Published: 02.03.2018
The plan was as mentioned on Monday evening.
Except for a small trip to the Woolis bottleshop, everything was done, so on Tuesday morning we got out of bed and went to the car rental.
The first time driving on the left side of the road.
I must admit, I was a bit nervous, but apart from everything being reversed, there are many similarities to driving on the right side, and thanks to automatic transmission, the transition was quite easy.
Waving the wipers wildly to indicate my desire to change lanes, we set off on an adventurous drive through the city center.
Unfortunately, the first stop turned out to be the last one for the little Honda..
Someone actually broke the key off when they tried to take it out of the ignition..
Oops!
So the first car only lasted for the trip through Darwin City, and it was still there when we left for the south with car number 2 almost 2 hours later.
No worries, we quickly shouldered all the luggage for 3-4 days (including 3 canisters of 15 liters of water) and walked back to the car rental.
There was not only understanding for the situation, but we also got a second car without too much complaining, and the big trip finally began.
After 100km, we arrived at Litchfield National Park.
The dimensions are hard to imagine, and when you realize that it is one of the smallest parks in Australia, it becomes even more impressive.
The first stop was the Buley Rockholes, where we jumped directly into the "cold waters".
Acclimatized and filled with endorphins, we quickly continued to our first walk to the Florence Falls, which we reached after approximately 136 steps (rough estimate).
From there, a few more kilometers through the monsoon rainforest, and we were done with the day (and our feet).
We set up our camp for the first night directly by a small stream and went to sleep in the tent, in the hammock, or directly under the open sky after a small snack.
We all slept quite poorly.
No worries, on the first day we were quite restrained with our swimming activities, but this would change early on the second day.
After a night on the ground or the following nights on a park bench, battered by the wooden ground and bitten by everything that creeps and crawls, there is nothing better than starting the day with a dip in the rushing stream to relieve the pain in your back.
You really start to ignore every warning sign.
The secret highlight of the trip was definitely the hike to the top of the Cascades.
After only 2.7km in the blazing sun, we reached a breathtakingly beautiful waterfall platform where we refreshed our battered bodies and let the natural little waterfalls massage our shoulders.
Although many sections of the trail were closed due to crocodiles and/or flooding, we definitely got our money's worth.
But now it was time to say goodbye to the park. Our supplies and clean laundry were running out anyway, and we continued on our road trip of over 750km in total.
We actually dropped Timon off (and by that I mean myself, the one with a driver's license and over 21 years old) in Katherine and then headed back to the hostel in Darwin.
Now that we've arrived, it's time to treat the sunburn and wait for a message from Samsung to finally get rid of the regional sim lock and have a functioning phone of my own and the possibility to set up a bank account.
Let's see, for now, they say they will send the code when they send the code.