Probably the main reason for heading to Darwin is for the national parks. These include Litchfield, Nitmiluk and Kakadu. I decided on a three day tour of Kakadu National Park, by far the largest of the lot. First stop was a river tour to see wild alligators. Next we drove on to Nourlangie Rock to look at some aboriginal paintings. The one on this page is of an aboriginal "Bogey Man". It was meant to scare children away from areas they were not supposed to visit. We then headed on and walked up a hill to a lookout called Nawurlandja. This gave outstanding views of the park. And much like the Blue Mountains a few weeks earlier, the vastness of the place was quite remarkable.

The next day was basically more of the same, but with lots more walking. Walking is not to be recommended in this area as I found out. With temperatures above 30?C and humid near 100% even the shortest walk becomes a strenuous hike. But it's worth it for getting to some of the waterholes dotted around the area. These do however offer a welcome chance to cool down and practice your diving skills off the surrounding rocks. Finally we drove past some massive termite mounds, some of which were over 5m tall (that's about 15feet). Very impressive. Then we headed on to our next camp site for another night of mosquito bashing (they always win though).

The next day was mainly a long drive to get back to Darwin, but with plenty of breaks to go walking and swimming in more waterholes. Some of these holes contain surprisingly large fish for their size. You wonder what they feed on. Lost tourists maybe? I would recommend seeing Kakadu to everybody. The whole place is beautiful, extremely large and has plenty of wildlife to offer. But I had to head back to Darwin to catch a bus to Alice Springs in Australia's Red Centre.

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