All around Darwin: Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks

It has been a while since the last posting…but – other that expected – getting free internet in Australia and New Zealand is much more difficult than in South America…

After nearly one week throughout Queensland including Daintree National Park and another visit to the Great Barrier Reef it was time to switch locations again…and how do you do this best in a country where there’s thousands of kilometres between major cities? Right, simply take a plane from A to B – and be prepared, that people you will meet more in our local buses rather than in a plane will do the same: “Cheers mate!”

Apropos “mates”: We’re still travelling together with my dad Peter and my sister Kirsten

After some initial trouble getting an acceptable rental car – thanks to our “friends” from Hertz, which still haven’t been able to sort things out in their system – we easily found a nice hotel to stay.

Next morning it was time for our Northern Territory adventure: Well equipped with tips from Iris’ dad, we opted for an early start to the Kakadu National Park *yawn*

The northern part of Kakadu NP is well known for its impressive rock formations – formed by erosion of weaker layers of the rock via tens of thousands of years…

At Ubir we found some of the famous rock art sites, some new friends (smaller and bigger ones) and an incredible sunset…but see yourself:

Managing the way back to our hostel in Jaibiru – the only real settlement in Kakadu National Park – we earned a really traditional Australian BBQ…no matter if with meat or without:

You must think that wildlife never sleeps out here…and you’re right: Just after getting up and having some breakfast outside of our cabin, we became witnesses of a Kakadu invasion:

Some more rock art sites can be found at Nourlangie – a partly rather remote spot with few visitors, as it requires about 45 minutes walking through few shaded open territory that easily has above 40 C this time of the year…but believe me, it’s worth the effort:

At the Yellow Water river Kirsten and Peter got the chance to go on an early morning boat cruise – which unfortunately only had two seats left on the boat *smiley annoyed* However, they brought some very impressive pictures of the early morning wildlife in Kakadu National Park and especially the prove, why swimming is not allowed in most waters in Kakadu NP:

On our way back we took a small detour to much less visited Litchfield National Park.

Main attraction here are undoubtedly the uncountable giant termite mounts…you’re not sure, what we mean with “giant”? Let’s see the pictures:

As the climate here is quite different from / much more humid than in Kakadu National Park, the rivers and falls are filled with water year round:

Back in Darwin – time flew by much too fast once again – we spent the last evening together with my father Peter and my sister Kirsten strolling over the Mindil Beach market and enjoying the sunset out there before they took off to Sydney and we spent yet another day in Darwin before heading off for our Great Ocean Road adventure from Adelaide to Melbourne:

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