Top End Australia

If we'd thought that Broome was a little on the muggy side, Darwin was going to be like living in the Devil's home for seven days. Temperatures in the 'Top End' as it is affectionately known, has year round average temperatures of well into the thirties, and the humidity which tends to come hand-in-hand with it does little to make your time here particularly comfortable. Just the place to pick up a bout of flu I hear you say? Indeed, we thought so too. Spending much of our first two days in the city holed up in our room under the cool gaze of the air-conditioning, we slept as much as possible in the hope we'd recover in time to attend our pre-booked Kakadu trip. I'd felt pretty rough on our last day in Broome, struggling though the day with only a couple of Panadols and taking a barrage of abuse from all the of the remaining girls for having a spot of "Man-Flu". Of course, as soon as Sarah came down with the same thing the next day, she felt it only right that she go out and spend nearly a tenner on cold remedies!

Being amidst the wettest part of the wet season in Darwin generally means you'll be getting drenched on a number of occassions. Almost like clockwork each and every afternoon, the wind would suddenly strengthen and the storm clouds gather from over the Arafura Sea in the north before unleashing some of the most violent downpours we've probably ever witnessed. Many a time, these would last well into the evening, making for some truly mesmerising electrical storms.

After spending a couple of pleasant evenings in the nearby pub with Tom (our new 'mature' Irish friend from the previous tour) it had finally come to the time to decide whether we felt up to our two-day National Park tour.

The thought of taking part in numerous hikes and spending a night out camping in the bush didn't massively appeal to either of us at this point, but we'd paid our money and had little hope of getting a refund. I was feeling much better, but Sarah was still struggling (despite the over-priced medication!) and so I decided to go whilst she hung back in the hope she'd be able to recover properly.

The van picked me up early on the saturday morning, and I soon found myself being acquainted with the other seven people on the tour. Consisting of three English (including myself), two native Aussies from the south of the country, two Germans girls, and our driver Jack, we were whisked off to our first port of call before entering the park itself: The Jumping Croc Cruise.

Crocodiles have ancestors dating back to before the Jurassic age over sixty million years ago, and have been proven killing machines in their current form for over 30 million years, making them more or less the closest decendant to the dinosaurs. Both saltwater and freshwater crocodiles are now fully protected in Australia, despite their nasty habit of eating unsuspecting swimmers, after it was found in the 1940's to 1960's when they were hunted almost to extinction, that they play a vital role in the aquatic food chain.

Cruising up the un-aptly named Adelaide River with a rather eccentric chap behind the controls and the microphone, none of us were really prepared for what was to come. As we reached the middle of the hundred-metre-wide stretch of water, the lady on the deck with us began to dangle a large lump of raw meat into the water in the hope that one of the hungry crocs might take the bait.

Sure enough, it was only a few moments before a pair of eyes broke the surface and the long tail began to propel the fourteen-foot-long beast in our general direction. Wary at first, the gigantic reptile milled about underneath the tasty snack to suss out the situation, and then seeing it's chance, uses it's muscular tail to propel itself up and out of the water to snap at the awaiting meal. A pretty spectacular performance to say the least, and despite the same trick being performed eight or ten times by numerous animals, it's a sight that never seemed to become tiring.

At just under twenty thousand square kilometres, Kakadu is Australia's largest National Park, and includes the traditional lands of a number of Aboriginal Clan groups, many of whom still reside in the area. The park protects one of the most extensive collections or rock art in the world, and this was to be the first place we visited on our tour.

Aboroginal rock painting in northern Australia is naturalistic art, depicting the physical, social and cultural environment, and displaying the close personal relationship that these people have with the land, the gods and their cultural heritage. It is thought that some of the art found inscribed into the Nourlangie Rock dates back to almost fifty thousand years ago.

After admiring some of the art, and taking in the views over the parks natural escarpment from the lookout, our guide decided that we had time for a special 'treat' that wasn't on the original itenerary. As this was to be his last trip into Kakadu as guide before moving to another job, he'd opted to take us to one of his favourite spots, the Gubara Pools.

A quick drive, followed by a rather arduous forty-minute hike in the smouldering afternoon heat, led us to our goal. The waters in the Burdulba Creek thundered past us, quite treacherously in places, but nothing could have stopped us at this point from getting into the refreshing river to explore the various rock-pools and waterfalls.

Time was flying by, and the rain had begun to fall torrentially before I finally brought it to Jack's attention that we were beginning to run out of light. It was little too late however, and before we'd even set off the darkness had begun to envelope us. With little option, we all began to trudge back through some fairly heavy bush, in the pouring rain, and in the pitch black, with only one torch between us. Knowing that this is the time of day when most of Australia's nasties come out to play did little to aid our confidence, but the nature of the predicament made it difficult to speed up and therefore added a real sense of excitement to the episode. Without any major troubles however, we made it back to the awaiting jeep and drove to our camp for the night.

Dinner and quick Didgeridoo lesson were all we really had left in the tank, and by 10:30 we were all in our tents sweating ourselves gleefully off to sleep.

As with any camping trip, day two meant that we were up at the crack of dawn for breakfast before clambering aboard the jeep again and motoring down to the Mary River area in the south of the park.

Jack informed us that we'd have a fairly flat two-and-a-half kilometre walk to our first rendezvous, but the fifty minute hike in an already scorching sun meant that the distance was more like double that quoted. The rewards for the hard work were plentiful however, as we were greeted by the majestic forty-metre Motor Car Falls cascading into the cool swimming hole beneath. All crocs warnings were soon forgotten, and we all jumped in for a well-earned dip before taking lunch on the surrounding rocks.

The return walk had no-one chomping at the bit to get going, but another picturesque location was promised and so we set off soon after eating. Hiking in thirty-five degree midday heat, and searching depserately for some sign sign that it might soon be over, the sweat was dripping from all of us within minutes.

Finally we all heard the trickling water of our next rest-spot and found some energy in reserve to reach the free-flowing waterfalls of Boulder Creek. We needed no second invitation, yet again immersing ourselves into the fresh waters. The cascades were a little smaller this time, allowing us to clamber under the falls for a 'Timotei' photographic moment.

Unfortunately, this was the end of the tour, and although none of us were particualarly keen on taking part in more hiking, we were disappointed to be leaving such a beatiful area behind. It's clear after visiting why this area is recognised as one of the few World Heritage Areas, with it's varying landscapes of coastal swamps, floodplains, monsoon rainforest and plateau, and the wide variety of wildlife found within its borders. Without doubt a trip to remember, even if it is only myself that can do the recounting.

Back in Darwin for our last couple of days, and due to our previous illness, we'd so far managed to achieve little in the way of respectable tourism. Darwin itself is yet another Australian city which looks on the map as if it should be huge, but actually falls way short of expectation. It's possibly to walk around most of the city centre in just under one hour, and there is little by way of scenery to actually sit and admire. In fairness, the smaller suburbs stretch for quite some way but without a car it is difficult to see them. One thing we had promised ourselves was a visit to the Museum of the Northern Territory, mainly due to it's impressive write-ups in the guide book.

Just a short bus ride away, this large museum welcomes visitors firstly with an interesting themed wall, detailing the timeline of the earth from the supposed 'Big Bang' to it's present-day form. In the same room, numerous glass cases exhibit taxidermed animals from all over the continent, from snakes, lizards and spiders through to it's abundance of creatures residing in the oceans and seas. There is a large section of the museum devoted to Cyclone Tracy, with newsreel, photographs and soundbites of the devastation caused when it struck with little warning on Christmas Day of 1974, destroying much of the city and killing hundreds in the process. Pride of place however goes to the stuffed, but staggering life-like 'Sweetheart', a five metre long, seven-hundred-and-eighty kilogram saltwater crocodile who died during capture in 1979.

We finally felt happy with the fact that we'd actually managed to see something worthwhile, and knowing we were due to leave the next day, put our minds at ease. Although Darwin hadn't turned into the success we'd hoped, we were pleased that we'd changed our plans to visit the 'Top End', even if much of it was spent in bed or soaked through to the skin. It's said that Kakadu National Park needs to be seen in both the wet and the dry seasons to appreciate it fully, so perhaps this is one for the future. Our minds at the present time were filled with a mixture of excitement and trepidation about how we'd fare amongst the party-going youngsters over the on the East Coast during the impending final four-week leg of our Australian tour.

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