So we hit darwin at 1am or there abouts on Thursday morning and quickly got a cab to take us to our hotel - the palms on McMinn street. It's barely a 3 star but fit the bill as we were only there for around 4 hours.
We were to be picked up at 6.30am to start our 4WD safari.so after a massive 3 hours sleep we were up and raring to go after a shower and a cuppa.
Greg and i were dutifully waiting out on the street by 6.20 and were beginning to wonder if we had been forgotten as i knew this hotel was not on their usual pick up list when around the corner came our vehicle at around 6.45. We were greeted by Luke our guide and Sean his partner for this trip. We then proceeded to make the rounds of the backpackers accommodations to collect the others, the truck holds a max of 16 guests add the driver and his offsider and you have a full tour! Trust me there would not be much space if the tour was full. Luckily for us we were a group of 8 including our illustrious leader and his able bodied offsider!
Our group included 3 girls and a boy from different parts of Germany, Greg and I. Our guide Luke was originally from Victoria, and Sean was from Noosa.
First stop was Noondah, a roadhouse that was around a 2 star, but as Luke was quick to point out it has a fully stocked bay Maree at 7.30am. He considers himself a connoisseur of bay Maree fare, in my opinion!
We headed along the Stuart highway to wards berry springs wildlife park. We did not stop here but continued on towards Tolmer falls in the Litchfield National Park. On route, Luke suddenly brakes hard and says, what IS that? What is it as we creep closer standing in the middle of the road is a dog, wagging his tail with a very cute face, and a GPS around his neck. Luke explains to us that he is a pig dog and had probably been told to stay by his owner.
We continued on to see some termite mounds. Now there are 2 types of termite mound, magnetic and cathedral. Magnetic ones are always built facing north/south they are very narrow and flat, they all look like Bart Simpsons head! Cathedral mounds are quite different to these as you can see by the pictures. These mounds are so strong and somewhat the opposite to an iceberg, 2 thirds of the mound is above ground so another third is below ground. As a rule you can say they grow a meter every 10 years. The material they are made from is so strong that during the war, many of them were smashed up and used as the surface of many runways for the military.
Onto Tolmer Falls for a swim, we need to cross the Finnes river where a five meter salty croc named Sweetheart lived. He never attacked anyone and was well known in the area.
So 3 magnificent waterfalls to swim at today, Tolmer, Wangi and Florence. Then onto Buley rock pools, all simply spectacular.
Then on to Buley rock pools for another swim.
Our first NT sunset, pretty speccy!
We spent our first night at Point Stuart, and this meant a quick trip in the morning to the Mary River Wetlands for a croc tour. The wildlife we encountered were amazing and are covered in the following pics.
On to Ubirr and some rock paintings and some of the most spectacular scenery I've witnessed.
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