From Lake Argyle we drove all the way in one go to Katherine, the gateway to the spectacular Katherine Gorge at Nitmiluk National Park. We did a pretty long trek along the walls of the gorge in crazy heat but the landscape made up for all the hardship. Unfortunately swimming in the gorge wasn’t allowed at the time because of the odd saltie that may still be around from the wet. But we found a safe rock pool to cool down at midday which felt like paradise.
From Katherine we headed up to Kakadu National Park where some of Australia’s most significant Aboriginal rock art sites can be found. We were both really looking forward to spending some time in the area and we weren’t disappointed. We spent a few days exploring, doing some walks and visiting various rock art sites in the mornings and afternoons. Even though it’s the beginning of the dry season now it’s still so hot during the day that there is no point even making the slightest move at midday. At night the mozzies attack you like crazy. Every night before we went to sleep we had to get the insect spray out and kill as many of the buggers as possible that managed to sneak in.
One of the highlights next to the rock art sites was a river trip on Yellow Waters. It’s pretty touristy but well worth doing. The area is full of amazing wildlife and we saw an array of birds and quite a few crocs up close. The biggest one was about 3.5m long and its head alone was about half a meter. It’s quite amazing how they can move quite quickly barely moving their tails. You don’t want to know how fast they can really be if they want to. They’ve got pretty freaky yellow eyes too. Fascinating creatures at least from a distance…
From Kakadu National Park we drove to Litchfield National Park which is all about wandering from one crystal blue swimming hole to another and jumping in to cool down. It’s generally safe from crocs in most of the pools during dry season and it’s so much fun to jump from the rocks into the water after a good walk along the various creeks. That’s all we did for a day before we finally made our way to Darwin.
Interestingly enough, there is quite a Southeast Asian feel about Darwin. It must be the proximity to Indonesia and of course the similar climate and vegetation. It was a good place to get into the spirit to moving on to a different culture and to finally leave Australia. One of the highlights after 5 weeks on the road, always eating in and the occasional beer in the evening in the van rather than going out was watching a football match in the pub and getting a bit into the world cup mood. We also had a good last night in Australia with $9 Coopers jugs!
The trip from Perth to Darwin was the perfect way to end one of the best times of our lives. Australia has been really good to us and we’re taking so many fantastic memories with us from the 2 1/2 years we called it our home. Thanks everyone, we’ll miss you.
As always, click below for the photos…
