Kakadu National Park!

The plane to Darwin took off just close after 19:00. I arrived in Darwin just after 21:00. I took a shuttle bus to the hostel, which is located right in town. I hit the sack quite early that night as I was really really tired. The next day I met up with some french dude in my room and we had a little talk about his life here in Oz. I then went out for some food and booked myself onto a tour to Kakadu National Park on monday. I then gave a ring to Rob, a guy I traveled with in New Zealand and who I also met again in Sydney. Turned out he was staying at the hostel right across the street. We met up and it was quite cool to see him again. That night we went out for a few drinks and later on we went to the casino. He played a bit of black jack and won 40 bucks. We then headed back and I went to bed. The day after, sunday was a really chilled out day. It’s nice and warm in Darwin, so I just had a wander through town. That night I did go out to a local bar, but it was really quiet so went to bed early. The next morning I had to get up at 6:30 as the tour was starting at 7:00. I was in front of the hostel at 7:00. It happened to be a 3 day 4×4 camping safari. We got to meet the guide and the rest of the people in my group, who turned out to be 8 girls.. Lucky me.. Thankfully the guide happened to be a real down-to-earth easy-going guy. We hopped into the truck and we drove off outside of Darwin to the Kakadu National Park. The first stop turned out to be a Crocodile Jumping Boat adventure! After arriving we got to hold a few snakes which was pretty cool. Right after we hopped into the boat and before we knew it, Salt-water crocodiles started to show up around the boat. With a piece of buffalo meat they were able to attract the crocs to the boat and make them jump for the meat out of the water. It was truly AMAZING to see this stuff happening. After some time we also got to meet a crocodile called Hannibal. He’s the biggest croc in that area and happened to be stunning 7!! meters.. It has been reported he has been eating other crocodiles as well. A really mean crocodile, when they were throwing out the meat, he didn’t even respond. He was more interested in the people on the boat than the piece of meat they were throwing at him. We got to take some excellent pictures and videos.
Then the trip went on to the Kakadu National Park. We drove most of the afternoon and finally we arrived at a campground near a very nice waterfall. After a little rock climb we got to a beautiful spot on a mountain with a little pond and a waterfall. It looked surreal! We all had a little swim and watched the sunset with some crackers and cheese. Afterwards we headed back to the campground where we setup camp and cooked dinner. The guide told me he was going to learn me how to prepare kangaroo steak, as that was on the menu for that night. I got the campfire going and the girls started to chop the vegetables. I got to cut up the meat and marinate the kangaroo. The guide then showed me how to cook the kangaroo, which turned out to be fairly easy. After dinner we had a few beers next to the campfire before we all headed back to bed.
The next day we got up early and the tour continued. After breakfast we drove to another beautiful spot. After a small hike of about 30 minutes, we arrived at a beautiful pond with a waterfall. We had a little swim again. After the pond we headed off to some other nice places. The guide showed us a pond where a german woman got eaten by a croccodile a few years ago, and told us again not to swim in areas where the signs tell you not to. We then went to an aboriginal visitor’s center and we learned some stuff about the culture and how the aboriginals had been living around and in Kakadu National Park. The aboriginals still own the Kakadu National Park and it’s their natural habitat. We then drove off to a campground where we setup camp. The guide dropped us off at a nearby open-air bar as there was some australian singer performing. We watched that for an hour, whilst the guide was cooking dinner for us. He then picked us back up and we headed back to camp to have dinner. We camped inside a big tent, as it was raining that night.
The next morning we got up and headed off to see a nice spot with rock-art. Some of the rock paintings turned out to be about 20,000 years old!! Incredible.. It was great to see and the scenery around it was amazing as well. Afterwards we drove off to another location where we got to see more rock-art. It was really nice. We stopped off at some more places and then we headed back to Darwin. Unfortunately the gearbox broke down and we had to stop at a didgeridoo hut. While we were waiting for another truck to pick us up, we went to check out the hut. Before entering the hut I saw one of the woman there playing with a little jumping creature. It turned out to be a baby-walliby! It was really funny to see, it was only 8 weeks old and really small. His mum was hit by a truck and she had been taking care of it. I played a little bit with the baby-walliby, but then the truck showed up and we got back to Darwin around 20:00. That night we decided to all go and have some food at a local bar. The guide joined us as well and it became a nice night. Unfortunately also the LAST night in Australia for me… Today I’m sorting out a hostel to go to in Hong Kong as my flight leaves tonight..

Time flies when you’re having fun they say… But it has gone unbelievably fast.. Stay tuned for the last bit of my travels when I’m heading back home!!