The Top End

As we continue heading further north along the Stuart hwy, the temperature and humidity climb as we reach the tropics. After a long hot drive, we pull into a caravan park in the town of Katherine and look up to see hundreds of bats flying overhead as dusk falls.
Traveled up the next day to Litchfield National Park to camp and to check out the waterfalls. We camped near Wangi Falls and enjoyed a late afternoon swim in the waterhole below. Made our way to Darwin on Thursday and stayed in a hostel near the central area of town. That night we went out to the Mindil Beach market, a few hundred tents setup selling food and handicrafts. I bought a didgeridoo, with which I will be entertaining fellow campers and hostelers for the next few months as I learn to play it. We took it easy on Friday, wandered around town and enjoyed an amazing seafood buffet on Cullen Bay. All the oysters, prawns and mussels I could eat, with plenty of beef and chicken options for Jodi.
Saturday was the day of the AFL (Aussie rules football) grand final, essentially the equivalent of Grey Cup or Super Bowl Sunday. Knowing that we had to be back at the hostel for gametime at 2:00, we took a short excursion out of town for the Adelaide River Jumping Crocodile Cruise. It's a one hour boat cruise where the guides hold porkchops of the end of sticks for wild saltwater crocodiles to jump up and grab. One of the crocs even got her hind legs out of the water.
After the required beer run on the way back, we enjoyed a close, hard-fought game with a dozen rowdy Australian drunks. The Geelong Cats defeated the St. Kilda Saints amid the chorus of many slurred shouts of 'Go the Saints!' and 'Go the Cats!'. Needing to slow things down we headed for the rest of the evening to the Deckchair Cinema, where we took in the double
feature of the early 70's Australian film 'Wake in Fright' and recent Hollywood blockbuster 'Public Enemies'.
Next day we went to the Territory Wildlife Park, but after only a half hour, were called in to the main building due to a bushfire across the road. Sat for a while, then were eventually told that we could either leave then, or wait up to three hours for the next safe time to go, so we
packed up and hit the road to Kakadu National Park. There, we saw several sites of aboriginal rock paintings that were up to 20 000 years old and were really impressive. They showed X-ray style paintings of animals, people drawn to represent teaching stories, and depictions of legendary creatures and beings. We also went on a boat cruise down the Yellow River
and saw a wide variety of wildlife, including Brolgas, Jabirus, and several more crocs.


After a minor setback of a flat tire needing to be patched, we're now in Queensland and on our way to the coast, Cairns, and the Great Barrier Reef.