On the way to Darwin & Kakadu National Park 11.6. - 20.6.17

It took us 3 nights to get from Alice Springs to Darwin. We spent one night in Mataranka. It's a small sleepy town with a cowboy 🤠 flair. The town is known for its hot springs. There are two here and we naturally visited both and had a great day 😊. One was very natural with lots of fish and crystal clear water, the other was more like a thermal bath in Germany 😂. It was also very crowded with a lot of seniors. Other than that, there wasn't much to do here... in the evening, we got delicious wedges from the restaurant and shared a 'delicious' Australian beer. 'Delicious' because the beer 🍻 is 100 times better in our country! You get used to it, just not to the price 😂 1 beer 8 $.

In the early morning, we set off to get far enough. We made a short detour to Katherine. Katherine is a larger city and from there you can go north to Darwin, south to Alice Springs or west to Broome. So it is a gathering point for many travelers because there are hundreds of kilometers of nothing afterwards. Here we were at the library 📚 and wanted to upload the posts. Unfortunately, the internet was not good... then we went shopping 🛒 and to the visitor center. There we got enough information about the national parks around Darwin. In Katherine there are many Aboriginal people, here in the north the population is much higher than on the east coast or in other parts of Australia.

Two nights on rest areas and we were in Litchfield National Park. There we saw so many bushfires... it is really very frightening 😯. But nothing is done about it, it is simply accepted as long as they do not spread to populated areas. In Litchfield, we saw many beautiful waterfalls where we were even allowed to swim. Of course, the whole warning signs 🐊 were not so great. Freshies are everywhere and sometimes salties too. So you have to be careful. Luckily, we didn't see any 🙈.

Arriving in Darwin, we found a really great caravan park. With a pool and a good kitchen, actually with Wi-Fi but it didn't work so well 😅.

On the agenda was shopping, doing laundry, fixing the car 🚗 and eating. We managed the shopping, shopping for some new clothes, which was urgently needed. Tim got new swimming trunks because he lost his at a natural pool 😓 and a visit to the famous Mindil Market in Darwin. It was mega cool there 😎! Food stands everywhere, jewelry, music 🎶 a really great evening. When we arrived at the campsite, we couldn't do much anymore because it was already quite late. So we had to do everything else the next day. Since we extended for another night the next morning, we were even able to rest and relax for a day... of course, you're now thinking what do they need to rest from, but a trip into the Outback and moving on every day, processing impressions, it's not that easy 😅. On our last day in Darwin, we met an old acquaintance again, with whom we had a great time in Agnes Water... coincidences happen 😅. That was really nice, we could exchange stories and spend another evening together. Unfortunately, she has a real problem... she has bedbugs in her 🚗 and that's one of the worst things that can happen when you live in a car 😱. But she fumigated everything, washed everything with prescribed means and had hope that they would go away. She suspects that they were already there when she bought it 😱. Luckily, Rafiki is bedbug-free 👍.

Lissi was in Kakadu National Park the days before and that's where we wanted to go next, so she could give us some good tips and gave us her entrance ticket to the park. $40 for a week per vehicle is charged. Since the ticket was still valid for 3 days, it fit perfectly 😊👍. We didn't plan to stay longer than that in the park -> saved $40 😍

In the early morning, we set off because we had booked a boat trip 🚣 through the crocodile swamps at 11 o'clock. Unfortunately, we were a bit late and had to decline the invitation from our neighbors (an elderly couple from Melbourne) for coffee ☕️ in the restaurant 😓. But it shows how nice the Aussies are. We spoke to the couple twice and they invited us for a cup of coffee.

The boat trip was very exciting and seeing these huge dangerous animals up close is really a scary feeling. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to listen to the guide's stories about the crocodiles, to learn something about them and to watch the monsters eat. The tour was over after an hour and we were on our way to the national park. When we arrived at the campground, we didn't want to do much anymore, because a tip from Lissi was: be in the car before dusk, otherwise the mosquitoes will devour you. So we relaxed, cooked, showered and went to bed. Early in the morning, we set off to visit a couple of spots. It was incredibly beautiful to see everything there is to see there! See for yourself with the pictures, but imagine it even more beautiful in reality 😍. We spent the night at a simple campground with a drop toilet and the next morning we visited a waterfall. We spent hours in the natural pools, it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen! Yes, even I dared to get into the water here without fear of anything. However, it was not always easy to reach the spots, the roads were unsealed and the whole car vibrated while driving... even the footpath was relatively difficult, climbing rocks, walking through small dirty streams, warning signs 🐊 everywhere, steep paths... but it was all worth it. It was incredible.