Kakadu and Litchfield Park

Location: Singapore
Weather: Warm n'humid

So I had arrived in Darwin with 3 weeks to kill. The main reason most people go to Darwin is for a 3 day Kakadu tour. This is hyped as THE northern tour to do, I reckon it's 3rd on the "I'm a backpacker with no idea so I'll just follow everybody else" list just after Fraser Island and the Whitsundays. Well since it was cheaper than I expected and you got a free day tour to Litchfield National Park thrown in, I decided to go. Highlights were:
1) My group + our guide Sean - a great bunch - covering the USA, Scotland, Germany, England and Canada. We all got on well together, well except perhaps at the beginning - Steve from Canada who was a Dr of physics and the most eccentric bloke you've ever met, he even became famous with other groups at the campsite. Once carried a tray of food & an umberella up a mountain one time and wanted to know the philosophy of the rock paintings - our guide got quite miffed by all this.
2) Seeing a giant termite mound - I'd seen plenty of these along the road to Darwin, but this one was very big.

3) the Aborgine rock art sites at Ubirr and another place. Yes, these were good and very interesting.

4) the plunge hole by the waterfall - probably the most fun time on the whole trip. A waterhole and waterfall that was very deep so you could jump/dive into it with no worries + there weren't any crocs about.

5) The food - the food on this trip wasn't bad. Kangaroo steaks first night, T-Bone the next!
6) Being stuck in the back of a Toyota Landcruiser for hours of driving - the same vehicle used on Fraser Island (except there I managed to usually get a decent seat). The 10 of us were packed in and the continual raining on the 2nd day didn't help. After 3 days my back was wrecked for a good week.

7)) Drinking beer at the camp motel because it had rained so we couldn't sleep in tents and had to makedo with a big cabin sleeping 20, which I and the others couldn't face. Had the bonus of meeting the owner of the place who was a truly classic Australian bloke. He and his wife told us some absolutely hilarious stories + jokes.

8) Almost forgot - the jumping crocodile cruise - this was good stuff! drifting down the river, the man then gets the crocs to jump for food or feeds passing sea eagles.


In summary: To be honest I wasn't incredibly impressed with Kakadu, I think I was expecting it to be as good as last year's 3 day Ayers Rock tour - it wasn't and I wasn't alone in this opinion. In hindsight we did visit an awful lot and the rock art, croc cruise + plunge pool ruled, but none of it was too amazing. Perhaps it's why most people go in the dry season.

Anyways, the next week I went on the Litchfield trip and found this much better to be honest. We had a cool 4 wheel bus like for Ayers Rock (why they didn't have this for Kakadu is beyond me)!! OK so there was no Aborigine rock art, but we saw truly amazing termite mounds - there was a field of them that really looked like a graveyard. Also the waterfalls were more spectacular, although the swimming hole wasn't quite as good and the Archer fish that kept biting my feet and legs weren't much fun. We also visited an Aboriginal shop where my mate Israeli Dave bought a bonefide Didgeridoo and I bought some music sticks.

By JamesReed on 09.01.05 @ 02:43 PM GMT