get allowed us a window on the green expanse of the Kakadu National Park on one side and then the Arnhem Land divide on the other. The Arnhem Land is aboriginal land in which you need to apply for a permit to enter. It is divided from Kakadu by a mountainous cliff face. We spent a few moments admiring the view and catching our breath before we started our descent. One of the attractions of Kakadu is Jim Jim and Twin Falls. Unfortunately these are definetly 4WD roads - this didn't matter anyway as the roads were closed due to the flooding from the previous wet season. We headed passed that turnoff and decided we should look for somewhere to camp down for the night. Quite conveniently a campsite was only a couple of Ks from our final destination of the day, Yellow Water. Dutchy made me laugh because obviously his first language isn't English some of the things he came out with were the niches of the English language and humour. We pulled up and he said to me do you think this place is where everyone goes to urinate? I looked a bit puzzled and then he said "well yellow water is was you normally pee out isn't it?" - Ok sounds rubbish now but at the time was amusing! Yellow Water was a popular spot even late in the day. The wetland spread as far as the eye could see and was home to countless species of bird, insect, animal... The water was a gorgeous shade of blue and the lilypads and other plant life made it a real postcard place. The boardwalk allowed us to walk over the water and appreciate the wildife. We stared at the water seeing bubbles wondering if there were fresh water crocodiles in there. It was definetly something bigger than an insect and could only have been a large fish. It would have been a nice special tranquil place where you could easily lose yourself had it not been for the boat tour. Throughout the whole of the boardwalk stroll all we heard was the audio being played out by these boats and the whirring of there engines. As the sun was setting we decided to go and get ourselves sorted out at the campsite for one of the worst nights of my entire life.
The campsite was basically just an area of clearing in the bush where you could park your vehicle and pitch a tent. It did have showers and toilets but these were the only comforts! The water ran cold and so having a shower wasn't the most pleasurable experience - along with the spiderwebs all over the place. Even coming out of the toilets in the dark and not seeing a thing and trying to make your way back to the car was an effort in itself. This didn't bother me, I was actually enjoying the modest lifestyle of being on the road with little provision. It was dark by the time Dutchy set up his tent and we had his gas cooker on for our evening meal. Unsurprisingly the menu was short of canapes, instead we opted for the pasta dish. It was nice to sit around the gas burner and chat away about absolutely anything - usually about Dutchy and his grand plans for when he got back. The pasta went down a treat as well and it wasn't long before we were considering bed. Dutchy had his 1 man tent - looked a bit like a giant condom and I had the luxury of the passengers seat in the car. So far I had liked the camping lifestyle but getting into the car and settling down for the night was about to change my thoughts about camping. Stupidly we had left the boot of the car open for much of the evening so when it came to me going to sleep the car was full of mosquitos!! Dutchy offered me one of his fly nets to sleep under but this was little use. As soon as i lay there in silence i could here the buzzing all around me - The whirring was actually quite loud and slightly disconcerting. I decided to cake myself in the insect repellent i had brought from home and try and cover every part of my body with blankets and the fly net. I didn't manage to get much sleep that night and I wouldn't advocate sleeping in a car. It was uncomfortable and depressing. I woke up a few times and consoled myself by staring at the night sky which was full of stars. In the early hours of the morning my ankles started to itch and random places on my body were also feeling the effects of the mozzies. When it came to getting up my ankles were bright red and I had been bitten countless times. In the light I could understand why - there were hundreds of the blood thieving buggers swarming around me and the car. Dutchy was up shortly after me and he complained that Mozzies had managed to get into his Mozzie proof tent! We soon decided it was best just to go and with the windows open and get breakfast along the way. Our next stop was to another reserve outlook called Mardugal which was more lake and wildlife. It was a short walk over more boardwalks and again we were looking for crocodiles but to no avail! The funniest thing we did see was the other tour group all jump back and look on in horror when there was a rustling in the bushes. This spot pretty much brought our time in Kakadu to an end. It would have taken us longer had we had a 4wd and most of the tracks being open but in the end we thought that Kakadu was slightly overated. I certainly would not pay the $600+ for a tour and if i did i would feel heavily short changed! We exited the Kakadu national park gates on the Kakadu Highway and were soon rejoining the Stuart Highway. Before entering Litchfield National Park we decided on driving round a scenic road. I wouldn't say it was the most scenic drive I have ever had as we were surrounded by trees and vegetation for most of the 70km drive. There was one area of attraction and that was the Robin Falls. We turned off the road onto another dirt track to see the falls. The 1km track itself was the bumpiest and suspension damaging road we had been on. It was therefore understandable that when we arrived at the parking area it was full of 4WDs. We parked up at the side of the bank partially in a ditch and picked up our swimming stuff. It was a bit of a walk upto the waterfall and my flip-flops were not the best choice of footwear! It took us about 20mins to walk up there over jagged rocks and big boulders, in the end i just resorted to bare feet. The waterfall itself was very small but quite good because it was quiet. I decided against going into the plunge pool, instead opting to take pictures of Dutchy venturing in for a dip. Dutchy seemed to be loving it but the people that had walked up behind us look displeased as he was in the way of all their potential photos.
Litchfield National Park is much smaller than Kakadu and is closer to Darwin. People tend to goto Litchfield on day trips and so it gets pretty busy at times. We headed onto Litchfield and to its main town, Batchelor. Its a strange place - very quiet but with some oddballs around. The local shop sells the calendar 'Batchelors of Batchelor' which I found quite amusing. We stocked up on supplies before heading onto our first stop, a campsite. This campsite was much better equipped than the one we had been eaten alive in the previous night. It was within a couple of minutes walk to the Florence Falls, each vehicle had there own area, we were able to light a campfire, you could see where you were going and most importantly - there seemed to be no Mozzies. We parked our dirty looking Camry next to a v.strange Dutch couple. Dutchy was obviously chatting away with them but in the end he got fairly freaked out by the man in particular. We unpacked the stove and the tent before heading off in search of firewood. Unfortunately it seems like everyone at this campsite was searching for firewood so it was fairly scarce. In the end we both came back with big bits of tree that most people wouldn't be able to carry or certainly wouldn't goto the effort of cutting up!! We then showered (icy cold) and then had the backpackers speciality - pasta with pasta sauce. We lit a little campfire and sat about chatting until quite late. It was nice as the smoke was keeping away all the pesky critters that wanted to harvest me! Luckily we had radio signal so i listened to that for a bit before getting my head down. The nights sleep was far better but i was still scratching my ankles like a mad man throughout the night and only managed about 4hrs. As we were ahead of schedule we took it easy and strolled down to the Florence Falls. Of all the swims I have had the Florence Falls has to be the best ever. Unfortunately because it is such a nice dip it attracts lots of people and the place was fairly busy when we got down there - one of the tour groups was in! I got chatting to a German girl who seemed pretty clued up about football and we debated who would do well in the World Cup - i probably didn't endear myself to her by telling her that i doubted Germany would do well! The swim was pretty amazing - the fish were swimming around us and the 2 water falls were incredible. Its just ashame that travelling and lack of swimming in recent years has meant my fitness has suffered. Once I had swum out to the waterfalls I clung onto a rock and caught my breath while admiring the situation i was in. I was soon swimming under the waterfall and jumping off the rocks into the plunge zone - i was having great fun. The best swimming on my back and looking directly up at the waterfall coming down - immense stuff!! I could have stayed there all day mucking about but another tour group had arrived and my euphoria was slightly subdued so we thought it was a good time to leave. Next stop was the Tolmer Falls where we were unable to swim. Its a great view in the area of the falls but the falls themselves aren't that special. We surveyed the landscape here for a bit before going onto the Wangi Falls and our final stop for the tour. We were quite dissapointed we were unable to swim here as 8 Salties had been recently recovered - i'm not sure i would have liked to have swum here anyway with the risk of those about! It did look good to swim here and was larger than the other 2 falls. A boardwalk to you around the area - again to survey the local plant and wildlife. The walk continued up to the top of the fall. We decided we might as well and were glad we did. The walk itself was quite nice with little trickling streams and lots of bushland and at the top the view was pretty good as well. The top looked at the river which fed the falls and over the green landscape which had become quite familiar over the couple of days. Just getting to the top brought on a bit of a sweat in the intense heat of the day and I thought i was one of the fitter ones! On the return loop which was all downhill unsurprisingly, we had to climb down rocks and it involved a bit of care. I could tell we were about to be held up though when i looked ahead and could see a couple who were virtually stationary. As we got closer we could see they were actually moving but at snails pace. We were soon right behind them and could see why the pace was so slow - the lady was obviously having some trouble with her hormones so wasn't going to be challenging Asafa Powell anytime soon. We pidgeon footed behind them for a bit before they kindly let us through. I must admit I had alot of respect for her because i was feeling the heat and the walk a fair bit and she was carrying a bigger load than me and still persevering but being quite humourous about it. We finally got back down and had lunch before hitting the road and heading back to Darwin. Before Darwin we stopped at a place which was advertised as a swimming spot - the Manton Dam nature reserve. It looked nice and was ideal as nobody else was there to spoil a tranquill swim. As i approached the boat ramp i saw a temporary sign which instructed that swimming was prohibited as 'Salt Water Crocodiles had been seen in the area'! It was quite annoying to be finishing our Kakadu/Litchfield experience on this note but we still had a good time.

We arrived back in Darwin in the late afternoon and dropped off all our bags. I checked into a room at the YHA which I ended up staying in for quite a long time. We decided to drop the car off a day early instead of getting up early the following day. In my brief experience with car hire companies they have a cursory look around the vehicle and declare it ok and then give back your bond and send you on your way. Unfortunately this was not how things turned out! Dutchy had said to me before we went there we should have the car cleaned, I had said they expected it back looking a bit grubby and he had forgotten about having it washed by the times we got there. The car didn't look to bad - the only problem was a bit of red dust and dirt under the wheel arches and on random spots on the car. The women went around the vehicle having a good look and then turned round and said "have you taken this car on unsealed roads?". We immediately denied we had only admitting that the campsites we had stayed at required us to drive onto an untarmaced surface. She then said "no this has definetly not just been on a campsite", i then protested and said red dust stick to anything. She then explained that it would have to have a full under body inspection at our cost. I was very tired after the lack of sleep and the action packed few days so had a short fuse. She kept on and on and in the end I could hold my tongue no longer. Things got to stalemate so she had to call out her boss who then inspected the car. Funnily enough the women started noting other things like a completely insignificant dent which was missed the first time round and was probably missed when we picked up the car. By this point I was absolutely fuming and protesting with the both of them. Ducthy was angry but had to calm me down and in the end we had to settle on the underbody inspection - setting us back a minimum of $40. On the way back to the hostel myself and Dutchy had an argument and I continued to be raging for a fair while.
My ankles were ridiculously swollen and still itching like mad. Everyone i showed squirmed at the site of the discomfort but worse was to come when i was wearing my flip-flops in the supermarket. The bites were so bad that people were clearly looking at me as if I had had some disease like leprosy. I asked an elderly supermarket assistant if she knew where i could get some heavy duty mozzie bite cream. She looked at my ankles and made that breathing through your teeth sound that builders make when they are quoting on your property. She asked me had i been wearing any repellent and I said I had caked myself with some I had brought from home - she just laughed and said you would need far stronger local stuff than the crappy stuff they issue in the UK. She then informed me that methanol is what she had been using since she was young but that I had to ask for it at the customer service desk as they had had some problems with aboriginals looking for a quick fix. I didn't fancy splashing the indigenous community's favoured beverage over my ankles so asked for something else. Thankfully she actually took me to an aisle that had recomended bite cream and not some concoction that had been passed down in her family for 3 generations. Before I even got out the supermarket i was rubbing this cream into every area of my body that was affected. Unfortunately it ended up drawing attention and making my ankles look worse that they already were. The cream leaves a white powdery residue that looks far from attractive. So now I had to walk about with horrifically swollen ankles covered in some dubious white coating!! I didn't really care how I looked - it was how it worked and thankfully it worked a charm. I had to wear the cream for about a week and a half and the scabbing was clearly visible for weeks afterwards - last time I use cheap repellent and sleep in a car full of mozzies at night!

A few days later we were informed by Apollo (people we hired the car from) what the damage was. I was absolutely shocked but relieved in a way. Luckily we had taken insurance out on the vehicle before we had gone. This had reduced our excess from some ridiculous amount to $300. The women at the Apollo desk handed me over the mechanics report - they had fixed the tiny dent for $500. So this meant we lost $300 ($150 each). I was still pretty annoyed about this but had come to accept there was nothing I could do and that we had been lucky not to have been liable for at least $500.

Although our trip to the Northern Territory national parks had ended on a sour note we still had a goodtime and I look back with fond memories and can only laugh at the incident involving the car. At the end of the day it was our fault for puttin ourselves in the position to be scrutinised. Thankfully the rest of my time spent in Darwin was far from bad and I enjoyed some of the best times in Australia so far. My next blogspot will have my stories from my time in Darwin.

---

Photos

Swamp @ Kakadu
Home to countless wildlife

Crocs
This sign was a few metres away from the waters edge. At the waters edge were 3 obviously mentally retarded fishermen.

Overlooking Vast Swampland
There were bush fires in the background

Kakadu
We climbed a mountain for this view

Bush fires in the distance
@ Ubirr, Kakadu

Dirt Road down to Hot Springs
We really shouldn't have been going down here!!

Hot Springs Lake
This was the bubbling source of the hot water - v.hot!

Ramshackle town
On the way to Litchfield N.P

Wangi Falls, Litchfield
We were hoping to swim here, but 8 Crocs had just been recovered!