Night 14: Darwin
Night 15: Wangi Park in Litchfield National Park
Night 16: Kakadu Lodge – Jabiru
Night 17: Cooinda – Gagagju Lodge
Night 18: Katherine National Park
Night 19: Daly Waters
Night 20: Barkley Homestead
Night 21: Mt Isa
Night 22: Karumba
Night 23: Croydon
Night 24: Glengarry Caravan Park (just outside Port Douglas)
Night 25: Port Douglas

We left Darwin and headed back in the wilderness. We decided to spend a day in Litchfield. First stop in the park was Florence Falls, which was a short walk in a shady creek to a beautiful plunge pool. We amazingly were allowed to swim. I was a little worried that there might be crocs, but there were none.
We also stopped at Wangi Falls and Tolmer Falls.

Next stop Kakadu National Park. It was quite hot in Kakadu, high 30’s, and very high humidity. But who can complain compared to the weather in Melbourne. We had the windows open in the tent but with no breeze it doesn’t really help. We definitely experienced some nice caravan parks in Kakadu, very much resort style. But we weren’t really complaining in this instance. A nice clean pool in this weather was like heaven.

We woke up late and packed up the tent in the unforgiving heat. Air conditioning and swimming are our only saviours. We drove further into the park and booked in at Cooinda. Another resort style caravan park with a fantastic pool. We booked in for a Yellow Water Cruise. It was a great way to see Kakadu. Not many crocs in the middle of the day because they tend to stay under water when it’s really hot. We saw lots of birdlife and Barra though.
Next day we had a helicopter flight over Kakadu. It was even more amazing than the cruise. We flew over the East Alligator River and saw some crocs lazing around in a billabong. The half an hour flight went so quick. It would be amazing to see it in the wet season with all the waterfalls in action.

Next day was Katherine Gorge, and it was still REALLY hot. They even advise you not to hike the gorge in the middle of the day, because it is 10 degrees hotter up there. And that day it was 44 degrees, so it would have pretty warm up on the gorge. No thank you! I got eaten alive by Mossy’s and Sean luckily didn’t even get bitten once. Why they love me and not him, I don’t know. We went on the Nit Nit Dreaming Cruise on the Katherine Gorge.
We saw two gorges out of the thirteen. It was absolutely stunning.
After the first gorge, we actually had to get out and walk to the next boat to see the next gorge. It was well worth it. I can’t even begin to explain the enormity of the gorges.

We drove back down further south to Mataranka, and swam in the thermal springs that we didn’t get a chance to do last time. It was really lovely but the smell of bat poo was a little sickening. We stayed the night at Daly Waters, a great outback town with an amazing pub. We had barra and steak for dinner and couple of beers. A close encounter with a massive spider was a reminder of where we were. Sean saved the day of course!

This was our first night with a little less humidity, and it was definitely a relief.
Now it was time to start heading east. We headed down to Three Ways with a couple of small stops on the way. Our overnight stop was at Barkley Homestead, which also had a great pub and a pool table. We settled in for the night and had a late dinner.

Further east and our next stop was Mt Isa, which was much bigger than we expected but it was really just an overnight stop and we weren’t there for very long. We met some people in the caravan park in Mt Isa and they told us to go to Karumba which is the North Coast of QLD on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It was only 70kms further on from Normanton (where we had planned to stay) and much more exciting and beautiful. It’s a tiny outback town on the sea. The prawns were great and we couldn’t be more grateful for the recommendation.

We only drove for 220 or so kms the next day before we hit our intended lunch stop – Croydon. As we walked in to the pub and heard the sound of the footy on the telly, we thought we better stay the night, watch the footy and settle in. And that we did. Sometimes you don’t really comprehend the atmosphere of a town when you drive straight though. Sitting at the local for a couple of hours definitely gives you the idea, and a great one at that, to understand the outback.

Drove straight from Croydon in outback Queensland to just outside of Port Douglas, with a stop over in Cairns for some Japanese for pre-dinner. Stayed in a very over crowded caravan park and we were eager to get out of there. It was a bit overwhelming being around so many people after being in the middle of nowhere. We were a bit shell shocked.

We spent the day in Port Douglas today and we got some information on scuba diving. I have to do a QLD dive medical tomorrow for my asthma; hopefully I pass so I can go diving.

We will keep you updated as often as we can, though it isn’t easy when reception is lacking. I will add more photos too, I think I have figured out how to do it now. Hope you’re enjoying the blog!

Bec and Sean