Tales of of the Territory: volume 1 - Kakadu is not a song by Black Lace

G'day

So I'm back from my holiday now and keen to share the fun (and the not-so-fun) I had.

It was a tale of one territory (the Northern Territory), two cities (well, almost cities - Darwin, population 130,000; Alice Springs, population 30,000) and three trips. The first trip was to Darwin and then the national parks nearby, Litchfield and Kakadu. The second was down the Stuart Highway from Darwin to Alice Springs. The third was from Alice out to Uluru (aka Ayers Rock) and Kings Canyon. For more on the first trip, keep reading. For more on the other two trips, come back soon. And yes, there'll be lots of photos.

DARWIN & KAKADU
It started off well. Darwin, Australia's only tropical capital city (ie it sits above the Tropic of Capricorn and has warm to hot weather all year round), was great. There's not a huge amount to do, which was a good thing as I only had an afternoon and two evenings there, but there's a nice, laid-back atmosphere and the warmth was very welcome after Melbourne's miserable winter. An evening strolling around was rounded off by some great Japanese food down by the new marina area and then an early night, ready for an early start (the first of many!) at 6am.

It's always daunting but exciting geting on a bus that's full of complete strangers you're about to spend the next three days with, but luckily this group were great. Loads of British backpackers, nearly as many Germans (always good value), plus a few Dutch and French. So far, so good. Unfortunately our guide wasn't quite so great. Fairly new at his job he was defensive when he didn't know the answer to something, and disorganised when it came to just about everything that needed organising. Still the scenery was good, the sun was shining and we had lots to tick off the list.

Day 1. First stop, Litchfield National Park - we went swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls

Litchfield again. This time the top of those other falls. If you weren't careful you could float down and drop over the cliffs in the previous pic.

A billabong. With a crocodile (not visible but apparently very big).

Traditional welcome - local guy spits water from the billabong over your head. No comment.

Brit backpacker Tom gives the digeridoo a try (he was pretty good).

If we'd had to rely on our spear-throwing skills for food we would have died of starvation very quickly.

Local girl showing us how to make dilly bags. They can take weeks to make and aborigines use them for collecting food

The first day was rounded off by a sunset cruise on the Mary River. There were lots of birds (the wetlands here are an ornithologist's heaven) but the main draw is the chance to see crocodiles.

Talking of crocs, here's a pretty big one (about 6 feet long). All the water around these parts is likely to have crocodiles in it, hence the signs everywhere warning against swimming.

Water lilies during the sunset cruise. After this it was off to camp to prepare dinner and curl up in a dodgy sleeping bag.

Day 2. Guess where we were. Not sure why I'm smiling as we'd had a 5.30am start.

View across Kakadu. Basically it's a vast national park in the far north of the Northern Territory, about as far from Melbourne as London is from Morocco. Australia's big.

To be honest, I was wondering what all the fuss was about with Kakadu. From a bus, all you see is mile after mile of forest with no real sense of its size or landscapes. So what should one do to better appreciate this natural wonderland? Spend a small fortune ($250, about £160) for a one-hour flight over it.

The town of Jabiru decided to build a hotel in the shape of the area's most notorious creature (a crocodile, in case it's not clear in the photo).

Twin Falls. Finally a chance to see just how beautiful Kakadu is. (Unfortunately one of the girls on the trip, who'd also decided to take the plane ride, was sick from the moment we took off until we landed - and didn't have time to reach for the sick bag at first! Noice. Luckily I was a few rows in front).

Kakadu escarpment and view over to Arnhem Land, a massive area under local aboriginal control.

Ubirr sunset. Day 2 ended with a trek up some hills in an area called Ubirr. There's lots of rock art here, dating back thousands of years and used to teach young people how to live according to the traditional customs. And then, of course, there are beautiful sunsets too.

Day 3. You have been warned.

Luckily no crocs in this pool, meaning we had a great time swimming here. There was a rather large, scary-looking spider though, right by the waterfall.

One man and his waterfall. And some little leeches (not visible)!

Rock art. There's a kangaroo and man in there. Sometimes the art tells a story, generally one with a moral lesson to be learnt from it, things like sharing food with others, not stealing etc.

A happy Frenchman! Gilles had been keen to see a termite mound up-close since day one, but only on the last day did he get the opportunity. They are quite impressive, all made by small worker termites in service to the much bigger queen.

So, as you can see, Kakadu was warm, sunny and (luckily) free of any crocodile incidents. After three days on the road it was back to Darwin for another night, before teaming up with a different group and a different guide on the next leg of the trip, down the Stuart Highway and into Australia's version of the Wild West.

Come back soon.


Cliff