Week 13 Kakadu du du push pineapples shake the tree

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Dear Blog,

Hows things? Hope you have been behaving thyself. Obviously I have, but I'm sure you wouldn't expect anything else from me!

So, was up bright and early (5am) after a hideous sleep, so was really perky as you can probably imagine, and not at all grumpy.

The drive from Darwin to Litchefield National Park (our first port of call) was lovely though, much more like the australia that I was hoping to find, miles upon miles of bush, red earth, endless horizons etc.

Our first stop was Buley Rockhole where we went for a short walk and then went for a swim to cool off. Feeling much more refreshed and awake we drove for another couple of hours to Florence Falls for another swim, had hotdogs for lunch and then went on a cruise throught the wetlands to watch crocodiles jump out of the water.

To be honest it was a little touristy, I would much rather have seen them just doing what crocodlies do best (i.e. look menacing) without them having to perform like zoo animals. And even though they are wild they knew the drill, so when they hear the boat approcah they know they are going to get a free feed if they perfom a few tricks. Also the guy on the boat had the most monotonous voice I had ever heard (he had probably repeated the same blurb for years), but still, it was incredible to see 3-4 meter crocs jumping out of the water, you could literally see right into their mouths.

That evening I had my first experience of outback camping, which I hated. The site was fairly basic, we slept in tents with beds in which was okay, but they needed to be de-buged before I could sleep in them. We heard a scream coming from the tent next door, from a girl in the group who while inspecting her tent had a frog jump on her head. Fortunately there wasn't anything too bad in my tent, but I refused to have a shower that night because there were so many frogs everywhere. I have never heard a grown man scream until I was in the ladies brushing my teeth when a guy next door was attacked by said frogs whilst having a shower. Also there were spiders and jumping bugs, oh and a snake by the entrance to the door of the showers. Needless to say I slept really badly (kept imagining things creeping up my arms, was still really hot and dirty from the day due to lack of shower, was stuck in my sleeping bag because I was too scared to sleep out of it plus was bursting for the loo but too scared to get up). Writing this now it seems quite pathetic that I was that freaked out (as am now hardened camper) but at the time I hated it.

The next day we were up at 5am (I was awake anyway from midnight, so was quite relieved to be up) but I was knackered. Watched the sunrise over a lake listening to 'morning has broken' from the bus. Saw wild hogs, a snake, eagles as we drove to Ubirr an area which is famous for its aboriginal rock art. We spent a couple of hours looking at the rock paintings and listening to the stories behind them which was interesting to learn more about aboriginal culture. Admired the amazing scenery from the top of a large rocky outcrop. As it was just the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry, the wetlands were still pretty wet and so there was plenty of wildlife about. In the afternoon we went for a walk through the bush before going for another swim in a creek known to have crocodiles in it (only freashwater ones) but I definately did not relax as much as the day before after our close encounter with the crocs on the boat. The next campsite was much better, no frogs, and after a very quick shower slept much better.

On my last day in Kakadu we walked to Motocar falls for another swim. A huge cane toad jumped on the head of an austrian guy in our group swimming near the waterfalls which was amusing (for us), but we couldn't believe it when at the next waterfalls we swam in, a snake jumped into the water right next to him too. Poor bloke. Thank the lord that it didn't happen to me is all I can say.
After a long drive back to Darwin having had an excellent trip the group went out to a pub for dinner and a few bevs. Made my excuses and went to bed before all the party games started. Too old!

Fogg x

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