TripRoundUnder

Venturing out of the Kakadu wilderness, we were about to enter our first capital city in a while, Darwin. We didn’t know a great deal about the place, other than it was supposed to be hot and humid and it definitely lived up to its reputation!

Driving into the city, you definitely felt the military presence in the city, with army trucks passing us and fighter jets flying overhead. Steve even asked Lauren to check the news in case we had been invaded while we were out bush!

We managed to find an affordable campsite on the outskirts of town and managed to spend a quiet although very sweaty night!

The next day, was a very special one, it was Lauren’s Birthday! We met up with one of Steve’s family friends for a nice breakfast and as luck would have it, the famous Mindil beach markets were on that night! Although the high 30s and 80% humidity was taking its toll on our South Australian visitors, we were amazed at the atmosphere and cultural experience of the markets! So much food to choose from! We settled on three different cuisines and after observing the strange tradition of clapping the sunset on the beach, we were feeling very full! In another bout of serendipity, we bumped into the couple that we had met a few days previously in Cooinda and it was lovely to see them again and have a chat.

Steve had booked a nice hotel for the special occasion and after a cheeky visit to the casino, we headed back for a much anticipated air-conditioned sleep!

The next day was spent trying to keep out of the heat at local libraries and we even managed to get our hands on a fallen coconut from the casino and used a hatchet to get a little extra snack!

Our last proper day in Darwin happened to be AFL grand final day and we organised to watch it with one of Lauren’s friends who had moved up here. As usually happens on grand final day, a few lemonades were consumed and later that evening we ended up at the local Irish Bar turned nightclub! Not a bad way to end our time in Darwin.

Nursing sore heads, we headed out of Darwin the next morning towards the NT’s second most well known national park, Litchfield.

Our first campground, Tjaynera Falls required a bit of 4×4 driving to enter and once again the Troopy showed its worth in probably our deepest water crossing yet!

We again bumped into our travelling couple friends and I’m sure they thought we were stalking them! The falls were a little bit of a trek from the campground, so we sun-screened up and headed out there when it cooled down a little. The 30 minute walk was more than worth it, we were the only ones there with a majestic waterfall and waterhole all to ourselves. As we had become accustomed to, it was unreal to have a cooling swim after a hot day and walk, even though Lauren still didn’t trust touching the bottom!

The next day, we said goodbye to our friends and headed further into the park to the lesser known Cascades. Again, we had the area almost completely to ourselves, having some lovely swims in the small rockpools and even meeting some locals!

From here, we visited one of the busiest areas of the park in Wangi Falls and although the falls were beautiful and we had a nice cooling swim, the crowds really do take away from the experience. In saying that, we can’t complain too much because we were tourists just the same.

The day finished with our arrival at our next campground nearby the famous Florence Falls and although slightly worried about the busload of school kids across the campground, we managed a quiets nights sleep.

Rising relatively early (Steve), we ventured down to Florence Falls and although it was pretty busy, it was still a really cool experience to feel the climate change as you ventured down into the gorge. The waterfall was spectacular and we managed a nice morning swim.

We then drove around further upstream where we had a look at the popular Buley Rockhole before deciding that it was too busy and retreating back to the car.

I think that although some of the more well known and popular falls are beautiful to visit, we really do think that the more out of the way places are often just as good and even better. Nothing more special than listening to the sounds of the bush with a waterfall in the background, with no other people in sight.

Anyway, on that philosophical note, our time in Litchfield has ended and we were heading back to Darwin before our next adventure… Going international and visiting Bali! Subscribe to keep up to date!