Darwin: 5th-10th June.

On our first day in Darwin, we headed out to Litchfield National Park. While in Cairns, we had arranged a package with Peter Pan's which took care of our excursion to Litchfield and Kakadu National Parks as well as our accommodation when in Darwin. Once on board the bus, Armelle met Tory, the first person she had met from Chichester while traveling! After chatting away with Tory and our fellow group members, we reached the park with the termite mounds being our first stop. The Cathedral mounds are huge and they grow by a meter every 10 years above and 10 meters below ground.

The troop inside consist of the Queen, the workers and the soldiers who defend the mound from the nasty ants! In the neighboring floodplain were the magnetic termite mounds which from a distance look like tomb stones. The mounds are incredibly narrow and are aligned from north to south so that each side of the mound make full use of the sun, warming the easterly side until midday when it is then the westerly side’s turn to warm up- so clever! We then each took it in turns to capture an ant and lick their bums! Basically, their bums are green and taste of citric acid.

We then made our way to several different waterfalls: Wangi, Florence and Tolmer Falls but we are not exactly sure what order they were in! The first was absolutely stunning and impressive as we viewed the fall from a distance. From the outcrop we had glorious views of the surrounding bush land.

The next fall was a twin set where large ‘closed’ signs indicated that the presence of crocodiles illuminated any possibility of swimming.

We then feasted on sandwiches before leisurely swimming in a plunge pool at the base of another fall. A red brick road then led us back up through the bush to the bus. Our final stop was Burley Rock Hole where basking in the sun and bomb dives were perfected by all! Once back in Darwin we headed to the Vic Pub with our free dinner vouchers and then did a quick detour to the local supermarket on the way back to the hostel.

The next day we decided to get to grips with Darwin city centre. This therefore of course included a spot of shopping. Amongt the shopping we made a quick phone call to Kakadu Dreams to make sure that it was all go for the trip leaving the next day. The lady then informed us that the 3 day trip had been cancelled as we were the only ones on it! Therefore, the trip had been pushed back a day which meant that we had to do a 2 day trip instead of a 3 day one as we were due to fly out on Sunday. Once we were refunded the difference, a miffed pair was comforted by coffee and cake. We then realized that we should actually sort out our malaria tablets for the next part of our trip in SE Asia. After visiting a couple of unhelpful pharmacists who informed that we couldn’t buy the tablets over the counter and that we would have to see a doctor to get a prescription, we were given a leaflet for a travel health clinic. After making an appointment, we return an hour later to see the medic who supplied us with a box of pills and put our minds at rest! That evening we watched Little Miss Sunshine at the deckchair cinema, quote ‘where stars light the screen’. We then popped to the Wisdom pub for a couple of amazing cocktails!

The following day, Armelle turned the ripe old age of 23. As the Kakadu trip had been postponed, we were both determined to slot together a number of activities to make it a day to remember, and gee, an amount of things we did do! First stop, Aquascene. Right, while traveling, Armelle has become mildly obsessed with sighting fish and therefore why not pay to feed fish with stale bread on Darwin sea front- brilliant! There were several hundreds of fish present on the morning of the 7^th, including large swarms of milk fish and cat fish. Next, we ambled down the road for half an hour in sweltering heat to Cullum Bay, one of the posh harbor areas in Darwin. Here, feeling a little underdressed we dined for 3 hours at the Buzz Café enjoying salads, squid, chocolate mousse and macadamia tart which was accessorized with rather over excited sparklers! This was the first time on our travels where we completely splashed out on a meal and we loved every minute of it. We then decided to add a touch of France to the day and went to see J’aime Paris at the cinema. Seeing as it was 4 pm we were the only 2 in there. The film was interesting, arty and definitely quirky! Then it was time for the night market which is held twice a week, every Thursday and Sunday. So off we trotted back down the road where we spent the evening browsing at the stalls, sampling the local cuisine and admiring the didgeridoo performing people! After a brief stop at the casino to make a phone call we headed to the Wisdom, the same pub that we had frequented the previous evening. The cocktails did not disappoint with cream based concoctions and strawberry daiquiris perfectly ending the day.

The morning of the 8^th June we were picked up bright and early to start our Kakadu trip, which was unfortunately to be only a two day adventure instead of a three day one. We started the journey with Jess having the mickey taken out of her for bringing our pink flowery plastic plates in the back of the 4X4 to dry them after breakfast, as the hostel didn’t have a tea towel. After making polite conversation with our ‘trip pals’, we arrived at the first stop: ‘Jumping Crocodiles’. Before the start of the river cruise, we both got to hold snakes, something we had been debating over doing at the Oz zoo. Jess was not expecting to be uncomfortable holding it, but when the time came she didn’t enjoy the experience much, even though she didn’t panic or anything. Armelle seemed quite happy holding the snake.

When it came to the ‘Crocodile Jumping Cruise’, we were both a little more than dubious, as dangling pieces of meat from a boat didn’t seem like the most ecologically friendly of tourist gimmicks. Knowing the efforts that the Canadians make to keep human food away from bears so that they do not associate it with humans, we wondered what they would have made of this. Anyway, turning a blind eye to this, the cruise turned out to be quite good fun, and it was very interesting to be able to get so close to wild crocodiles. We spent most of the trip on the lower deck, so that we were eyeball-to-eyeball with the crocs. Some of those crocs who didn’t make enough effort to get the meat were left ‘hungry’ as the tour guide kept informing us that he ‘didn’t want to waste our time’.

The second part of the trip consisted of Kestrel feeding. It was also amazing to see these beautiful birds swoop and catch the meat, though again of doubtful ecological morals. After this, we continued driving south, and admired the wildlife in a wetland area. Stopping for lunch next to a beautiful meandering river, (which we had first crossed in the 4X4), we feasted on sandwiches and watched the birds, who in turn watched us eat.

The next stop was a visit to an Aboriginal art site, where we were treated to over 20 000 years of rock paintings. It was remarkable to see the development of these paintings, which went from simple paintings to much more complex ones showing even the bones inside the animals, and which were said to have a more educational purpose. There were also pictures from Aboriginal mythology, which were often lessons for the Aboriginal children too.

On the way to our camp, we stopped to collect firewood (Jess and Armelle had images of us wielding saws, but in fact the timber was easy to gather owing to a tropical cyclone which had ripped through the area a few years ago). On the way through the park we came across many fires too, which had been lit intentionally by park rangers in order to reduce the risk of massive uncontrolled bushfires later on in the season.

This was a practice carried out by the Aboriginal peoples, who use ‘floral indicators’ to determine the time of year that the fires should be lit to avoid damaging the most fauna. After collecting the firewood, we stopped once more to appreciate the sunset over a vast expanse of lowland, and with chilled beer/cider in hand it was almost perfect!

On arriving at camp, we dined surprisingly well on kangaroo, buffalo sausages, jacket potatoes roasted on the camp fire and stir fried vegetables. Our guide had been a chef at one point, and it showed! Throughout the evening Armelle was presented with a cake and a bottle of bubbly for her birthday, both of which were consumed with relish by all on the trip, and the evening continued in this manner until all the beers were finished and everyone was very sociable! We even had visitors from another trip that was going on, who were staying in the same site, and our guide, Cameron, got out his ‘firesticks’ (flaming batons) and proceeded to do a very impressive show. He was fine, it was just when everyone else started trying it that they blackened their t-shirts. Well, almost. After a try on the didgeridoo, which is actually easy to play, and difficult to get more than one note out of, we headed for bed in our tents which were more like structured mosi-nets, but it was nice to be directly beneath the stars and hear the wind rushing through the trees. How romantic!

The next morning Armelle woke with a somewhat sore head, not exactly in the best state for the day’s activities, which started off with a walk along an old hunting track to a very pleasant plunge pool just above Motor Car Falls, where we enjoyed an early morning swim in the (thankfully) not so freezing water. We were pleased to be told that the crocodiles had been removed by rangers earlier in the season, though there the lurking doubt in the back of our minds was hard to shake off. After a quick look at the billabong where a scene from Crocodile Dundee was filmed, we headed to another waterfall, which, unfortunately for Armelle, was preceded by a 150m-or so vertical ascent. This did, however, mean that the views of the flat land below from the pool at the top were incredible. The pool had a narrow lip, over which the water cascaded, and we were duly warned not to attempt to cross it, as two people had already died doing so. This was an excellent place to have lunch and bask in the sun, so we took full advantage of the opportunity.

On the return journey we paused to look at some termite mounds which Armelle was delighted with. These were a different type of termite to those we had come across in Litchfield, as they were almost conical, and built to withstand flooding in that area.

We also stopped at a place to fill up (once more) on petrol, and to our great amusement the pub connected with the garage had the buffalo from Crocodile Dundee stuffed and on a pedestal, so of course we had our photograph taken with it.

There was also an enormous crocodile in a glass cabinet, and there was much debate over whether the taxonomist’s plaque was real or not. The last stop of the day was at an Aboriginal shop. Since none of us were tempted to buy a didgeridoo, some of us contented ourselves with holding more of the pet snakes. One of the less healthy looking ones in a glass cage had apparently been hit by a car earlier in the week and duly ‘rescued’. Arriving back at our hostel, we had what felt like half a minute to get clean, and what a job that was- the red dust which had coated quite literally everything we owned had got everywhere, and there were points when we were even inhaling the stuff even whilst sitting in the back of the 4X4. Anyway, that evening we ‘cashed’ our meal vouchers at the infamous pub ‘The Vic’. We ate with the rest of the group, and continued the evening with fun and frolics, freely volunteering members of our group to go up and win us rounds of beer much to their disapproval, but entering wholeheartedly into the spirit of the evening, which was a late one, let’s just say that.

The next morning, after a fantastic last night in Darwin, we were both suffering from acute headaches, so we stumbled to McDonald’s (of all places), after which we lazed around in the park avoiding the direct sunlight until our flight to Singapore in the evening.