Northern Territory - Top End

14th till 24th May 2013

We left WA and crossed over to NT after doing a total of 29,367km since leaving Sydney!
Our first stop was Katherine Gorge, which is part of Nitmiluk National Park. Unfortunately the gorge is still closed for kayaking and swimming as there are still some saltwater crocs swimming around. So it meant we went on a walk to see Katherine Gorge. But we left later in the day than planned - we had a full-on snake morning on our first day in the NT! We saw two Olive Pythons which had a big belly from eating a bat, and also another one only about 5m from our car - a black one we didn't know what it was. We went to get a Ranger, and he said it was a Whip Snake, very venomous and aggressive, so he had to call a snake handler to get it removed! We also enjoyed watching the Agyle wallabies that came to visit us on the campground.
Heading north, we headed into Litchfield National Park which has lots of waterfalls and pools where we could go for a refreshing dip.
In Darwin we went to the Mindil Beach and Sunset Markets and Stokeshill Wharf as well as the Museum & Art Gallery of the NT, there was an interesting exhibition on cyclone Tracey from 1974 which had wiped out most of the city.
On our way to Kakadu National Park, we went on a "Jumping crocodile cruise" on Adelaide River. We saw several salties jump out of the water for a pork chop, as well as a 6m 700-800kg salty laying in the mud, a massive creature that's about 65 years old and it's name is "Agro", how suitable!
In Kakadu we went to see Aboriginal Art at Ubirr and stayed there for the night. A ranger came past to tell us that there was a water buffalo that was roaming around the campground and that we should get into the car and wait till it goes away if it approaches us... But instead of the buffalo, we had a million mozzies that came that night as it had rained during the day and was extremely hot and humid. The following day we walked up to Gunlom Falls, amazing spot where we were finally able to have a dip - all other places in Kakadu are croc infested.
Now back in Katherine, we had another Olive Python this morning that was feasting on a bat, it was interesting to see it trying to swallow it's prey!

 Nitmiluk National Park

Katherine Gorge

Edith Falls

Litchfield National Park

Darwin

Kakadu National Park

Eastern Kimberleys

7th till 14th May 2013

On our way to the Bungle Bungles, we stopped at Geiki Gorge, but otherwise there was not much else to see. The 53km drive into the Purnululu National Park wasn't as bad as it could be - it's a 4WD track that usually takes up to 3h, but as it's the start of the season it was still in rather good condition, despite several river crossings. We walked many tracks to explore this remote park, but decided also to go on a helicopter flight! It was amazing to sit in one, strange feeling having no doors with just a car seatbelt - but we obviously had a fantastic view and very much enjoyed it!
From there we drove north to Kununurra and Wyndham where we saw a road sign about stray animals for the next 670km - imagine stray animals through whole Switzerland from west to east plus some of France and Austria :)! Our next days we enjoyed at Lake Argyle which is 21x the size of Sydney Harbour.

Geiki Gorge

Purnululu National Park 

(Bungle Bungles)

Lake Argyle

Western Kimberley Region

2nd - 6th May 2013

In Derby we went to see Prison Boab, very impressive hollow tree! These kind of trees only grow in the Kimberleys and the east of Northern Territory. We stayed at Birdwood Downs Station at the start of Gibb River Road which had a 4 days old foal, very cute!
On our way to the King Leopold Ranges to see Lenard Gorge and Bell Gorge, we of course couldn't get through without doing some river crossings! Bell Gorge is one of the only places to swim due to crocs, so we enjoyed a refreshing dip.
At Windjana Gorge, I (Sarah) spotted my first wild freshwater crocs - luckily they seem to stick to the other side of the gorge!
To escape a bit of the heat, we walked through Tunnel Creek - needed torches to see where to walk as the water is knee to hip deep at certain places. We were rewarded with a beautiful opening at the end and also found some Aboriginal Art. On our return walk, we spotted some red eyes reflecting back at us from our torchlight - crocs in the water where we had to wade through... However they seemed to be quite small, about half a meter, and we didn't get chewed on :)
Back on the road, we also had some brumbies (wild horses) passing us!

Derby

King Leopold Ranges

Windjana Gorge

Tunnel Creek