On a last minute whim we decided to spontaneously book flights for a weekend getaway to Darwin. Darwin is the capital and largest city in the Northern Territory. With only 150 000 people it is the smallest and most northerly city in Australia. It is currently winter in Australia and in Darwin the dry season. The weather was a scorching 31 degrees celsius or higher with a low of 16-17 with 70-80% humidity!!!
We left Thursday evening from Brisbane only to arrive in Darwin around 2am in the morning. A short sleep occurred before the alarm went off at 6:15am for the beginning of the greatest adventure. We had booked a 2-day overnight tour of Kakadu National Park, a world heritage listed cite.
Our first stop was a billabong cruise in the Mary River Wetlands where we excitingly saw TONS of wildlife and CROCODILES. The Mary River Wetlands is home to the largest amount of saltwater crocodiles in the world! Next, we travelled into Kakadu stopping at the entrance and then at South Alligator River. Our tour guide, Josh, was awesome at explaining every little detail along the way. The last stop before camp was at Ubirr (Oo-beerr). Ubirr has a 1km circular track that takes you past Aboriginal rock art sites. Josh gave a spectacular explanation/think-about at each art site. Then we climbed up an area of escarpment to the superb view over the Nadab floodplain. It looked like the scenery found in the Lion King, Simba's Rock included. The pictures honestly do not do the 360 degree view justice. During our galavant Josh happened to leave the bus lights on therefore, upon our return the bus wouldn't start. Luckily, the boys were able to push start the bus. We then made our way to camp. It was literally in the middle of nowhere with no power or anything in site. It was so serene and beautiful. We were absolutely exhausted from no sleep the evening before that we called it an early night. Josh made it very clear that breakfast would be served from 6:30am - 7:15am and at 7:15am everything was being packed up. The bus left at 7:30am, in other words get up in time to have breakfast. I stated we should maybe set an alarm. "No, no, we will wake up when the sun rises". Mhmmm... famous last words. We woke up at 7:20AM!!!! Therefore, NO BREAKFAST. Not the greatest start to the day but we survived. After a long, bumpy journey we arrived at Gunlom Falls. A short climb to the top lead us to these spectacular infinity pools above the waterfall. We had a nice swim followed by relaxing before heading back down. A few stops in some quaint little towns (and some homemade raspberry ice -cream) later we were at the meeting point for a bus to take us back to Darwin. We had arrived at 5:00pm expecting to return to Darwin at 6:15pm. Due to computer glitches and no cell service we ended up waiting for another tour bus that appeared an hour-ish later. Turns out no one on that bus was going back to Darwin yet! So we (im)patiently waited for nothing! Either way we arrived back in Darwin around 8pm. Enough time to quickly shower and check out the waterfront for dinner followed by a relaxing evening at the Darwin Festival. With much dismay Sunday morning had arrived and it meant returning to Brisbane & school. With a bit of a flight mix up and an unexpected extra ticket purchase we eventually made it back to Brisbane just after supper time. I returned exhausted but so grateful for the opportunity and weekend away.
Overall, Darwin was super impressive! I would love to be able to return someday and see more of the area! It was a spectacular weekend getaway choice as it rained in Brisbane over the weekend. I highly recommend adding Darwin and Kakadu National Park to anyones Australia bucket list! Below is a slideshow of photos taken during the weekend. Enjoy :)
We left Thursday evening from Brisbane only to arrive in Darwin around 2am in the morning. A short sleep occurred before the alarm went off at 6:15am for the beginning of the greatest adventure. We had booked a 2-day overnight tour of Kakadu National Park, a world heritage listed cite.
Our first stop was a billabong cruise in the Mary River Wetlands where we excitingly saw TONS of wildlife and CROCODILES. The Mary River Wetlands is home to the largest amount of saltwater crocodiles in the world! Next, we travelled into Kakadu stopping at the entrance and then at South Alligator River. Our tour guide, Josh, was awesome at explaining every little detail along the way. The last stop before camp was at Ubirr (Oo-beerr). Ubirr has a 1km circular track that takes you past Aboriginal rock art sites. Josh gave a spectacular explanation/think-about at each art site. Then we climbed up an area of escarpment to the superb view over the Nadab floodplain. It looked like the scenery found in the Lion King, Simba's Rock included. The pictures honestly do not do the 360 degree view justice. During our galavant Josh happened to leave the bus lights on therefore, upon our return the bus wouldn't start. Luckily, the boys were able to push start the bus. We then made our way to camp. It was literally in the middle of nowhere with no power or anything in site. It was so serene and beautiful. We were absolutely exhausted from no sleep the evening before that we called it an early night. Josh made it very clear that breakfast would be served from 6:30am - 7:15am and at 7:15am everything was being packed up. The bus left at 7:30am, in other words get up in time to have breakfast. I stated we should maybe set an alarm. "No, no, we will wake up when the sun rises". Mhmmm... famous last words. We woke up at 7:20AM!!!! Therefore, NO BREAKFAST. Not the greatest start to the day but we survived. After a long, bumpy journey we arrived at Gunlom Falls. A short climb to the top lead us to these spectacular infinity pools above the waterfall. We had a nice swim followed by relaxing before heading back down. A few stops in some quaint little towns (and some homemade raspberry ice -cream) later we were at the meeting point for a bus to take us back to Darwin. We had arrived at 5:00pm expecting to return to Darwin at 6:15pm. Due to computer glitches and no cell service we ended up waiting for another tour bus that appeared an hour-ish later. Turns out no one on that bus was going back to Darwin yet! So we (im)patiently waited for nothing! Either way we arrived back in Darwin around 8pm. Enough time to quickly shower and check out the waterfront for dinner followed by a relaxing evening at the Darwin Festival. With much dismay Sunday morning had arrived and it meant returning to Brisbane & school. With a bit of a flight mix up and an unexpected extra ticket purchase we eventually made it back to Brisbane just after supper time. I returned exhausted but so grateful for the opportunity and weekend away.
Overall, Darwin was super impressive! I would love to be able to return someday and see more of the area! It was a spectacular weekend getaway choice as it rained in Brisbane over the weekend. I highly recommend adding Darwin and Kakadu National Park to anyones Australia bucket list! Below is a slideshow of photos taken during the weekend. Enjoy :)