On Monday night, Michele and I were having a quiet drink. She said she was thinking of moving hostels, as the YHA hadn't been all that great, so I showed her round Melaleuca, and after she'd seen rooms, toliets and general facilities, we decided to sample the bar. In the bar at about 8pm we met Mark, a construction worker from Basingstoke, who hasn't been in Australia for the last three or four years, according to his visa status. Mark had been in the hostel for a few weeks, and seemed to spend every night indulging heavily in Darwin's favourite pastime, yet incredibly he made it to work every day at 6am sharp. Aware that I had to be up at 5.45 to catch my tour at 6.30am, I took that as a reassurance. At 11.30pm, and after several of the blue beers, and some of the yellow ones, I decided it was really time to go, so checking Michele was ok with our new friend, I staggered to bed. At 5.45am I realised I'd made something of an error, but by then there was nothing I could do, so I stumbled downstairs and slumped into my seat at the back of the tour bus.
Swimming in clear rockpools surrounded by greenery, in cool, fresh water is the best hangover cure I've ever tried. By 11am when we'd left Florence falls, I was as clear headed as if I'd gone to bed at 8pm with a mug of cocoa. Buley waterhole had much the same effect, and I went into the afternoon feeling much better. Our time in Litchfield was pretty brief, but in one morning we took in the magnetic termite mounds (all of which run north-south, and look a bit like gravestones) as well as the two waterfall systems above. While Litchfield doesn't have quite the same drama as Kakadu, it's all so much closer together that if you're up here and pushed for time, I'd definitely recommend it over its more famous counterpart.
The afternoon of the first day was spent on a cruise of the Mary River Wetlands. Jason, our guide for the cruise, told us humans had been around for 250,000 years, and that the crocodiles in the river had remained unchanged for close to 250 million years. He said he liked to think of this area as his own Jurassic Park. Aside from the crocs, one of which gave us a bit of a shock when it threatened to try to eat the boat, we saw sea eagles, cranes, wallabies, wild pigs and unusually, this buffalo. We were told that people pay $6,000 for tours by plane and boat to find buffalo to photograph, so I took quite a few photos. I reckon I must have saved myself about $100,000 in all.
Kakadu took up all of the second and third days, and we saw Jim Jim Falls, Maguk, Ubirr and the cultural centre. Driving to Jim Jim Falls is definitely a job for a tour guide though, as we had to rescue one 4wd on the way in and another on the way out. The 10km on almost impassable terrain was worth it though. The cliffs of the rock pool towered 150m above us, and the water was deep and clear, and full of fish. It's a shame that the falls dry up at the end of the dry season - following rain in the last few days they're probably running now - but Jim Jim Walls was just as spectacular.
Maguk, on the last day, was a real treat. A series of three rock pools cut deep into the rock, with a tall waterfall at the end, this was the only one where Steve, our tour guide, actually swam as well, and one of his favourite spots in the park. In the first pool, there was a hole in the rock above one side, where you could access a smaller pool from above. The only way out, though, was under the rock, two or three metres under the water. Swimming in and out of there was probably the most challenging swim I've done in a decade, though that's more a reflection on me than the swim. With any luck I'll have had more practice by the time my parents take me to the reef.
On the way home we encountered a few showers - the first rain for some parts of the Top End since July. The lady at the digeridoo shack said they'd had rain a month ago, but just cause they get rain doesn't mean people 400m to the north get it. The digeridoo shack was an experience too, with snakes and birds for people to hold and be photographed with. The galah was rather badly behaved. "They're very destructive birds in nature," the lady said, "Any time he bites people they sort of laugh nervously, and he's heard it so much that now when he bites people's fingers he laughs at them as well!" And he did, as several of the tour found out. The snake was very popular too.Back in Darwin I discovered my hotel room had five beds in it, which was a nice surprise. It also meant I had 6 spare towels, but I've been well behaved and not brought them all home with me.
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