We woke up that morning to a beautiful and colorful sunrise. Sarah once told me “red morning, sailor’s warning.” That’s exactly what I thought. For the past couple of days, the forecast was supposed to bring rain, but none of that had come to fruition so far. We both knew it was going to rain, but where I expected some storms, Sarah expected a cyclone. For the past couple of days as well, a cyclone was forming on the Tiwi Islands right outside of Darwin (about 500 km NE to be exact) but I had a feeling that nothing big would hit. We left for Kakadu, a 300 km drive northeast, which was a 3 hour drive from Katherine. On the way, it started to rain a decent amount. We were actually a little concerned that the roads were going to flood because puddles started to form fast on the road. Nevertheless, we kept on heading towards Cooter Lodge (I think) where our Yellow River Cruise was. Cooter Lodge was like Ayers Rock Resort of Kakudu in the sense that it’s the only place to stay. When we got there, it was still raining a fair amount but the Yellow River Cruise was still on. The cruise was more or less the same as Katherine and very touristy. For $74, you got an hour and a half tour. Of course, there was a big tour group doing the tour with us. Kakudu is an interesting place, and by interesting, I mean awesome in a geographical sense. The whole area is just a giant swamp that gets extremely flooded in the wet season, and dry in the dry season. I guess it’s called the wet and dry season for a reason. Kakudu is in the middle of the Top End, with Darwin and other smaller parks on the left and Arnham Land, a massive area of aboriginal Territory on the right. Kakudu is also home to literally hundreds of thousands of saltwater crocodiles (salties). In the heart of Kakudu, there is a mining town called Jabiru. To get in to the park, you need to purchase the park pass for $40, but no one is there to enforce it. The whole area is also swarmed with mozzies. As we were on the river boat waiting for others to arrive, Sarah and I killed at least 30 easily. Once everyone arrived, we began the tour. Because it was still the wet season, we were able to move all along the Billabongs (temporary bodies of water) and creeks. It was rainy, grey, and an abundancy of water made it hard to spot crocs, to our dismay. The tour eventually took us to this open field of Bull grass that stretched for a km across. However, all of it was swamp and the grass was just floating above the water. This was the same with the lilies too. The tour guide was extremely talkative, which was annoying, because I would have preferred listening to the sounds of the swamp than his voice. Regardless, he was helpful in spotting the wildlife and he even spotted the only croc that we saw. When we got back, we were going to go to the cultural center, which was a huge museum, but we found out that it closes at 3 pm and it was already 2:30. Instead, we made the three-hour drive to our final destination: Darwin. Along the way, we drove through some very wet roads and even got stuck behind a road train. When its wet, there is no chance of passing it because it creates such a spray of water that you can’t see the other side of the road. However, at the first opportunity, he moved to the side so we could pass. We got to Darwin around 6. It’s a little unusual because the city itself isn’t that big, (smaller than Adelaide but bigger than Alice) yet it has the big buildings of a city. We were originally going to stay at the YHA, but we accidentally checked into the Value Inn which the YHA was affiliated with. It was a bit more expensive, but it was nice to sleep in actual beds. Sarah wanted to get drunk that night, so we bought some alcohol and drank it while watching the New Zealand version of Cops. By 9:30, Sarah was asleep, and I went across the street to get a kebab for dinner. We then called it a night. After driving more than 3000 km (probably closer to 3600) and sleeping in a hot van every night, we were exhausted.
Katherine Gorge | Darwin
