My preconception of Darwin was a dusty hick town, full of dusty men drinking beer in dusty outback pubs. It is not that at all. It is a modern town, which had to be rebuilt twice in the previous century. Once after it was bombed by the Japanese in WWII and again in 1987 after it was destroyed by cyclone Tracy.

We blew our budget and stayed in a hotel. Our room was huge and modern. The bed was bigger than our entire sleeping quarters for the last 3 months. Within 5 minutes we had our clothes spread from one end of the room to the other.

The Treetops restaurant at the hotel is supposed to be very popular with the locals and everyone checking in seemed to be booking dinner there. We hopped on the bandwagon and booked dinner as well. When we rocked up for dinner we had a quick look at the menu. It was a fussy menu that used words like “jus” and “confit”. My experience of eating at these places is that the food is ok. I think when you are spending over $100 for a meal; you’d like it to be better than “just ok”. So we cancelled our table and headed out on the town.

We found Mitchell St, which seemed to be the main street for bars and restaurants. Darwin was buzzing. The open-air bars were spilling over with Friday night after work drinkers. The bars had no inside area, just a roof, no sides. It would be fantastic to live somewhere you could rely on the weather being warm all year round.

We found a Thai rooftop restaurant, which also had only a roof, no sides. It also had an outdoor area for smokers. It had a really good vibe. We had an incredible meal, and for half the price that pretentious hotel was going to cost.

That was day one.

It was just a short drive to Litchfield National Park where we went and saw some waterfalls and some poo.

Termite mound made out of termite poo.

Florence Falls:

Tolmer Falls

Wangi Falls

We decided to camp at the Buley Rockhole and spent the afternoon swimming. It was deliciously warm, yet refreshing.

We got up early and headed for Katherine Gorge. We hired some canoes and canoed down the gorge. I was a bit paranoid about crocodiles but luckily we didn’t see any. They have traps all the way along the gorge for salt-water crocs, so they obviously expect them here.

At the end of the gorge we braved the croc infested waters and went for a swim. It was gorgeous (excuse the pun). We had the swimming hole to ourselves.

We splashed and frolicked for a bit then paddled back, stopping at a beach for a rest.

We had a bit of lunch then headed for Edith Falls at the other end of the national park. It is supposedly safe for swimming but the signs warned that salt-water crocs could come in undetected. It was hot so we took a chance and went for a swim, wondering why we were the only ones doing so.

We cooked up a chicken curry for dinner and drank beer. No sunset photos tonight.

We departed the rip-off hole that is Kununurra and headed for Lake Argyle. This is a man made lake and is huge!

We snapped a few photos.

We decided to continue on to Katherine. We saw a big snake with an ugly black head, which Mike had to swerve to miss.

We forgot about losing time as we crossed the border into NT and ended up driving the last stretch in the dark.

We stayed at a really crappy camping ground in Katherine and went to the golf club for dinner. The menu was like stepping back in time to when I was a kid. Shrimp cocktails for starters and all the mains were meat, chips and salad. No hint of Asian or Italian in this restaurant.

I had rump steak and chips and Mike had mixed grill. At least it was a cheap meal.

We departed El Questro and stopped at the Zebedee Springs. This is an oasis of crystal clear thermal pools surrounded by palms. The water temperature is around 32 degrees. We didn’t wear our togs so soaked our feet for a bit.

We got as far as Kununurra and decided to book Dory in for a service. What a mistake that was. It cost us $315, that’s over twice as much as anywhere else!

We stayed the night at a campground by a lake. We were standing by the waters edge when a crocodile came up and visited us. I think he was hoping to get fed. He was just a little one and quite sweet really.

Here’s me, really close and not scared (much). You can see croc in the background

We also snapped another bloody sunset photo! And some reflection ones. (NARP)

I let Mike drive today; I know he was just itching to. We arrived at El Questro, which is a million acre farm, with lots of gorges and stuff. Dory had to tackle another river crossing, which she complained about by making rattling noises.

It was a pleasant place to camp, right beside the Pentecost River, but it wasn’t cheap. It cost $30 to camp and another $30 to use their roads and do their walks. A rip-off but we got over it.

Our camp by the river:

Here’s a photo of the funny looking cows they have here:

And a photo of funny looking trees (Boabs)

We had dinner in the steak house as we were out of fresh food.

We were up early for the drive into the Bungle Bungle ranges. It was my turn to drive (as I like the off-roady bits).

Most of the road was recently graded so it was a pretty easy drive. We did the 53 kms in 2 hours 15 minutes. John, I think the road was in much better condition that when you did it! There were numerous water crossings however, and Dory showed her disgust by losing her number plate in one of them.

Dory has also taken up butterfly collecting. When Mike opened her bonnet today, it was full of pretty butterflies – all dead!

In the morning we did the cathedral gorge and domes walk. There were crisp reflections in the water.

We saw another Death Adder. They are starting to make me nervous and I am now wearing my gaiters on our walks. We also saw an eagle with a snake in its mouth.

In the afternoon we drove over the other side of the park and saw the Echidna chasm. We camped the night in the Kurrajong campground and it was very peaceful, just the quiet hum of generators from the adjacent camping ground.

We saw our first crocodile today as we walked along the Fitzroy Rivers edge at the Geikie Gorge. He was sunning himself on a rock. Both Mike and I can cross “crocodiles” off our “to see” lists.

We must, however, remember to do walks earlier in the morning. By 10am it was in the mid-30s and damn hot!

The rest of the day was spent driving. We found a free camp spot for the night just before the turn off to the Bungle Bungles.

Boring driving day. We stopped at Derby for some supplies but there wasn’t much here. We were going to go to the Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek NP, but the road was horribly rutted and we couldn’t be bothered with the 200km detour.

We camped at the Fitzroy river lodge at Fitzroy Crossing. Nice spot. We had crumbed chicken and spuds for tea.

After the excitement of sharks and whale sharks we found Broome a bit boring. We stayed at the Cable Beach caravan park, which had a nice pool, but it was very noisy. Cable Beach is nice, but no decent snorkelling and not much else to do. We read a few books and stayed 3 days, basically because we were too lazy to pack up and move on.

We did the nightly ritual of watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean, and had a couple of dinners in the restaurant overlooking the ocean. Sounds like it might have been the same one John and Marlene ate in, but they have employed foreigners now, so the service is good.

We have been watching the sunsets over the Indian Ocean for a few weeks now and we have an acronym – NABS – (Not Another Bloody Sunset).