I must say that Darwin was too hot and humid even for me even though I love the warm weather. Darwin is a nice city but that’s it. There’s not that much to do. Might be different if you had your own car and you could easily go and visit one of the National Parks nearby for a weekend but backpacking and relying on walking and public transport your possibilities are limited. You can walk in the park or walk to Mindil Beach but even in the evening it can be quite an exercise when it’s still +29 and the air is humid. For backpackers Darwin seems to be quite a party place (like so many other places too). I rather spend my money on something else than partying every night, but don’t think I didn’t go out at all!

Thanks to a tip from my roomie I got a good price on a 3 day Kakadu & Litchfield trip. If people think it’s early to go to Fraser Island leaving at 7.30am they should try going to Kakadu and being at the travel shop at 6am! I’m not really a morning person but I made it. Our trip was awesome! Huge termite mounds were our first stop before even getting to Kakadu National Park. We saw amazing wetlands with different birds. We also walked to wonderful lookouts to look at the view around us. Aboriginal paintings on the rocks were part of our trip as well and our guide Nathaniel was extremely knowledgeable on history, nature and indigenous people’s life, habits and history. For his young age he was a better guide than some older ones I’ve met along the way. It tells quite a lot that he had spent dozens of hours to make a weapon aboriginal people use. After all the sweat we shed on the first day was rewarded on the second day when we spent almost the whole afternoon playing in the water underneath and above waterfalls, nature’s wonderful playground. We also went on a cruise to spot crocs. We did see big crocs straight away, there were plenty of them. We also saw many birds on the way too. I think a jabiru was maybe the greatest of the birds we saw, small kingfisher was probably the cutest. The whole trip was amazing with all the walks, wonderful sceneries, clear fresh waters, all the wild life, didn’t even mind the early mornings or the rain we got on Sunday morning.

I did my first trip to Australia almost nine years ago and I must say that some things never change. You’re in a night club and Bryan Adam’s Summer of 69 starts and everybody is just dancing and singing along. And same happens with 500 miles by the Proclaimers. It’s funny how some things haven’t changed over the years. And you can be sure I was there with everyone else dancing! Can’t remember when I would have been dancing as much as when we went out with the group from Kakadu trip.

If you get a meal deal for $5 you don’t ask questions. You’ll just accept it nicely and happily drink your cold beer and enjoy the food. And no matter how many thoughts you had about going to bed early as your companions did too you can’t deny that cold beer tastes good and another drink won’t hurt, you can still leave just after that. But if you’re out with a Scottish and a Canadian there’s no going to bed early, at least not when a jug of cider is cheaper than a pint! Surely one more won’t hurt. 
 

Even a thought about going back to Noosa and Hervey Bay brought a broad smile on my face and I started to get excited. The thought about going back to something familiar sounds so good. And I’m more than happy to see all those people again, I’ve missed them.

"A hug is like a boomerang - you get it back right away."
- Bil Keane -