The last leg of our Australian adventure...

I just realized that neither of us have posted about Darwin, so here goes. When we left Alice Springs, we were on the Ghan another 24 hours until we reached Darwin. This time around, however, the seats in front of us were empty, so we turned them around to stretch out on; it was much more comfortable than our trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs. We also had a 4-5 hour layover in Katherine, so we decided to book one of the excursions. Being as cheap as we are, we booked one of the cheapest excursions, which was canoeing on the Katherine River. It ended up being a pretty cool experience; I actually kind of felt like I was canoeing down a small version of the Amazon (not that I know what that's like, but you get the idea).

Anyway, we got into Darwin in time to check into our hotel and grab a bite to eat. The next morning we were picked up bright and early for our day adventure to the Adelaide River for the jumping crocs cruise and then to Litchfield National Park. The jumping crocs cruise was pretty cool. When the guides spotted a croc, they attached a big piece of meat to a pole and used it to lure the croc to the surface. After getting the croc's interest, they would lift the meat and the croc would actually come out of the water to get the meat. It was pretty cool! We saw 3-4 crocs over the course of the hour cruise and then it was off to Litchfield. At Litchfield we saw huge termite mounds; they were pretty amazing. Then we went swimming in waterholes, which was a great relief from the blistering heat. We swam in three different waterholes, each with unique characteristics. The first had a couple of waterfalls and rocks to jump off of, the second was a series of waterholes, and the last had a natural hot tub. We finished off the wonderful day with an ice cold beer (they have a pretty good cider around here) and a platter of kangaroo, crocodile, and emu kebabs.

The next morning we were picked up bright and early once again, this time for Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is a pretty amazing place with a lot of Aboriginal history. The Aboriginees of Kakadu were different from those of Alice Springs, which was evident in the style of their cave paintings. After learning about the Aboriginal culture, we went on a hike to a great lookout, and then took a billabong cruise where we saw lots of birds and even more crocodiles. We got back to Darwin in time to spend about an hour at the Mindil Beach night market.

Monday was our final day in Darwin and we had nothing planned, so we just walked around the town to see what there was to see. Since it was hot and humid (Darwin is in the tropics), we decided to check out the beach, which unfortunately was closed for jellyfish season. Oh well, we found enough to keep us busy until it was time to go to the airport. We flew out on a red-eye flight and arrived in a cold, overcast Melbourne Tuesday morning- back to reality!

PS- To get a good idea of the things that we saw on this Australian adventure, just watch the first half of Crocodile Dundee!