Fuzzy Funnel: Kakadu Trip

From Darwin I was booked on a 9 day trip to Alice Springs, which was really 3 3 day trips, the first of which went into Kakadu national park before returning to Darwin. It set off nice and early at 6am, with 16 of us in a little 4WD bus: me, Australian guy, German guy, French guy, Kiwi couple, American couple, French couple (in their 60s), two English Girls and 3 Japanese Girls and a South Korean girl.

The first day we headed into Lichfield National park and stopped at a couple of swimming waterfalls, which were pretty cool. The second especially which had a great small deep pool that you could dive into - I eventually got the courage to go off the top rock! After that we drove to Mary River National park where we had a boat trip getting to see various birds as well as both Freshwater and Saltwater crocodiles (the Salties are the bigger, and are the dangerous ones). Then we stopped to buy beer and collect firewood before going to our camp for the night - all the nights in the tour we stayed at permanent camps, which basically have lots of little 2 person canvas huts and a big kitchen hut. The food had not looked promising as lunch was hotdogs, but things improved after that and we got Kangaroo one night. On these trips everyone mucks in with the cooking and cleaning, so it's just like a big camping trip, and it was nice to hang around afterwards and have a few beers around the fire, Andreas (German Guy) and myself proving to be the ones who were always up latest (not that late as we always had to get up 5ish.

On the second day we headed into Kakadu proper, stopping to have a look at some wetlands before heading to the rock art sights at Nourlangie and Ubirr. Ubirr was a really nice area to watch the sunset too. We'd also fitted in a short walk and a stop at our accommodation where we could use the pool before we returned in the evening for the normal dinner, beer and campfire routine, with added digeridoos. That evening we were visited by a giant tree rat that tried to steal some food from the kitchen- I got photos! Actually I tell I lie, there was no campfire this night and the digeridoos were the night before. There was lots of complaining about frogs in the showers.

On the final day our departure was marked by our driver/guide (Luke) snagging the bus on the kitchen tent and getting a bit stuck. Our first stop was another waterfall, the Gunlom falls I think it was called. This was really nice, first we headed up to the top which was a bit of a climb. Here there were lots of nice little pools and a great view. After we went to the large pool at the bottom, which apparently does have a crocodile in it, but its only a little freshie, so won't bother you! It was quite a long swim over to the waterfall, wondering what was lurking in the depths below (snakes too apparently). The last stop was another waterfall, this one much more secluded and we were the only ones there. Here some people got a bit hysterical when we spotted a 4ft water monitor (lizard) at the side of the pool, thinking it was a croc! This day I sat in the front and exercised ruthless control over the iPod! When we got back to Darwin we went out to the infamous Vic again (well we got free food there!) where only 3 of us stayed for any length of time. We entered the free table-tennis competition with big prizes, but I drew the Korean guy and he destroyed me!

Photo time!