Australia (North) - Darwin & Kakadu National Park

Our van/ camper

We arrived in Darwin on Saturday 13^th October and headed straight to pick up our campervan. After much debate and numerous changes of plan we had decided to hire a campervan in Darwin, drive to Alice Springs, do a tour of Uluru and then drive back to Darwin. In doing so eliminating the ‘remote fee’ had we hired in Broome and driven to Darwin (our original plan), and also the ‘one way’ fee had we chosen a different drop off destination. We had been warned by more than a few people that to drive both ways was quite a colossal distance (more than twice the full length of the UK) but despite it being a long drive we figured it probably was the cheapest option and could be a bit of an adventure too!

Those crocs could really jumped!

We set off on the Stuart Highway, the road that goes from Darwin all the way to ‘The red centre’, stocking up on two weeks’ worth of supplies on the way. First stop…the campsite 20km out of town (!) but the next morning we drove on to Kakadu National Park. As we were in a two wheel drive we had strict instructions to stick to the bitumen (tarmac) road with the exception of a particular ‘croc jumping’ operator in Kakadu National Park. We made our way there and soon realised why we were not meant to go ‘off road’. The 12km to the river along a red dirt road took us forever and despite travelling at 10kmph the journey was not comfortable! The croc tour was worth it though and we spent the next hour on a boat going up and down the Adelaide River looking for saltwater crocodiles. We must have seen about 15 crocs in total and as we approached our skipper dangled a piece of meat off a long rod. He dangled it just out of reach and the crocs had to jump right up out of the water to grab it!! Amongst the crocs seen was ‘Brutus’ a huge 5m beast that apparently has been featured in ‘The Sun’ newspaper for his jumping ability. It was actually a bit scary when he leapt out of the water and even the skipper casually said ‘I’d stand back a bit for this one if I was you’. Nothing like a small boat with one horizontal metal bar across to protect you from a huge jumping crocodile. The tour was great fun though and it definitely reminded us how many crocodiles there are in northern Australia and quite how dangerous it is to swim in murky waters with no swimming sign!

Brutus...seriously big

Brutus again near the bank

We continued on our way hoping to find a campsite and perhaps squeeze a walk in, in the National Park, before dusk. Annoyingly on the way we pulled in to a rest stop to find we had a rapidly deflating tyre – a massive nail in the road being the culprit. That’s fine we thought…it was only 3pm and we’ve both changed tyres before. Unfortunately we found that once the jack was in place and the old tyre removed…the jack wasn’t actually lifting the van high enough to put the new inflated tyre on. We tried everything and eventually admitting defeat thought we’ll just put the old tyre back on and call the road side assistance. Problem 1 – no network signal. Problem 2 – having removed the old tyre we then couldn’t get it back on because once again the jack wasn’t high enough! Luckily we had pulled into a rest stop with a toilet and an ‘emergency button’. We were able to call the emergency department who, when they realised there were in fact no injured persons were happy to get in touch with our free roadside assistance team. To make the story a little shorter…having spent the whole afternoon outside the van because it was precariously balanced on the tiny jack, the roadside assistance turned up at…10.30pm.

Just about to discover the jack was
useless

Stranded with only a tea towel to keep away the flies -
Tea anyone?

We had long finished our water and were using the purification tablets we luckily had in our kits from Nepal. Thinking back we were seriously lucky to have broken down somewhere with a water supply that we could purify because it was such a hot day we’d have been in serious trouble if we hadn’t! Needless to say we travelled with excess water supplies ‘for emergencies’ after that.  The other revelation that took place that afternoon was how insanely annoying flies can be…they were ridiculous and they were everywhere. They seemed to particularly like flying into your mouth, eyes and ears and after 4 hours of no respite we gave a sigh of relief when the sun went down and as if by magic they all disappeared. Relief until the mosquitoes started their shift about 5 minutes later L We later invested in fly nets for our heads and have since decided that they were one of the best buys of the trip!

Aboriginal rock art

Spending our second afternoon by the road, covered in flies and eventually settling down to sleep in that same spot covered by mosquitoes, didn’t deter us for long and the next morning after a breakfast of ‘weet-bix’ we continued our trip in high spirits. We visited a wetlands centre in the morning and then went to see some aboriginal rock art in the afternoon. After admiring the rock art, some of which is said to be over 20,000 years old (!) we walked up to a beautiful lookout point where you could see for miles across the surrounding lands. Learning about the Aborigines and their way of life and their culture was truly fascinating and seeing some of the art that still exists after so many years was actually incredible. The ‘paint’ used is a mix of red ochre and animal fat and the drawings were drawn in order to tell stories over those thousands of years. It wasn’t the preservation of drawings that was important to the Aborigines, rather the act of drawing and the stories that are told in them. As a result the drawings are all drawn on top of each other, the new ones obscuring the old. They were used as educational tools to teach and pass on knowledge, morals and beliefs to the younger generations.

In the evening keen for some more bird watching, Mike joined the sunset wetlands cruise whilst I set up camp (and dinner) in the nearby campsite. I’ll spare you the details about exactly how I made the dinner but I will let Mike tell you about the wetlands cruise J

‘The Wetlands cruise was run by a mixed race aboriginal whose parents have lived in the Kakadu National Park and its surrounds for thousands of years. Being a traditional man he took great delight in pointing out the many crocodiles, birds and animals and telling us whether they were good to eat and how they tasted. We found out that by living off the land, Aborigines have learnt to incorporate almost every animal into the local bush tucker. The cruise itself was excellent and the wildlife was superb…well worth the trip.’  

Glossy Ibis

Lilly