Darwin - Kakadu and Litchfield

I arrived in Darwin after the express tour without having booked a hostel and joined some of the girls that were on my tour - gotta try out the "real", and spontaneous backpacker life :) 

The main thing to do in Darwin, the biggest city of the Northern Territory, is the two national parks surrounding it - Kakadu and Litchfield. So after spending two days in Darwin going out in the evening and relaxing during the day, I went on another 3 day camping trip to the above mentioned parks.

The lagoon in Darwin (there's sharks and saltwater crocodiles in the oceean)

Trying a crocodile spring roll at the night market

 Boat cruise on the Mary river:

During the one hour boat ride, we saw 10 crocodiles and lots and lots of birds and plant life.

The leaves of the so called "sacred lotus", originating from India, are completely waterproof. By studying the lotus effect scientiest have for example been able to develop bullet proof vests.

A family of plumed whistling ducks on the ground. They rarely go into the water and mate for life.

The lotus flower

The guide estimated this croc to be 4 metres, which you can measure by the length if its head. Most of its body, and the the majority of its tail, is submerged in the water.

Our guide Matt

All the black patches are bats. They were in all of the trees in the area - there were sooo many, and the noise was so loud!

We hiked 1km over rocks like these to get to the Jim Jim falls. It took us 1,5 hours.

Worth it though!! (The Jim Jim falls are just a waterhole during dry season)

Having this one aaall to ourselves.

The bull from the movie Crocodile Dundee. Not kidding!

Kangaroo balls

Litchfield national parks:

This was such a good trip with great people! We all got to try Matt's didgeridoo, an instrument developped by Indigenous Australians. It's basically a huge massive flute, almost as big as the person playing it. We slept in a permanent tent the first night, and the second in a swag. We again got to eat crocodile meat, depending on the way it's cooked, it has the consistency of calamari or fish, and tastes like chicken.