Northern Territory: Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield, & Katherine

Anybody who has been to the Northern Territory would say it is much different then anywhere else in Australia. But I am sure most of you are wondering how is it really different? One of the most obvious differences is the weather. Let me tell you about the kind of wild weather your likely to expect in Darwin. It tends to rain about twice a day and the rain is literally just a complete downpour. The temperature hovers around 30 degrees Celsius and is wet and sticky humid ALL the time (notice the capitalization).

I have met up with an old friend from my McGill days. Catherine and I have met up in Darwin, and with the help of another backpacker we rented a camper van to check out the well surrounding national parks. The advantage to renting a camper van is being able to cook your own food in the back with a gas stove. Also, you can sleep in it for cheap accommodation.

The bonus is that they are nicely decorated and look super cool. The fun part is that you have a lot of flexibility in deciding where and what you want to do. You can spend as much or as little time in each site as you like. Plus you don't have 50 other tourists hovering over you which is pretty nice. However, driving on the opposite side of the road was so strange. I constantly had Cat who was my safety in making sure I was on the proper side of the road.

We decided that with the time we had we would spend a total of 3 days. I would recommend spending at least 2-3 days in each if possible. We felt slightly rushed during our trip because you cover so much distance in such a short amount of time. We spent a day in each Kakado & Litchfield National Park and Katherine. Kakado was wonderful but a lot of popular sites were closed for the wet season. They get so much rain it floods the roads. We saw tons of wildlife such as Kangaroos, snakes, wild boars(Pumba), frogs, and lizards. Litchfield had more sites opened which included some great waterfalls
where you can and just swim around.

Litchfield Waterfall

This is actually really rare because most bodies of water are filled with crocodiles.



Me & a Croc Warning

Last was Katherine which had this awesome gorge. The whole trip gives you an awesome feeling of having nature around your every turn. 
Now we are all back in Darwin safe and sound. In just two days I will be off to Melbourne to meet some old friends from when I was in Egypt. Annette & Chris, I'll see you soon.

Until next time wonderful world.
-Jonathan