We drove from 60km west of the Queensland (QLD) state border to around 100km before Charters Towers - 1000km or so in total. Along the way we seen lots of road trains, termite mounds, ate ice cream, and went to sleep in the car at a rest area as we were too tired to setup the tent.

We drove from 100km south of Mataranka to 60km west of the Queensland (QLD) state border - 800km or so. Along the way we stopped for free coffee, seen grassland fires, seen wondering cattle, waved to passing drivers outback style, and made camp for the night at a rest area.

Free Camping: View Map (rest area: running water, toilets, shelter, tables)

We left Kakadu and drove a bit to Katherine Gorge where we rented a double kayak. It took us a while to get better paddling coordination, but eventually we figured it out. Afterwards we kept an eye out for fresh water crocs (theoretically harmless unless provoked) and plunged in to the gorge for a quick dip. Woohoo.

Last night we drove closer to Cooinda in Kakadu, where we booked an early morning Yellow Water boat cruise and setup camp. Today we woke up super early and where in the boat by 6:45am – a great experience. The bird and croc watching tour lasted two hours, with very friendly and informative guides – highly recommended.

Today: hiking through the park; sweating; drinking lots of water; watching aboriginal rock art; enjoying the wetlands and billabongs; taking pictures (too many?) of the rich wild life.

Kakadu today has really drawn a line of contrast with the red center outback we were stuck in a week ago. Whereas a week ago the ground was red, dry, and with very little and limited visible life, today on the other hand we’re seeing lots of greenery, water and tons of moving things all over the place.

Today we made it to Kakadu National Park – a huge area in the tropical top end of Australia filled with tons of wildlife such as beautiful wetland birds, annoying humid loving mosquitoes, some crocodiles, a number of sporadic natural forest fires, and a spider the size of a fist sitting on a nearby toilet door (we decided to stay clear and pee in the grass that night).

We setup our tent in a park camping spot that had very limited amenities – some grass, some sandy spots, a parking lot, the toilet with that huge spider, a river filled with crocs 100 meters away and … actually that’s it. On these rewarding grounds there was one more couple sleeping in a van that night. As an aside, this couple was a cool Czech duo we would coincidentally bump into over and over the next few days – a quite funny experience. Anyhow, I have to admit that fearless Ewa slept like a solid slab of concrete this night. I on the other hand would have an irrational fear haunting me. Seeing an overabundance of crocodile warning signs during the day, and the 100 meter proximity of our tent to a river, I imagined that one of those oversized reptiles would crawl over when we were sleeping and taste our delicious meat. Of course that was very irrational as crocs don’t come out of the river to hunt in the dry grass. Nevertheless I woke up around 20 times that night with every crack of a nearby twig or a fallen leaf, and a dosage of adrenaline to keep my heart pounding. Soon enough, the sun rose and all was well again.

We arrived here yesterday in the evening thinking of washing off the sweat and taking a break from the tent in a nicer hostel only to find out that everything was booked out in this city. Well we should have known better - it’s the so called Dry now and tourism is at its peak. The Dry is the season where it does not rain, the sun is out without a cloud in the sky and temperatures are comfortably niiiiiiice. Yes yes … there is also the Wet, and when the rains hit later on in November it rains very well for many months flooding down roads and making tourism possible only for crocodile hunters with 4WD trucks. Anyhow, we ended up staying at a caravan park in our tent over at a cool resort near Lee’s Point. We restocked on water, took those much needed showers too, did laundry and recharged our batteries. Later on in the evening we hit up the city for the Mandil Beach Sunset Market where delicious food, fire juggling, mellow music, a sunset and beer was plenty.

We drove into Litchfield National Park last night. The climate is great and we’re sweating up. The park is known for big termite mounds and tons of crystal clear waterholes and waterfalls. Seeing saltwater and freshwater crocodile warnings we took precautions, and thought twice before jumping into even the “safer” pools. Soaking up the heat, the water and melted tim tams, we drove in later in the evening into Darwin – the so called “top end”.

We drove more north stopping at breakfast for some freshly baked scones over at Fran’s Devonshire Tea House. Afterwards we drove to Mataranka’s Hot Springs – a little pool with 35 degree Celsius water heated from the ground – nice. At the resort we also watched a film which was filmed just around there, “We of the Never Never” – an Aussie Outback flick. But the really nice thing here is the change in weather. Sometime yesterday we passed the tropic of Capricorn, entering warmer and warmer climates. We are not officially wearing short and sandals, and we no longer need heaps of sweaters and double socks for the nights. Oh yea.

Yesterday we got the car back yesterday, Woohoo, and drove out of there in the direction of north along the Stuart Highway. We restocked on food in Alice Springs and camped another 100km north of the city in a rest area. Today we drove for most of the day stopping for mango ice cream (and other goddies) at the Red Centre Farm; visiting an old pub in Barrow Creek; doing a small break near the Devil’s Marbles; and finally camping our near a nice pub / camping ground in Daly Waters – first pub to have a liquor license in the Northern Territory. During the evening a rugged Aussie played a guitar to entertain the people around.