Author: Lindsay and Igor

Day 62: Litchfield National Park

5AM we woke up to a complete downpour: we’re talking big, fat drops of water, tropical deluge type rain. When Lindsay tries to shake Igor awake, he tries to tell her, “It’ll pass like last night – just sleep through it.” Uh, huh. After about 5 minutes of waiting, there are puddles in our tent, our sleeping bags are soaked, and the rain is coming down harder. Lindsay finally runs out of the tent to the car, finds the missing fly, and desperately tries to hang it over the tent. (Luckily we did learn a little bit from our misadventure the night before, and all the electronics were safe and dry in the car already) We had some pitiful shelter from the rain, but couldn’t go back to sleep in our wet sleeping bags. We gave up trying after about 15 minutes, and started carrying our clothing bags (which we had been using as pillows) to the campground dryer.

Since we didn’t need any of the camping gear after Australia, we offered the tent and sleeping bags to the campground owner. He said he would happily take it for his communal borrow shelf (for the odd camper who forgets / breaks their own gear). We hung the tent and sleeping bags on his drying racks (Hey! At least now they are clean for the next camper!) and headed out to Litchfield before most of the campground had woken up.

Litchfield is an awesome little park – highly recommend for anyone visiting Darwin – because almost every trail or point of interest includes swimming! Such a relief in the crazy heat of the Top End! After a very brief stop at the Giant Termite Mounds at the park entrance, it was swimming hole after swimming hole all day long.

Two types of termite mounds – Magnetic (flat, narrow structures about 5′ high, oriented North-South to make sure 50% of the mound is always in shade) and Cathedral

Our first stop was at Florence Falls – we parked the car at the Buley Rockhole and walked the 3+KM to Florence Falls along the Florence Creek Trail. As it was early morning, we had the plunge pool to ourselves for a good 20 minutes before other tourists showed up

Chillin’ under Florence Falls

Walking back along the creek we passed a dozen tourists on their way to the falls – but everyone was passing by perfectly good swimming holes in the creek that were completely empty! Lindsay couldn’t understand it – she jumped in and can verify it’s just as good as the falls

Igor jumping into the Buley Rockhole – which is really a series of many waterfalls and rockholes – we climbed up the creek until we found an empty one

While the rockholes are small, they are really deep!

We stopped at Wangei Falls – the most popular swimming hole in the park due to its size & easy access – but opted not to swim as there were about 50 people in the pool. We walked the short 1.5KM jungle trail to the tree top platform and would have completed the loop up to the top of the falls down, except the signs warned that there was no view of the falls from the top. As we didn’t see the point of hiking in the noontime heat if there would be no view, we headed back down for lunch and continued to a less traveled part of the park.

Wangei Falls – the big & crowded

Charming gifts for sale at the Wangei Falls café

Our next two swimming holes required more effort. The walking trail to the Lower Cascades took us about 3KM through the bush and then along the creek where the trail went over some very jagged rocks (not flip-flop-friendly). We passed one couple leaving as we reached the plunge pool, but otherwise had the area to ourselves again. We swam around for about an hour until another couple arrived, and we decided to let them enjoy the solitude and headed back.

Another private pool for Lindsay & Igor to play

Igor enjoying the waterfall

A relaxing hot-tub sized pool above the Cascades

Our final swimming hole was at Walkers Creek – which as the name suggests – requires a walk to the pools. The path runs through the (shade-less) bush along the creek, and passes 8 campsites along the way – each one about 100M off the path next to the water. The trailhead recommended going to campsites 6 or 8 for the best swimming. 6 was full with a huge family with kids, so we ended up at 8, tired and overheated. Once again, there was only one couple in the pool, and they decided to leave when we arrived, so we had it to ourselves.

Crystal-clear water of the Walker’s Creek – our final swimming hole

When it was time to get out, Igor refused to believe Lindsay that he couldn’t climb up the waterfall. Dude, just listen to your wife – she’s right

Rather than backtrack to the Stuart Highway, we headed back to Darwin via a dirt road at top of the park which passed through Berry Springs. We stopped for a sad Dominos Pizza at a strip mall along the way (Dominos abroad does not taste as good as Dominos at home), picked up a large tube of sunscreen at the pharmacy, and arrived at the airport at 8PM – 4 hours before our flight and an hour before check-in.

We found out there was a shower in the handicapped bathroom outside security, so we had a chance to clean up before boarding the flight. After check-in, Lindsay ran around the terminal trying to find a Post box for her final postcard to Barbara without any luck. After a pitiful show of disappointment to the Jetstar managers, one of them offered to drop it in the mail for her (but will it show up?). Just before midnight, we passed into the International Terminal (which made us pass through a second security where our new bottle of sunscreen was confiscated) and boarded our short flight to Bali.

Farewell, Austraila!

Day 61: Kakadu

Our alarm went off at 4:45AM in the morning, as we had booked a sunrise cruise on the Yellow Water Billabong. Given our rain shower/mosquito adventure from the night before, we woke up exhausted, clammy, and itchy from the one damn mosquito we missed. We gathered up our damp tent, threw it in the car, and drove (carefully!) in the pre-dawn darkness to our meeting spot.

Even with red eyes (too dry & irritated for contacts), and discomfort from the high humidity and active mosquitoes (they didn’t stop at daylight!), we still enjoyed the cruise – the sunrise was so stunning, it completely distracted us. And the crocs! From almost the moment our boat shoved off, and huge male croc (named Max) started following our boat and seemed to stalk us for most of the trip. The tour guide told us a bit about croc behavior, and said crocs are very patient and observant hunters. Most likely Max was so used to people getting in and out of boats, he’s waiting for an opportunity when someone slips getting on or off.

Sunrise over the Yellow Water Billabong – home to Max the Saltwater Crocodile

Beautiful river scenery

This cruise was full of bird-lovers – other passengers kept pointing out “blue-breasted so-and-so” and “honey-eating something-or-other” even before the guide found them. This one’s a goose. That’s all I got.

Max the croc keeping close tabs on us all along the river

After the billabong cruise, we stopped over at the Bowali Visitor’s Center to finally pay our park entrance fee (AUD$40pp – not a cheap park!) and ask the ranger if there were any other camping spots in the park with a less viscous mosquitos population. She said no – due to all the billabongs, there are mosquitos everywhere and the only spray that seems to work is Bushman’s 80% DEET, but warned us that the spray would also peel the paint off of a truck. We picked up a bottle later that day, but decided to finish sigh-seeing and get the hell out of the park before sunset.

80% DEET. Death by mosquito, or death by cancer?

We passed by Jabiru and headed up to see the Aboriginal rock art at Ubirr. The rock art is very well preserved, and there were signs interpreting the Dreamtime Stories the figures depicted. After reading through several of them, we realized that the Aboriginal stories are all very harsh. In one story, a guy steals someone’s fish – he gets killed. In another story, a kid eats something during the wrong ceremonial time – he dies. It seems that no matter how petty the crime, in the Aboriginal stories the punishment is always DEATH. Either that, or the rock art just depicts a big animal some hunter bagged, and wants to brag about for eternity.

The punishment will always outweigh the crime. Moral of every story: don’t do anything bad or you will DIE

These guys just want to show off the big turtle they caught

Ubirr Rock Lookout – view of the floodplains, already dry for the season

We made one last quick stop at the Mamukala Wetlands where there is a hide for more birdwatching, before making the long trek down the Arnhem Highway toward Bachelor – the gateway to Litchfield National Park. We were closing in on sunset as we reached Bachelor, so we stopped at the Bachelor Holiday Park for our last night of camping. We couldn’t ask for a better campground – washer & dryer, a toaster, and even bird-feeding! We finished off our final avocados (on *toasted* bread – how fancy!) and a bottle of our favorite Chilean wine, and crawled into our tent for the last time. The sky was clear, the stars were bright overhead, so we once again ran the risk of sleeping without the fly. Remember that bit…it will be relevant for what happens next…

Mamukala Wetlands – great for birdwatching

No birds in this picture surprisingly…

Ah, there are some birds! 5:30PM Bird-feeding at the Bachelor Holiday Park

Tucking in for our last night in Australia with a great bottle of wine and a cool breeze as we fall asleep.

Day 60: Edith Falls / Kakadu

Sleeping in the fly-less tent was absolutely perfect – the heat finally broke in the middle of the night and it got just cool enough to sleep under sleeping bags. We broke camp around 7AM to take advantage of the morning weather, and started climbing the Leliyn Trail to Edith Falls. The sun was still below the hills as we made our ascent to the top of the falls, and we found we had the entire waterfall completely to ourselves! We spent about an hour swimming in our own little oasis before heading back down and off to Kakadu National Park.

Edith Falls in the distance

A pristine waterhole – just for us!

Saltie-free swimming

An early morning dip – a refreshing start to the day

Loving the privacy

Our first stop in Kakadu was more swimming at Gunlom Falls – only accessible by driving 30+KM down a dirt road. That’s why we rented an SUV! We decided to skip swimming at the bottom pool and power through the 400M vertical climb to the top of the falls to swim in the plunge pools. It was around noon at this point, so there were plenty of people at the top, but for some reason no one was swimming in the pool at the back (I guess everyone wanted to swim near the “infinity pool” for the lookout) – so once again we had a little privacy.

So there’re *probably* not any crocs in this pool – but let’s go up just to be sure

Igor takes the first plunge – Lindsay taking pictures

Another private swimming pool

A friendly little crawfish!

Checking out the natural infinity pool

After our swim, we headed up to the Nourlangie Region to pick out a campsite at Muirella Park before driving over to the nearby Nourlangie Rock to watch the sunset. While the bushflies had mostly left us alone during the day, they were out full force during sunset. We had our protective headgear, so we were able to linger a bit. When we got back to our campsite, however, we were not prepared for the sheer multitude of mosquitos that arrived after dark. Thousands. MILLIONS. You know that annoying buzz you get in your ear when one flies by? Multiple that by a hundred – there was a steady hum in the air from all the mosquitoes. We quickly abandoned any idea of eating dinner outside on the picnic table and threw everything inside our fly-less tent. A handful of mosquitoes followed us inside, but we made quick business of them, and tried to enjoy our dinner and wine. Unfortunately, we were very aware of the fact that the more we drank, the more we would need to pee, and that would require getting out of the tent. So we opened the cheap $7 Shiraz, and slowly sipped half of it before going to sleep.

Nourlangie Rock

Busting out the protective gear for the bushflies

Sunset at Nourlangie Rock

A sad dinner – prisoners to the Kakadu mosquito population

If only the story ended there. Around midnight, we awoke to a steady rain shower. As we had pitched the tent without the fly, we and all our electronics (phone, computers, chargers) were completely unprotected. Lindsay frantically grabbed everything sensitive and tried to quickly jump out of the tent, zip the door, put the electronics safely in the car, then jump back in. The tent door was open for mere seconds. Literally, 30 mosquitoes entered the tent. And of course the rain stopped about minutes later. We spent the next half an hour hunting each mosquito down and squishing it before we could go back to sleep in peace, after which time the tent was covered in about a dozen blood stains (can’t return this tent to K-Mart).

If you are ever thinking about camping in Kakadu…Kaka-DON’T.

Day 59: Katherine Gorge

As the drive out to Katherine Gorge was a good 3.5 hours, we got up bright and early to make to most of the morning. We stopped at the K-Mart in Darwin on the way to pick up a 5-person tent this time, as sleeping in the car would NOT be an option in this heat, then headed down the Stuart Highway.

For the record, Lindsay was still leaning toward a 3-man tent, but Igor put his foot down

We reached Katherine Gorge at midday. Our original plan was to book an overnight canoe trip down the river, but unfortunately we found out that the river is still closed to personal watercraft as the rangers haven’t finished their crocodile surveys for the season. Apparently, salties will come upriver during the wet season, and at the beginning of the dry season, the rangers will trap all the crocs and release them downriver to make it *safer* for park visitors. Since canoes were out of the question, and a $70pp river cruise wasn’t exactly our cup of tea, there was no other way for us to enjoy the gorge then to grab a couple liters of water, our hats and some sunscreen and head out into the bush.

Heading out on the Southern Walks trail to Pat’s Lookout for a glimpse of Katherine Gorge

Trying to find a shaded spot to enjoy the vista of Katherine Gorge

After a short lunch break at the viewpoint, we headed back toward the Information Center. Luckily for us, the weather was partly cloudy, and few large clouds gave us some relief from the sun during the hottest part of the afternoon. Thanks to that tiny respite, we had the strength to explore a side trail to the Southern Waterhole (which unfortunately has nearly dried up now that’s it’s the dry season, and was too tiny for swimming), and return to the Information Center via the Baruwei Loop.

Shady break at the Southern Waterhole

If you go down, you must go back up! It’s a killer staircase in this heat

Oh no, where did our cloud go?

The Baruwei Loop has water stations periodically on the trail (heat exhaustion is a real danger), but our last fill up was with warm water. We were ELATED to find this water fountain with ICE COLD water at the top of the hill

View from the Baruwei Lookout

(Very loud) Flying Foxes in the trees near the Information Center, and one very surprised wallaby

We bought a cold can of Coca Cola and sat in the air conditioned Information Center (pretending to watch their video on the history of the park) for the last 15 minutes before they closed, then dragged ourselves out to the car to head back north to the campground at Edith Falls. Since it’s the beginning of the dry season, we constantly saw small fires throughout the park – it’s part of a traditional land management led by the Aboriginal people native to the area where small, controlled fires set at the very end of the wet season help prevent large wildfires later in the dry season.

Driving past bushfires – no need for alarm

We arrived at the campground just after sunset, so we pitched our new tent and found an empty picnic table to set up our dinner. Since it was still pretty humid, we decided to sleep without the fly on the tent – just a light mesh to keep the bugs away from us – we were sleeping under the stars.

Avocado sandwiches, chips, and wine straight from the bottle.

Nighty night.

Day 58: Darwin

We loved our hotel in Darwin. We could have lived there. Literally – it was a one-bedroom apartment with a view of the harbor. Gotta love Priceline mystery hotels – it’s like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get!

Awesome hotel.

So Darwin is hot. Like, oppressively muggy, super high humidity, sunburn in 15 minutes type hot. We tried to go for a morning walk around the Darwin waterfront, but were quickly chased indoors by the heat.

Shark & jellyfish protected swimming area at the Darwin waterfront. There was actually free Wifi in the park, but if was Just. Too. HOT.

We camped out in the Darwin Public Library for most of the day – air conditioning and fast Wifi was all we needed

Since it was Thursday night, we decided to head over to the Mindil Beach Sunset Market on the other side of town. Even though we had a rental car, we foolishly decided to walk there…did I mention it was HOT? We tried to stay in the shade, but we still arrived incredibly sweaty. We walked around the food stalls, listened to the live music, then found a spot on the sand to enjoy the ocean breeze and watch the sunset.

An optimistic start to our pilgrimage across town – it’s about to get really steamy

Mindil Beach Sunset Market – Darwin

Paella, oysters – dozens of food vendors to choose from – especially Asian cuisine

A meeting of cultures – this band with the digeridoo had both Aboriginal and European Australians and tourists dancing together

Staking our claim the sand

Sunset on Mindil Beach

We trekked back to our hotel as quickly was we could in the dark. After much needed showers, we cracked open a bottle of bubby and enjoyed our final home-cooked meal our lovely kichenette. We’d be camping for the next 3 nights in the Australian bush, so we soaked up all the homey comfort we could.

Raising a toast to our last night in civilization

Day 57: Kuranda

Of course the sun starts to come out the day we are leaving Queensland! We had until late afternoon before we needed to be at the Cairns Airport, so we decided to spend the day at Kuranda, to make up for skipping it earlier in the week due to the decompression time from scuba.

Roadside stop for the biggest rockpile display we’ve seen yet

1,000+ tourists declare, “I was here!” with rocks

Kuranda is a bit of a jungle-Disneyland, with several zoo-like attractions, tons of souvenir stands, and the Skyrail Cableway & Scenic Railway rides to and from Cairns. However, we still had a few touristy things to cross off our list, so we embraced the kitsch of Kuranda and enjoyed ticking off the boxes. First stop was the Koala Gardens were we got to feed/pet more wallabies and – you guessed it! – cuddle a koala.

We will never get tired of petting zoos

Adorable wallabies!

Yoshi the koala was on shift, handed to one tourist after another for our 5-sec photo op.

The ranger places the koala in your arms, and you have to stand perfectly still to avoid spooking the animal. Each animal “works” for 30min max each day, replaced by another koala. Not quite as magical as I expected – especially since the koalas smell really bad – like fermented eucalyptus & poo.

After the Koala Gardens, we headed over to Bird World, where we finally got to see the cassowary! Another tourist gave us his feed bag as we entered, and we soon discovered why – all the birds are fed so much seeds, nuts and corn, they are extremely picky and it was hard to get rid of our feed. We found out that the cassowary has a very strict fruit & vegetable diet (they have a very gentle digestive system – which is why they are so important to the rainforest ecosystem: they poo out the seeds of plants they’ve eaten which helps spread seeds around the forest). Bird World had two cassowaries in their aviary – a male and female – and they are SO COOL. They seriously look like little dinosaurs. We spent a lot of time hanging around their habitat – totally worth the stop.

My dinosaur-bird! Actually, looks a bit like Kevin from “Up”…

Look at that face!

On our way out of Bird World, we tried to give away our feed bag, but all the tourists already had bags as well. We finally found a rainbow lorikeet willing to eat some of our nuts…until he got interested in eating our backpack! When we tried to get him off the bag, the little jerk bit us!

Not content to be handfed, this greedy little bugger went for the whole bag!

When Lindsay was feeding him, he decided he had enough nuts and tried to destroy our backpack – we can now verify this brand is lorikeet-proof!

We left the amusement park atmosphere of downtown Kuranda and took a stroll around the perimeter of town via the Jungle Walk. It was a peaceful little path that ran through some tropical forest, then along the river for a few kilometers.

Most tourists skip the Jungle Walk – it was nearly deserted compared to the gift shop area – but I guess most get a view of the river from the Rainforest Skyrail Cableway overhead

The path along the river was croc-free, and nicely shaded by a eucalyptus grove

After a quick picnic lunch in the town park, we drove out to the Baron Gorge National Park for a quick view of the waterfall before heading back to the Cairns Airport.

The Baron Gorge is a stop on the Kuranda Scenic Railway from Cairns to Kuranda

Short jungle walk to the Baron Gorge lookout

Catching up with Igor – eager to see if this gorge lives up to its name – now THIS is a proper gorge!

Day 56: Cape Tribulation

We had a gentle wake-up with the sunrise in our orchard cabin, with a caddy of delicious hot coffee delivered to our porch by our hostess, Maren. After packing up our, we went out to the dining patio for our brekky: toast with homemade exotic jams, cereal and a basket of rare, tropical fruits.

I could get used to room service!

Igor LOVES fruit! Custard Apple, Longan Berries, Starfruit, Papaya, Pineapple, Guanabana and Pummelo

Another rainy morning in Cape Tribulation

We took a morning stroll on Myall Beach, where the rainforest meets the ocean – normally quite stunning, but the visibility was too poor in the rain.

Looking up Myall Beach

Looking down Myall Beach

Warning signs for “Things That Want To Kill You” on Australia’s beaches

Checking out the Golden Orb – a large rainforest spider – from a safe distance. They say if you go for an early morning walk in Daintree, make sure to walk second on the path, so the first guy can “clear” all the Golden Orb webs for you!

More bugs! Lots of green stick bugs just hanging out on the leaves

Igor exploring the mangroves – he would have crossed, but Lindsay was (rightfully) wary of crocodiles and turn us back

The rest of the day, Lindsay was on a mission to find a cassowary – the heaviest bird in Australia. Similar in size and shape to an emu, the cassowary has a horn and bright blue & red coloring on its head. There were signs all over the road warning drivers to slow down due to rent cassowary crossings, and our farmstay hosts told us that the best place to see them was actually the road, as they are not afraid of cars. So we (slowly) drove as far north as we could in Cape Tribulation, along a 4WD road in our little Hyundai hatchback until we hit Emmagen Creek, with a constant lookout for our giant bird. No luck so far.

Searching for the cassowary

Emmagen Creek crossing. We watched a 4WD with a snorkel exhaust nearly get swept away during a crossing – the extra rain in the past week made the water especially strong. Even Igor agreed that this river was too much for us.

We headed back down south toward the Cape Tribulation ferry, stopping at hiking trails along the way in hopes of finding our bird. The rainforest was stunning (the Dubuji trail was Lindsay’s favorite), but no cassowary. Remembering our long a fruitless search for the kiwi in New Zealand, we decided to throw in the towel, and find ourselves a place to stay on the way back to Cairns.

Beautiful plants in the rainforest

Cape Tribulation Point from Cape Tribulation Beach

Cape Tribulation Beach

The amazing trees on the Dubuji Boadwalk Trail

Our itinerary had moved around a bit in the last few days, so we had to book the night’s accommodation on the fly. Igor found a “secret deal” on his Booking.com account and got us a room at a 4-star resort in Port Douglas for half off – nice! We ran into town to pick up some groceries & sparkling wine for a picnic spread on our pool-view balcony. The hotel manager even gave us free drink vouchers for the bar on check-in, so we ended the night with an extra dose of bubbles and a game of pool.

Catching the sunset in Daintree Village before heading south, where high-speed Wifi waits!

A luxurious dinner spread fit for a 4-star resort

Free drinks? Don’t mind if we do!

We played just one round of pool, which took us about an hour. We officially suck at pool. But let the record show that Igor sucks more, since Lindsay won!

Day 55: Mossman Gorge

While the rain didn’t show any sign of letting up, we couldn’t stay in our hotel hideaway any longer. We headed to the airport to pick up our rental car and drove up north toward Daintree Rainforest National Park. Normally, the drive is quite scenic along the coast – we stopped pulling over at the lookouts as the rain & clouds made everything look the same.

A cloudy view of the coast for our one & only scenic stop

Our destination for the day was Mossman Gorge, which is at the southern end of Daintree National Park. While tourists can drive into the park, there is no parking at the trailhead, so you either have to walk the 2KM to the start of the trail, or take an AUD $10pp shuttle bus. Guess which option we picked?

Just a bit of rain – it’s a rainforest, isn’t it?

It was incredibly humid and rainy, and we unfortunately were wearing long pants and heavy rain coats so we were a bit uncomfortable, but the walk is super easy. You just have to keep an eye out for the shuttle bus to make sure it doesn’t run you over.

Perhaps the bad weather just ruined the grandeur of the place for us, but we couldn’t figure out why this was such a popular spot, nor even why it was called a gorge. In the rain, it just looked like a big river through a tropical forest.

Walking the Mossman trails in the rain. Meh.

It’s a nice river, but we’ve seen better gorges.

We continued north to Cape Tribulation where we were staying for the night at Cape Trib Farm – a family-run working farm which grows only exotic fruits. Igor had booked the farmstay on Booking.com on a gamble as it was a brand-new listing and had no reviews. It paid off! In addition to our private cabin in a banana orchard, we had access to a beautiful, fully-stocked open-air kitchen and dining patio. We ran to the nearest food store and picked up ingredients for a home-cooked Indian food dinner. After a big meal, a bottle of wine, and some time catching up on Wifi (albeit very slow as it was satellite), we were feeling so good, the pouring rain didn’t bother us a bit.

Cape Trib Farmstay B&B

Cooking up some vegetarian “Butter Chicken”

Toasting the rainforest with a bottle of Aussie Shiraz

Checking a few emails while the farm dogs play in the background – Caesar would have loved it here

The “dry season” in Cape Tribulation