Sunday, 10 August 2014

Darwin to Kakadu, NT

Catching up with Friends in Darwin

Monday 4th – Friday 8th August
 

Taking the car into Darwin provided an opportunity to visit some old friends and we enjoyed a relaxing time at their house with hot water on tap. Thankfully Sophie handed washing machine rights over to me and we had clean clothes again! Sophie and Martin took us to Darwin which has changed a lot in 7 years, we enjoyed the newly developed outdoor wave pool and had a lovely sunset dinner at the boat club catching up on news, meeting new people and feeling as if time had stood still!



 

Spectacular Jumping Crocodiles



Wow, this was an awesome experience, great value for money and one off the boys top 3 picks so far! The crocs have meat dangled from a rod on the 2nd floor of a boat and they literally jump out of the water to reach it! Not only was it amazing to see their agility but a chilling reminder to keep well away from the waters edge when camping in croc territory.

 

This is a wild Salty that knows she can get an easy meal
Looks bizarre but this is how they lunge for prey



Kakadu


 

Expectations were high when we entered this world renowned park, and although I’m sure it deserves its heritage listing we were underwhelmed. I think the lack of opportunities to swim was always going to be a disappointment, but the intense mosquito action in the East Alligator region left us drenched in repellent and still fighting the critters off! Logan ended up with 37 bites on his legs alone, and the subsequent itching and complaining made us all miserable!!
 
We stayed one night at Merl and caught the beautiful sunset at Ubir before moving onto the off road campsite near JimJim falls. This had less mozzies, but was crowded and bereft of vegetation. We walked into JimJim Gorge and were impressed with the sandy beach-like appearance of the banks along the gorge. The next morning we headed out to Twin Falls gorge, took a short but enjoyable boat trip into the gorge and admired the waterfall. We found huge Golden Orb Weaver spiders and the boys had a selfie with them! Although Twin Falls was our highlight in Kakadu, we left a day early ready to escape the crowds and get back to the real wilderness!
 
Sunset over the wetlands

Bravely sitting behind a huge spider!

Look how big it is!
 

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