The Northern Territory

After having an awesome time on ‘The Rock Tour’ it was time to begin our long journey up to Darwin, on the very north coast of Australia. The journey would take us approximately 17 hours, with a detour through Kakadu National Park, the second largest national park in the world!

After a day of driving we stopped at a rest stop between Alice Springs and Kakadu. The next morning we headed for Kakadu National Park, driving through Katherine. We visited a pub in ‘Daly Waters’, a quirky place full of all sorts of things that people had donated over the years. There were hundreds of IDs, caps, t-shirts, underwear, flip-flops… the list goes on! Becky decided to leave something of her own there too, so she staple gunned her old 16-25 rail card to the counter of the bar.

We visited ‘Bitter Springs’. I think the word ‘bitter’ described it best. The water looked an odd colour so we decided not to venture in for a cool dip out of the heat. We tried to visit a couple of other water falls along the way but the heavens opened and made this impossible with our car. So instead we would try and see them on the drive back down. We camped for the evening just outside Kakadu National Park, ready for a day of touring it the following morning.

Kakadu National Park is beautiful, but enormous! There was lots to see, however, we soon found out that quite a lot of it would be difficult for us to see in our 2WD car. Ideally, we needed a 4WD. This didn’t stop us though! We choose a waterfall that said it was accessible by 2WD if you were careful, so headed for it. The road was bright orange in colour and extremely corrugated, most definitely a bumpy ride! After an hour of very slow driving we reached Gunlom Falls. The waterfall itself was picturesque, so we decided to take a dip in it despite the warning of crocodiles we saw on the walk down to it. There were other people swimming in it, so we thought it must be pretty safe. We saw a nice photo opportunity on some rocks a little swim away from us, so we very quickly swam over, snapped a few shots, and swam back!! We made it out alive!

After camping for the evening in Kakadu, we continued through the rest of the park the following morning. On the way out of the park, a police car flashes their lights and gets us to pull over. Oh dear, we’re in trouble! Lydia winds down the window and the officer asks if we know why we’ve been pulled over so we say ‘No officer’… luckily we had only been slightly speeding so he gave us a stern warning and just told us to be more careful. Lesson learnt.

On the way in to Darwin, we went on a ‘croc cruise’ on the Adelaide River. The tour promised ‘spectacular jumping crocs’ and we saw lots!! They got many crocs jumping out of the water for us, so we grabbed lots of photos! We were even lucky enough to see an albino croc, which had a white head and is apparently very rare.

We checked into a hostel for a couple of nights and took the chance for some well-deserved drinks on the evening whilst we were in a bigger city. The night was fun and we got a few free cocktails along the way, they tasted great! We met a few real Australians from the outback which was a nice change from all the travellers.

We spent our second day in Darwin chilling out, souvenir shopping and went to Mindil Beach and Fannie Bay. Unfortunately, the famous night markets at Mindil Beach had closed for the year due to the wet season.

After a good night’s sleep, we started our journey back down south, this time heading through Litchfield National Park. We loved this place!! With our car, we were still able to go and see all the different sites there which were great! We swam in rock pools, which we had all to ourselves and dipped in and out of numerous waterfalls all day… bliss! Our favourite places were Florence Falls and Burley Rockhole. At Florence Falls which is ‘Croc Free’, we each took turns to swim out nearer the waterfall. Becky was standing elegantly posing on a rock which peeped out of the water, when all of sudden something bit her toe and she went diving into the water… the suspect of the bite is still unknown!

After a day in Litchfield National Park, we continued driving south and visited ‘Edith Falls’ which we’d missed out on the drive north due to the weather. We camped there for the evening and the most epic storm surrounded us. Flashes of lightening continuously, crazy rain and booming thunder. At one point, the lightening was behind the only single cloud in the sky, making the cloud light up every few seconds, awesome sight!

We took a dip in Edith Falls the next morning and then headed to ‘Katherine Gorge’ for a boat trip. Some amazing sites and scenery of the gorge and a well needed relaxing boat cruise on a sweltering hot day.

From here we headed towards the border of the Northern Territory, ready to take our road trip through Western Australia! Becky ran over two birds, Lydia ran over two toads and we near missed a couple of kangaroos and cows… the toads definitely made a squelch! That’s all from the Northern Territory; you’ve been wonderful, if a little humid!

Peace and Love,
Lyds & Bex
xxxxx