Travels with Bruce in Darwin and the Top End

Day 145 - 27th April

We got up and checked the van rental websites one last time but there were no relocation vans available at all, so we decided to call it quits and fly up. In a fit of efficiency, we booked ourselves on the 11:45am flight to Darwin and got ourselves up, dressed, washed, breakfasted and off to the airport in an hour and a half! In Darwin we caught the airport shuttle into town, ruled out the first hostel we tried, which obviously hadn't done any cleaning or maintenance since t got into the Lonely Planet and checked into YHA. We were in a 6-bed dorm, which is usually fine, but this time one of our room mates had strewn all his possessions across the floor and one was keeping a bike in the middle of the room. Feeling sleepy after our flight and the heat, we had a nice long nap, before making dinner and returning to bed.

Day 146 - 28th April

It is the start of the dry season in Darwin and today was glorious. We walked to Doctors Gully, as Jon remembered feeding the fish here last time he was in Darwin, but unfortunately it's now quite expensive so we decided to give it a miss. We took a nice relaxing walk through Darwin down the Esplanade, through Bicentennial Park to the harbour. The city has changed a lot since Jon was here, with loads of shiny new buildings and a swanky new harbour development including two salt water swimming pools, one of which has an amazing wave machine. We stopped near the harbour for brunch and then continued wandering through the shops and the rest of town. We spent the remainder of the afternoon by the pool in the hostel. As we're having such a lovely time in Australia we skyped STA and delayed our flights to Singapore by 5 days, then booked yet another campervan to drive around the Top End national parks for the next week. We celebrated our new plans by treating ourselves to a few evening drinks in a local bar.

Darwin Harbour

Day 147 - 29th April

This morning we picked up our new campervan, a very basic Backpacker Breezer van called Bruce. He's a bit smaller and more simple than the other vans we've had but we're only going to be living in him for a week and he's more than adequate for that. We set off from Darwin and drove to Mary River, the largest wetland area in the top end. The rainy season finished about two weeks ago and the waters have already receded around 2m, but the rivers and billabongs are still full and the floodplains are all still covered in pools and swamps, with a beautiful array of water lilies and other plants all over the countryside. We went to the Window on the Wetlands Centre, a very informative centre with displays about the environment and local flora and fauna. We also stopped off to look at some huge termite mounds by the side of the road. Mary River has the highest population density of salt-water crocodiles in Australia so we headed there to do a croc-spotting cruise. One of the more touristy options is a cruise on the Adelaide River where they entice the crocs to jump up near the boat by feeding them bits of meat dangling from a pole, but we opted to do the less tacky option of a gentle wetland wildlife cruise on the Cooroboree Billabong instead. The 1 hour cruise was excellent, we had a lovely small boat with only a few other people on board and our guide was entertaining and informative. We travelled along the billabong, learning about the two different croc species there (freshwater and saltwater) as well as spotting lots of beautiful wetland birds, including the amazingly coloured Jabiru and a large sea eagle. The highlight of the cruise, though, we the many crocodiles we spotted near the boat and along the bank, mostly the dangerous saltwater variety, so hands and arms stayed well and truly tucked within the safety of our boat! We spent the night at the Cooroboree Roadhouse campsite, which comes complete with an albino buffalo and two caged crocodiles – Fred the Freshy and the 4.5m Brutus the salty. Campsites without man-eating predators will now seem a little tame!

Saltwater crocodile

Crocodile and Jabiru

Cooroboree Billabong

Sea Eagle

Brutus, the 4m croc from our campsite

Day 148 - 30th April

After a warm but comfy night in Bruce we drove into Kakadu National Park. Our first stop was Bowali visitors centre, near Jabiru, where we learnt about the ecosystems and aboriginal history of the area. We also discovered everything in the centre of the park was still closed following the rains as many of the roads had been washed away and lots of the tracks were still underwater. Also, when the water is high, saltwater crocodiles can move into creeks and waterholes inside the park, meaning that areas such as Jim Jim and Twin Falls, which are open in the dry season were currently full of crocs. It was a little disappointing that Jon wouldn't be able to take me to some of the places he visited last time he was here, but we knew that some area would be inaccessible and didn't feel much like being eaten as we swam, so we didn't waste too much time worrying about it. We drove on to Ubirr, an amazing Aboriginal rock art site, with a great view of Kakadu from a lookout at the top of one of the hills. The art here was fantastic, every surface of the rocks in this small area was covered in paintings. Most were of fish, apparently put there by fishermen proud of a big catch, although turtles, kangaroos and goanas were also to be found. One of the paintings is of a thylacine, an extinct tiger-like creature, which dates that drawing to over 4000 years old, and many are considered to be older, with some up to 15000 years old.. Most of the paintings were done in reds and oranges, giving the rocks a warm, rich colour, and some of the details were amazing. After we'd had our fill of admiring the paintings we drove to our campsite for the night, alongside a billabong near Nourlangie. This evening we have been savaged by the hungriest mosquitoes we've ever seen, which came out in droves in the early evening and show no sign of going to bed.

Barramundi, Ubirr

Ubirr rock art

Turtle, Ubirr

View of Kakadu from Ubirr

Day 149 - 1st May

This morning we went to our second rock art site at Nourlangie, where there were some really impressively detailed individual scenes depicting the creation beings and creation stories, as well as more pictures of animals and Aboriginal ways of life, but as a whole place we felt that Ubirr was more impressive. We left Kakadu and drove to Edith Falls in Nitmiluk National Park, hoping that we'd be able to have a swim to escape from the incredible heat, but sadly here too the plunge pool was closed due to the risk of crocs. Instead, we took a very hot walk up to a lookout and the upper pool of the waterfall, which was also closed but very beautiful. We had another incredibly hot night in Bruce and, unfortunately the water went off in the campsite in the evening and didn't come back on. At least we had managed to have cooling showers before it happened, some other campers weren't so lucky

Rock art, Nourlangie

Nourlangie

Edith Falls

Day 150 - 2nd May

This morning we drove to Katherine town, back into civilisation, where we booked some activities for the next day or so. We decided on an evening wildlife and croc spotting tour along a local billabong, and a gorge cruise for tomorrow morning. We stopped for a picnic lunch by Katherine River, and decided to give the free hot springs a miss as it was far too hot! We went to our campsite at Springvale Homestead, which is where our evening tour would be. The homestead is the oldest standing dwelling in the Northern Territory, at a mighty 133 years old, and is set by a beautiful billabong, covered in water lilies, and home to a semi-captive croc called Elvis. We spent some time cooling off in the pool before heading off on our evening crocodile cruise. It started to rain before we left, with one short, sharp downpour and scattered light showers for the rest of the evening, which, far from being annoying, was actually a relief from the heat and humidity. Our tour was led by Pat, a former traveller with a huge white beard, who gave us some brief information on the river and wildlife, although we were more impressed by his eccentric character rather than his somewhat limited knowledge. We cruised slowly up the river in a small boat shining torches along the banks to look for crocodiles There were some out but we were assured by Pat that we'd see many more later on. We had a tasty barbecue on the river bank with wine, while Pat called the crocs to the bank with a bucket of meat. While we enjoyed our food, an ageing freshwater croc, called Mouse, accompanied by a few other smaller crocodiles came up to the bank. Mouse sat still at the edge of the water while Pat threw a few small pieces of meat for him. The loud bang his jaws made as they crashed together around the meat was quite terrifying – and the freshwater crocs' jaws aren't strong enough to manage large mammals – imagine what a salty would sound like! Mouse and the others were also joined by two brave turtles, who sat right next to him, picking off the bits of meat he missed. One of them even swam through his open jaws to get a piece! After dinner we cruised back along the river, again shining our torches. This time there were loads of bright red croc eyes gleaming at us from the banks as we made our way back.

Wallaby and joey at our campsite

Springvale Billabong at sunset

Feeding Mouse and the turtle

Day 151 - 3rd May

We were up early this morning to drive to Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge for our 9am cruise, which took in the 1st and 2nd gorges out of the 13 gorges that make up the whole system. Nitmiluk National Park and the gorges are owned and managed by the Jawoyn people, the traditional Aboriginal custodians of the area and our cruise was led by a very knowledgeable and educational Jawoyn Aboriginal guide. As we travelled up the river he told us about the Jawoyn creation stories that tell how the gorge was formed, its significance to the people today and all about the uses for the plants that grow along the sides of the river. The gorges were really beautiful, with steep pink rocky sides and narrow passageways and pandanus palms growing out of the water. It was also amazingly quiet, as Nitmiluk is the only company to operate tours in the gorge and the water is currently still closed to kayakers, our small group were the only people around.

After yesterday's rain it was still cloudy in the morning, meaning it was a pleasant temperature as we enjoyed our cruise, although it got much hotter afterwards when we took a walk up to the lookout over the gorge. We were grateful to be able to get back into Bruce with the air con. After stocking up on supplies in Katherine, we drove north to Litchfield National Park, where we camped at Florence Falls for the night.

Nitmiluk Gorge

Enjoying our cruise

Jon at the gorge lookout

Me and Bruce relaxing at Florence Falls

Day 152 - 4th May

Today was mostly spent swimming in waterfalls. We started with an early morning dip at Florence Falls, which was totally deserted, cool and refreshing, with two cascades and a deep plunge pool set in a horseshoe of red rock. After a lazy breakfast, we walked up to Buley Rockholes, a series of small cascade pools a little upstream of Florence and swam around there for an hour or so – again on our own. We were having a lovely relaxing time until a large reptilian head popped out of the water a foot or so from my face and scared us half to death. Thankfully it turned out to be a large lizard and nothing more dangerous. After recovering our composure we drove to Tolmer falls, a tall single waterfall cascading into a deep dark plunge pool below. There is no access to Tolmer plunge pool as it is home to two rare species of bat. Next stop Wangi falls, the park's most popular destination, with its two large waterfalls and big, horseshoe shaped pool. Unfortunately it was closed for swimming as they hadn't finished their croc checks yet. We started to do the monsoon forest walk round the edge of the falls but had to turn back because of the very hungry mosquitoes – neither of us could face putting deet on in that much heat. Our last waterfall of the day was Curtain falls and the Cascades – a long walk through deep jungle, over rocks and across streams to get to the long, wide but shallow falls and its beautiful sandy plunge pool. We spent a while here, swimming and climbing behind the waterfall, before climbing up to the top of the falls and continuing our walk up the river, which was now quite dry but in the wet season must be a wide rocky rapid. Last swim in a small pool along the river, disturbed by finding a snake curled up by the water's edge so we got out of there very quickly. We walked back to the car and headed back to the campsite at Florence Falls for the night.

A morning dip at Florence Falls

Buley Rockholes

Tolmer Falls

Cascade walk

Huge termite mound

Day 153 - 5th May

Our last day in Bruce. After packing up the van and having breakfast we went for another morning swim in our exclusive plunge pool at Florence Falls. Once we'd dried off we drove Bruce back to Darwin and tried to find a hostel. This proved to be more difficult than the last time we were here as, during the last few days, the peak season had started, prices had been hiked and Darwin was suddenly full of people. At about the 6th place we tried we finally managed to get a room, and, what luxury, it was a double with air con! After a quick lunch we gave him back to his owners. Unfortunately we had to wait 45 minutes for the bus back to town in the midday heat. Once back at our hostel we spent the afternoon cooling off in the pool before heading out for pizza and a glass of wine.

Day 154 - 6th May

In our usual lack of organisation we suddenly found ourselves with a flight to Singapore tomorrow and no idea where we were going to go after that, so we spent most of today on the internet coming up with a plan for our last 2 weeks. Having decided a little while ago that our first option of Myanmar was just too much hassle to sort out from here, what with visas and the lack of internet, we set about researching the rest of Asia. It being the start on Monsoon season, most places were ruled out by 40 degree temperatures and torrential rain, so we decided to head back to our old faithful Indonesia, where the climate, although tropical, is somewhat less extreme. We spent a lot of time researching the possibility of going to Lombok and Komodo but the flights were quite expensive and we've now pretty much exhausted our budget. In the end we decided to book flights to Sumatra, as it's somewhere we've always wanted to go, the flights are cheap and it doesn't seem to be any more hot and wet than most of the area. We also managed to book a hostel for our first night, re-insure our car and skype our parents. Not a bad day at all, and now we at least have a plan!  This evening we walked down to Mindil Beach to check out the famous night markets.  The market is on every Thursday and Sunday night in the dry season and only started again last week.  There was a real carnival atmosphere with hundreds of stalls selling delicious food, clothes, jewellery and countless other things.  We enjoyed eating tasty food and wandering amongst the stalls in the crowds on a lovely warm evening.  A lovely way to spend our last night in Oz.

Mindil Beach market

Day 155 - 7th May

We checked out of our room at 10:00 and spent the rest of the morning relaxing in the garden of our hostel. We popped into town to pick up some new books and some lunch and then caught the bus to the airport. We had decided that we didn't fancy paying the exorbitant $15 each for the airport shuttle so we planned to take 2 buses there instead. It all started well but we couldn't find the bus stop for our second bus and missed it. Being a public holiday, the next one wasn't for 2 hours so we had to give in and call a taxi. It was still half the price of the shuttle though! Our 4-hour flight to Singapore on Jetstar was pretty good. Having been booked as part of our round the world ticket it unexpectedly included all the extras you normally have to pay for, including blankets, pillows, toiletries and a hot meal. With a view to keeping our budget down we had decided not to stay in a ferociously expensive Singapore airport hotel, but to spend the night in the airport instead, as our flight to Sumatra is at 9am tomorrow. We found a quiet area and a small bench and tried to settle down for some sleep if possible.