Week 22: Litchfield National Park NT - Kakadu National Park NT

 Stats Overview

Km's Travelled: 1093

Km's Hiked: 23 

No. of Campsites: 4

The Adventures

This week has been another fun week of adventuring in the Top End. It's crazy to think we have been in the NT for 6 weeks already! I honestly could spend months exploring this beautiful place. Although I have to admit, that the mozzie and midgee situation is getting a little out of hand, and we are basically relegated to our caravan after the sun goes down as being outside after dark means we are being eaten alive! Our new favourite scent for the trip is eau de bushmans and we have been going through cans like there is no tomorrow!

We started our week with a big day exploring Litchfield NP. We both really enjoyed our day in Litchfield and it was so much fun exploring and finding lots of waterfalls that we could swim in. We  ended up doing a lot of hiking during a 35 degree day, so the waterfalls were a welcomed relief when we finally found them! The non-waterfall related highlight during our time in Litchfield was visiting the Lost City. It is essentially a big pile of rocks eroding away, however, the way they have eroded makes it feel like you are exploring a lost civilisation of giants! The photos do not really do the place justice. We got very lucky with the timing of our visit as the road in had only reopened the day before we arrived. While we were in the area, we also stopped at the Batchelor museum and learnt lots about WWII and the Rum Jungle Uranium mine. Visiting the museum was a pretty special experience for me, as my grandfather was stationed in Batchelor while serving in the RAAF during WWII. So it was interesting getting to see what his experience would have been like during his time there. 

After Litchfield, we started to make our way out to Kakadu. We stopped in at the Adelaide River so Will could go on one of their jumping croc tours (I refused to get on another boat after my trip to Tiwi) which he absolutely loved! I have been bombarded with all the croc facts he learned since he went on the tour, so please feel free to call Will so he can tell someone else, you'll be doing me a favour! We also made a detour into Mary River NP to visit Point Stuart which has a memorial cairn to mark the place where John McDouall Stuart crossed the continent. We quickly discovered, however, that our navigational skills were not up to par, as we continuously got lost on our hike and ended up having to turn around before finding the cairn, as we were losing daylight. The track was so overgrown, and a number of the direction markers had fallen over, so we were constantly having to search around for the next arrow as there were many times there was no discernible track! After our little adventure, our respect for the early explorers increased a little, as we realised they were able to navigate the continent with limited navigational resources and no marked trail!

We have now made it to Kakadu where we are having fun exploring some of the highlights of the park. Unfortunately, a lot of sites are still closed in Kakadu, which means we are not going to be able to see very much during our visit. So far, we have got to watch some crocodiles having a lazy afternoon in the river at Cahills Crossing and have also visited some Aboriginal rock art sites which have been very impressive. We will probably only spend another day in Kakadu before we make our way back to Katherine, which will be our last stop in the NT.

Kodak Moments

Will exploring the Lost City - Litchfield NP

Some of the huge rocks we saw - Lost City

It was really hard not being able to swim in these falls while in Litchfield - Wangi Falls

Nothing like the site of a croc trap to remind you not to jump into just any water you see in the NT - Wangi Falls

We were so relieved to find this spot after a big hike in the middle of the day! - Upper Cascades, Litchfield

We found a plunge pool right on top of the waterfall - Tjaetaba Falls, Litchfield

We discovered zebra stone - look it up, it is pretty amazing! - Litchfield

Nothing like having a fire when it is still 30 degrees, just to try and escape the mozzies! - Humpty Doo

Crocs only have to eat 1% of their body weight each week - Adelaide River

How pretty is the sunset over the Mary River? - Mary River NP

Enjoying the croc action from the safety of the lookout - Cahills Crossing

One of the crocs we saw just chilling in the water - Cahills Crossing

Some of the rock art at Ubirr - Kakadu

Can you identify the animal in this painting? - Kakadu

View over the floodplains from the lookout at Ubirr. Can you tell they are backburning in the NT? - Kakadu

Managed to get a sunset shot at the Ubirr lookout without a hundred other people in the background. Kakadu is busy! - Kakadu