Call off the search party, we have arrived back from our little trip to Kakadu and Lichfield safe and sound, although if the park ranger asks, you ain't seen us or read this blog!

So let's go back to day 2 of our bush whacking trip....,

Well last nights sleep was pretty good in the end, despite the initial fear with cars pulling up all night, stopping, not getting out and driving off we were fine. The stars were never ending, the dingo didn't come back, and after a home cooked omelette that swiftly turned into scrambled eggs we were back on our way into the national park.

After being spotted by the park ranger we though best to purchase a ticket for Kakadu to the tune of $25 each, which in hindsight was a total waste of money for a few reasons....

1) Nobody checked our tickets once
2) As it was only weeks into the dry season most of the walks were closed
3) The sealed roads that were open tended to be under water about 20km down the track, do we encountered a lot of frustrating u turns, and with petrol only available every 100km they could charge what they like, so this became pricey.
4) All the camp sites in the park still charged for camping on top of this, more of which I will come onto.

Note as well that those selling us the the passes failed to mention this at the time.

We ventured on to some amazing lookouts and saw some rock art (rock art in the outback is what temples were to Asia, but with more big willies), but my personal high light was the holiday in in the shape of a giant crocodile (despite stopping at every creek this was the only crocodile we saw!).

The sun started to set, and the wallabies came out so we headed along the highway and pulled up to a campsite. Now after paying for a pass, this camp site also asked for a $10 each. So we took the payslip, but instead decided to get up at the crack of dawn and put the pedal to the metal and drive off. What we had not bargained for was quite how hungry Mosquitos are at 5am and by the time we showered I already had blood on my hands after swatting them off me. It is surprising how much of the red stuff these b*****s take, and upsetting when you feel the warmth of the blood that signals it is probably fresh from your arm!

The next stop on the trail was Pine Creek. PC is an old gold rush town, which means now that there is a little bit of tourism from the past and a petrol station, but this town had a good bit of mining history and a railway, and also served up Paul's Ice Coffee, my new addiction.

We headed to Berry Springs, and noticed the fire warning signs, which if you have never seen them are similar to a spinny board from Twister, the low warning was 'high' the top warning being 'catastrophic'. The Aussies like their extremities.

The guide book assured us that the springs were only 8km down a dirt track, so taking it slow at 10km/hr we got half way there again before our friend the river over the road forced us to turn back once again.

After a couple of nights of roughing it we decided to stop at a proper campsite, complete with swimming pool and pub en route to Lichfield.

Our conclusion of Kakadu is Kakadon't, unless you have a 4wd.

Lichfield was a different story, beautiful drives, and swimming holes a plenty, where we could have happily spent more time in the clear waters surrounded by waterfalls, it was only when you read the signs saying that croc traps had been set up in the area, despite not seeing any traps, that the waters became slightly less inviting!

The water was soothing however on the rash that I had developed which I am putting down to bed bugs!

So after a last night parked by the side of the Stuart Highway, and an all in the pan meal of our left over food supplies our first bush adventure was over, but what an adventure it was!