Kakadu National Park was for me the highlight of my time in the Northern Territory. Our tour guide John said it was his favourite place in Australia and based on what I've seen I would probably agree. Anyone who has seen Crocodile Dundee 1 or 2 will be familiar with the scenery in Kakadu as this was where the Australia scenes were all filmed. It is a vast expanse of varying landscape covering an area roughly the size of Israel. We of course could only see a small...

Hello from hot and horrifically humid Darwin in Australia's "Top End". My 25 day Contiki tour of Australia ended here today, allowing me some much needed time to update my blogs on the happenings of the past 5 days. The last time I updated I was about to pay a visit to the Tennant Creek Hotel bar, which our driver had called an essential part of our cultural experience in the Northern Territory. It certainly was different! When we arrived at about 8pm t...

Hello from Tennant Creek. It seems they do have Internet in these backwater towns. I shouldn't be surprised really as Tennant Creek is the 4th largest settlement in the Northern Territory - however its population is just 3,500. Most of these citizens are men working in nearby mines, and we have been told they will be very happy tonight to see the Contiki bus in town as it means the arrival of fresh women for them! Our guide insists that we visit one of the two lo...

Uluru, or Ayers Rock as you may know it, was the thing I was most excited about visiting in the whole of Australia. As we approached Ayers Rock resort, which is situated about 10 miles north of the rock itself, you could clearly see it in the distance. From afar it is impossible to grasp the huge size of the rock, which protrudes 348m (1,141ft) above the ground, is 2.2 miles long, and 1.2 miles wide. You start to realise how big it is when you start to drive towa...

Hello again from Alice Springs. My 3 day venture into Australia's Red Centre is at an end and I am back once again in the town we started in. It has been a fantastic few days in a truely amazing and unique environment. Whereas you can find beaches and rainforest, like those on the Australian East Coast, in many places around the world, there is absolutely nothing like the Australian Outback. Our journey started on Monday morning with a 6 hour drive south west to...