Top End Adventure

So I'm back in Darwin after a three day adventure in the top end national parks - Lichfield and Kakadu. We've driven 1260km in the last three days!

I last came up this way six years ago in the dry season. Now it's the pre monsoon season and the whole area looks different. It's so green as the pres monsoon storms have given life to the whole area. The good news is that almost all the waterfalls are still open to visit! Give it another month and many of these will be inaccessible due to the roads being metres underwater - ive come just in time!

It's been a really fabulous three days - its so hot and humid that swimming in the waterfalls is such a refreshing experience! I really like this top end of Australia - its like nowhere else on earth, and while Sydney is one type of Australia, this is still totally Australia in a very different way!

We saw so much wildlife too! Spiders, snakes, crocodiles, so many birds, frill necked lizards, Cain toads, donkeys, brumbies(wild horses), buffalo, wallaroos, wallabys, loads of fish in the waterfalls and a highlight for me a troop of baby feral pigs that came straight across the path we were walking on.

First day we visited the huge termite mounds in Lichfield national park, the went to the Florence falls and buly rock holes for swims. Really cold water, and so refreshing. We stopped at a billabong for a wildlife cruise - birds and crocs the highlight here - and caught in a massive rainstorm! We stayed the night at a bush camp, and it was so hot and humid I didn't sleep very much. We ate kangaroo and buffalo for dinner!

Day two was spent in kakadu national park. Firstly we admired the aboriginal  rock paintings at ubirr - different to the ones at nourangie which I had seen before - and tried to avoid the millions of flies (first time I've had trouble with them on my whole trip so not bad!) then it was off to maguk waterfall for a walk and swim. Tonight I paid 10 dollars to upgrade to an at conditioned cabin. I wanted my sleep and I wasn't the only one to upgrade!!

Day three we went to an amazing waterfall at the south of the park. It is Quite inaccessible but at the top there is an infinity pool with amazing views that look out across the national park. Really special place. We also swam at the bottom of the waterfall in the plunge pool - the water coming off the waterfall was delightfully cold!!

A great trip and fantastic to see somewhere I have seen before but looking quite different. Hopefully not my last trip to this amazing part of the world.

Thanks to Nora on my tour for taking some great pictures with her underwater camera I will post these pictures separately when i can!!

Darwin crocodiles!

It's extremely humid here in Darwin. Today was a crocodile day!!

First off I explored the downtown crocodile park - crocs aureus cove. Here you can actually swim in a cage with crocodiles! Not something I decided to do - mainly because of the exorbitant costs!

They have some really big male crocodiles here, as well as some cuter baby crocodiles - one of which I was able to hold - and some juveniles which you could feed.

In the afternoon I went an hour outside Darwin down to the Adelaide river to see the famous jumping crocodiles. These wild crocs literally jump metres out of the air to grab the food. 

My kakadu adventure starts tomorrow

First day in Darwin

Left Sydney after a great week - and arrived in Darwin in the afternoon.

It is soooo humid up here! Much hotter than Sydney - I am in the Tropics now, and it's the wet season as the thunder storm on my arrival told me!

I can't tell you how exciting it is to be up in the top end though. I really love this part of Australia - it feels like proper Australia! The weather, the wildlife, the trees even the smell. It's just a really cool place to be!

Went to the famous fish feeding down on the coast. Wild fish come up at high tide to eat bits of bread that you can feed them. Some really big fish too including Barramundi, Grouper, Milk Fish, Diamond Mullet and even some stingray!

Gonna reaquaint myself with some scaly friends tomorrow.....

Note the lightning!

Last day in Sydney

Final Day in Sydney today. And what a great day it turned out to be.

The weather was awful when I got up - and I went across to Darling Harbour to do an indoor attraction - the Sydney Wildlife World - a sort of mini-zoo but showcasing only Australian animals. It was fine - and if you only have a couple of days in Sydney it's probably your best bet to see a Koala or Kangaroo - but to be honest Taronga Zoo is far superior. Nevertheless it killed time while the rain came down.

Then spent a couple of hours in the superb Maritime museum. I love walking around boats, and the Sydney Maritime museum has an old frigate and submarine to look around as well as a replica of Cook's Endeavour.

Spent a few hours doing some last minute shopping before heading for my date with the Bridge! I've climbed the harbour bridge twice before, and was really looking forward to climbing it again - for a third time!

It didn't disappoint - it is so huge. The process takes a good 4 hours, and is very professionally done. Such a slick operation, and to think that originally nobody thought people would want to do this! Of course you get the stunning views - but you also get up close to one of the worlds great engineering masterpieces. I can't speak highly enough of it! And I can't wait to do it a fourth time! This time I chose the twilight walk - extra money but you get to see the views in daylight on the way up, before descending back towards the city lights on your return.

I was climbing next to a nice English girl called Zoe, and despite it being late we went for a really nice dinner afterwards - I'd read a review for a place called Cafe Sydney, but wasnt expecting the stella food and amazing views! It's slap bang on top of the Custom house in the middle of Circular Quay - we were the last to leave when it closed as we soaked up the amazing views. What a great end to my time in Sydney!

My third time!!

On the top - a great feeling!!

Not sure what i'm doing with my hands here!

Sydney updates

Been in Sydney for a few days since my last update so here goes

Thursday: Taronga Zoo

Took the ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo. It's a really great little zoo with lots of Australian wildlife as well as animals from around the world too. The giraffes have the best view in the world!
The bird show is a particular highlight - a stunning open air amphitheatre with views cross the bay, and amazing Australian bird life free flying around your head.
After a day at the zoo chilled out at circular quay















Friday: Olympic park
Indulged my not-so-inner Olympic geek today and went out to Olympic park. It's a really good one, and I can imagine what the atmosphere was like here in September 2000! What's interesting is that a lot of the park seems only a little bit more mature than London's was this summer. Kudos to the ODA and gardening teams for making London's Olympic park look so mature and settled during the games not just 10 years later!

Hired a bike to explore and take in all the venues, I even managed to find my way up to the archery arena!

Highlights though were a tour of the Olympic stadium - looking a little shabby now, but stadiums do tend to when they aren't full of people - and also a swim in the Olympic pool. 50m breaststroke lap completed in 1m15secs - rio here I come?

Went out in the evening with my friend Ros from tesco and also some of her friends























The cauldron




Wenlock was also an excited Olympic tourist!!!

Saturday: The Rocks

Went to book my Bridgeclimb trip for Monday night (fingers crossed for the weather!)

Great day and explored the rocks - the historic district next to the harbour bridge. The Sydney Olympic pin collectors have a fortnightly meeting here on a Saturday so I swung past and picked up a few nice Sydney pins for my collection! Then a couple of historic museums - the rocks discovery centre and then the Hyde park barracks (yes Jennifer I had to do it!)

Went up the skytower for some brilliant views of the city, after which i took the ferry out to watsons bay t the edge of the harbour, o have fish chips on the beach from doyles famous restaurant. finished the evening down at circular quay watching the sun set over the bridge and opera house. Fabulous

































Sunday: The Blue Mountains

Today a day tour up to the blue mountains. A nice group and excellent guide. Saw cockatoos and kangaroo, and then a Long but spectacular walk this morning with great weather and simply stunning views across the valleys.

Then it poured with rain for lunch, but cleared up as we walked down the valley near the three sisters rock formation. More waterfalls, forest walks and birds before getting the cable car back to the top - now that's the sort of walk I like! Now enjoying a meal in darling harbour. Last day in Sydney tomorrow!