We arrived in Darwin off the Greyhound bus at the station and although it was around 5pm in the afternoon, we already felt the difference in temperature from Alice - it was a lot hotter and more humid than anywhere so far in Australia. Granted, though, we were now at the very north of the Northern Territory! We arrived at our hostel, Chilli's Backpackers, which was just around the corner from where we were dropped off. We had booked a 4 bed dorm online a few days before arriving and when we got to our room, discovered that they'd put us in an 8 bed dorm. We went back to the reception and managed to get our room changed, however, when arriving at our 2nd room, discovered the current inhabitant's clothes all over the room and what would be our beds. We weren't willing to touch other peoples (possibly dirty) clothes and so had to visit reception a third time to change rooms! We were then put in a 3rd room which wasn't as bad as the previous one but still wasn't great or tidy. This was pretty frustrating and the heat of the place didn't help at all. Anyways, we managed to settle in that room as the current occupants were out! We went for a wander around the block (Darwin's pretty small) as it was getting dark by then and we went for a nice meal at one of the bars over the road from the hostel before going back and bedding down for the night as we were pretty tired from the bus journey.

The next morning our room mates had arrived at some time in the morning, which we later discovered was because they worked in Darwin, so we had a little get-to-know-you chat with them. They seemed like cool guys, though one of them seemed to blank Ruth when she asked him a few initial questions. We worked out later that it was because he couldn't hear her over the music from his laptop! Once he'd switched that off he seemed really chatty and friendly. They were both not overly happy that us two had come in and disturbed their peace - they said they had some deal with a receptionist where no one would be put into their room unless completely last resort as they were there long-term, but the guy who put us in there obviously wasn't part of that deal! Either way they ended up being really cool about us being there (we are both perfect hostel room mates!).

Our first full day in Darwin ended up being a Sunday and so many places weren't open apart from the Crocodyllus Park, which was a bus ride away. We managed to get there after a bit of help from someone at the pharmacy in just enough time to get onto a guided tour of the park. We saw hundred of crocodiles, freshwater ones ('freshies') and the man-eating saltwater ones ('salties'), one of which was 12 feet long! We both had a go at feeding the 'salties' by holding a wooden stick over their enclosure with a chicken's head attached to the end. We were taught to hover the meat up above the croc so they had to jump to get it, ensuring the female saltie didn't get it first (it would just anger the male, which goes without saying really!). We made the croc jump 4 or 5 times for its food before we let them have it - any more than that would have been pretty cruel! It's what they would do in the wild too, no prey would just walk along and climb into their mouths. We were also witnesses to a near death experience for the guide who got in the enclosure of the 12 foot man-eating croc carrying a dead chicken! As soon as he'd entered the enclosure, the croc emerged from the mirky waters then sped up towards the water's edge onto the grass and straight for the guide! The guide threw the chicken at the croc, yet the croc went straight for him at full speed! Everyone either shrieked or gasped as he darted backwards and scrambled up the fence of the enclosure, just in time as the croc snapped at him with a loud 'crack' of its jaws! We found out that the reason that had happened was because the croc lost one eye in a fight and the chicken had been thrown onto the wrong side and so it didn't see it! Very close call! After that we got a little more information about the difference between freshies and salties and were then invited to hold a baby freshie, which we both did and have the photos to prove it! Ruth went first and as she was handing it to me it started wriggling a bit, so I left it in Ruth's hands until it had calmed down a bit haha! That was the end of the tour of the park and so we wandered around the rest of the place ourselves and saw emus, dingos, wallabies, cassowaries, more crocs and monkies, amongst other things.

The next day we had a trip to Litchfield National Park booked. We got picked up around 7am and our first stop was to pay for the remainder of the balance for the actual trip. The place we were taken to was just someone's house yet it had a croc as a pet in an enclosure near where we were paying. The guide gave us all the opportunity to hold this one, which was quite a lot bigger than the one we held the previous day! Ruth took him up on the offer but I didn't, simply because I had already 'been there, done that' - not because I was scared or anything ("Yeah right Rob! :-p" - Ruth). Once everyone had paid we had around an hour's journey to our first stop - the Adelaide River for a 'jumping croc cruise'. We were advised to hang around the van whilst our guide got the boat ready and when he came back he informed us of a rather large croc hanging around the boat so not to dawdle when heading to the boat! It made us all a bit on edge of course, however, we were pretty safe walking along the boardwalk from the van to the boat... though we did see the croc he was on about slowly heading for our boat as we were boarding! One distracted wrong step and someone would have been in the river and the croc's lunch, without a doubt. That didn't happen though and everyone got on safely and once we'd pushed off the side and got going, the guide got out the meat on a stick and proceeded to entice the crocs right up to the side of the boat. It was amazing to see them up so close - often getting within a meter of the boat and ourselves! A few times the crocs seemed more interested in the people in the boat than the meat on the stick as they're attracted to bright coloured clothing! Ruth got some amazing photos of the crocs jumping out of the water for the food, proving just how high they manage to propell themselves out of the water. After about an hour of feeding several different crocs around the river, we headed back to the coach for our next stop, which was the Litchfield National Park. After about an hour's drive we arrived in the park and were first taken to a lagoon type lake surrounded by rainforest. It had a couple of waterfalls going into the water at the bottom and people are able to swim in the water in the dry season. In the wet season the lagoon fills up and salties and freshies frequently inhabit it, so no swimming then! There is always a sign nearby warning that crocodiles inhabit the water so do not swim! The water was cold upon first going into it, however, you soon got used to it. Well, I did! Ruth swam for a couple of seconds then got out and sat on the side as it was 'too cold'! I swam up to the other side of the lagoon to check out the waterfalls, which were beautiful. Once we'd both had enough of that we dried off and headed back to the coach where our guide had set out a picnic style lunch of make-your-own sandwiches.

Our next stop was at the top of another amazing waterfall where you could swim again, however, we didn't have enough time on our trip to swim so we just stood at the viewing platform for a few minutes. Then we headed to a series of rock pools spanning downwards for about 200 meters. Some of them were shallow and some were deep, but all of them you could easily walk over the rocks and waterways to get to the rest. Again another beautiful place where we stayed for about an hour, sunbathing and sitting in the rock pools.

Our next stop was an area of the park that housed hundreds of termite mounds. One of the mounds was so high it was nicknamed The Cathedral and was probably around 15-18 feet high! We were told about the few different types of termites that were there and why some of the mounds were different shapes to others - its all to do with providing shade from the intense heat from the sun. One group of termites are actually called Cathedral Termites because of the huge mounds they build that resemble cathedrals. The other group are called Magnetic Termites. They build huge flat square-shaped mounds that resemble gravestones. They're built facing east/west so they get the shade from the sun at different times of the day. That was our last stop on the trip and it was a few hours drive back to our hostel.

Unfortunately for us, our flight to Cairns was at 5am the next morning, meaning we needed to be at the airport around 3am. We decided against going to bed to sleep because we would probably feel worse for not sleeping much, or at all, and end up waking our roommates up at some un-Godly hour! So we ended up sitting downstairs in the hostel but in a dark tiny area because the reception was closed! After what felt like an age, 3am finally arrived and we could get on the shuttle bus to the airport. For some reason we were being rushed through customs by the staff and as Ruth's bags were going through, the lady came up to us and started saying 'you have lags in there', we were like, 'what?'. 'Lags! Lags! you have lags in your bags!'... oh my god woman, speak English! Anyway, she then went back to hurry other people through and the man came up to us and said 'you have liquids and gels in there... lags'... jeez! So this bloke was then going through our bags, pretty much saying 'What's that? what's that? what's that?' at almost everything. We, after being rushed through, then not understanding what she was saying, then had him going on asking what everything was in our bags, were getting really frustrated! Ruth started with a bit of a sarcastic tone answering this guy (through tiredness and frustration really)... 'whats that?', 'It's a bag'.. 'whats that?', 'It's a tin of tuna'.. 'what's that?', 'It's a towel!'... really was all pointlessly frustrating! Anyway, we managed to get through, losing a few bits and peices here and there (including Ruth's beloved Vegemite!), and got on the plane bound for Cairns! Someone had told me not to go to Cairns, although I can't remember who it was now. Boy, I sure am glad we didn't listen to them! It ended up being my favourite place in Australia up until that point... that's where the next blog will begin :)