Northern Territory

Day 14, Alice Springs - Darwin - Litchfield Park

Having landed in Darwin we immediately pick up the car at the Europcar desk (intermediate for 5 days, € 200 with vroomvroomvroom.au) and set off for Batchelor, the gateway to Litchfield Park.

The coolness of the past few days is just a memory…the humidity and temperature have soared, we're starting to sweat, but it's still a more than bearable heat, and besides this is the cool season…Our accommodation tonight is very spartan, we have a small room at the Banyan-Tree (a campsite with a few bungalows, € 93 with breakfast). The owners are a bit strange but kind, and they warn us that in the evening there's a small free barbecue for all the guests. We dine under an enormous banana tree on a menu of sausages, beer, toast and grilled onions…very folkloric and decidedly Australian!

Day 15, Litchfield Park - Katherine

We have breakfast outdoors on a bar counter (sandwiches, juice and coffee) and set off to discover the splendid Litchfield, a park famous for four waterfalls that plunge from the edges of a plateau amid the rainforest. After a few km we're at the entrance and a sign tells us that at the Wangi Falls swimming is not possible due to the danger of crocodiles.

Many areas of the park, in fact, during the rainy season are completely flooded and the crocodiles, confined to certain areas during the dry season, are free to splash about in the natural pools that form beneath the waterfalls.

Along the way we stop at the Magnetic Termite mounds: they are gigantic termite mounds, up to 3 meters high, that look like a cluster of tombstones. We arrive at the Wangi Falls and discover that they have just been reopened, and it is therefore possible to immerse ourselves for a reinvigorating swim up to the waterfall. There are a few people, but no one goes in…and so I have to be the guinea pig.

The water is truly crystal clear and the surroundings are surrounded by lush rainforest, truly an idyllic corner. Davidino, the scaredy-cat, for the moment stands watching, still shaken by the sign indicating the croc danger, but he makes up his mind after seeing that daddy came back unscathed from a swim up to the waterfall…

Continuing through the park, we stop at the Tolmer Falls, which can only be seen from the top of a viewpoint. The waterfall plunges into a natural pool of emerald colors, from the top of a deep gorge immersed in a very green patch of dense vegetation.

The next ones, the Florence Falls, are equally evocative, with two waterfalls plunging into a clear pool surrounded by enormous rocks, from which some people dive. But our last reinvigorating stop we make at the Buley Rockhole, where small waterfalls alternating with little pools create a truly relaxing natural whirlpool.

The park can only be visited during the dry season, from May to October. During the rest of the year many roads are impassable and throughout the park there is a ban on approaching the waterfalls. Better to avoid weekends, days when the park fills up with many tourists arriving from Darwin, which is just over an hour's drive away.

In the afternoon we continue our adventure in the Northern Territory and reach Katherine, the largest town in the area, and settle in at the lovely Knotts Crossing Resort, immersed in tropical vegetation, with lovely pools, cottages with kitchen and barbecue where you can cook magnificent grills. (€ 68 cottage with kitchen, direct booking).

Day 16, Katherine - Cooinda, Kakadu NP.

We've come all the way to Katherine naturally to visit the most important attraction in the area: the Nitmiluk National Park, a deep canyon eroded by the pristine Katherine River, which over the centuries has carved thirteen gorges divided by narrow rocky rapids.

To visit the park it is necessary to take a boat excursion, which wedges into the canyon between impressive rock walls of the typical orange color. The various tours available allow you to visit from two to four gorges, respectively with cruises lasting 2 (€ 30) or 4 hours (€ 40). At the end of each gorge, it is necessary to walk a short rocky stretch where navigation is impossible, and then board again in the next gorge.

In the river it's not rare to encounter freshwater crocodiles, called freshwater, which reach a maximum length of 3 meters, much less dangerous than the ferocious estuarine crocodiles (saltwater), which are found in the waters of Kakadu.

Given the great demand during the summer period, it's preferable to book the tour on the website. The well-equipped Visitor Center of the park offers a presentation of the park's fauna, the conformation of the territory and the traditions of the Aboriginal population, owners of the area for centuries.

From the Visitor Center many walks depart but also demanding multi-day trekking routes. The shortest allows you to reach in half an hour a panoramic point overlooking the gorges, while the Jatbula Trail is a 66 km route through the bush that ends at the Edith Falls, to be completed in 5 days.

Another way to appreciate even better the particular natural conformation of the place is to fly over the park with short helicopter flights. The cheapest flight is the one offered by which flies over the first 6 gorges in about 10 minutes (€ 45), a truly electrifying experience.

Returning to the town of Katherine, you can relax at the evocative Katherine Hot Springs, a natural spring characterized by crystal-clear emerald-colored water that gushes out at about 30 degrees, with a path immersed in lush, tropical nature.

We partially retrace the boundless and semi-deserted Stuart Hwy, returning in the direction of Darwin, up to the junction that at the height of Pine Creek leads toward Kakadu Np. From the park entrance to Jabiru the scenery is almost identical, a wild, pristine and endless expanse of plants and dry grass, which makes the landscape rather monotonous (and it's like this practically for the whole park, except Ubirr). We arrive at the very expensive Gagudju Lodge Cooinda (€ 174 with breakfast), the only possible accommodation in this area of the park (the alternative would have been to go all the way to Jabiru and then come back the next day….too inconvenient, the distances in Kakadu are enormous).

The resort is truly an oasis in the midst of the most authentic nature: from our cottage in 2 minutes on foot you can reach Yellow Water where you can spot the fearsome Saltwater crocodiles, which especially at sunset offers truly evocative images and an idyllic sense of peace. We dine in the resort's restaurant, dishes rather expensive, scanty and quite unsatisfying.

Day 17, Kakadu NP.

This morning we have planned one of the most famous attractions of Kakadu: the two-hour boat excursion on the Yellow River, which since this year has gone up quite a bit in price (booked in advance, € 42). The convenience of the Gagudju is that it is the starting point for the excursions. A shuttle that leaves in front of the reception leads to the departure dock.

The environment is truly evocative and pristine, the colors wonderful and the nature breathtaking. The cruise, however, in my opinion is too slow, perhaps more suited to expert birdwatching enthusiasts; you stop a bit too long to admire tiny (and certainly very rare) specimens of birds, and for each one the guide dwells quite a bit in the description, so those who don't understand English-Australian perfectly (rather difficult…) soon feel a bit bored. Moreover the heat is quite noticeable and when the boat stops (very often), the sun literally cooks you.

The sightings are many, including enormous specimens of estuarine crocodiles that exceed 6/7 meters, and here strangely, you stop to admire them only for a few moments. In short, an experience surely to be tried, with many positive aspects (the surrounding environment is truly incredible and the fauna includes many of the world's most precious species), but also some negative ones, including the price a bit too inflated.

Once the excursion is over, we get back in the car and continue toward Nourlangie Rock, an imposing and isolated rock that rises from the flat bush. From the parking lot a pleasant path departs (about half an hour) that touches the main cultural and scenic points of interest that the destination offers: first of all some natural galleries where you can admire the famous and ancient Aboriginal rock paintings dating back up to 20,000 years, and then ends at a viewpoint that offers an endless view over the whole plain of Kakadu up to the escarpment of Arnhem Land, the land of no one. Painting has always had a great spiritual significance for the Aboriginal population and here you can admire various styles and some of the most important deities, such as the Lightning Man, one of the most feared evil spirits.

The distances in the park are endless and to go from one place to another you even need an hour's drive always following a road immersed in a landscape that soon becomes monotonous…some of the most spectacular attractions require entire days of transfer on dirt roads, such as the Jim Jim and Twin Falls waterfalls. This surely represents a limitation of Kakadu, a park that is certainly extraordinary but among the least spectacular from a landscape point of view among those visited so far and that would need much more time available and special means (helicopter and off-road vehicle) for a complete visit.

Moreover, during the dry season, 90% of the territory is very dry and the true characteristic of the park, that of being a very green alluvial plain during the rainy season, suddenly disappears and this peculiarity can only be intuited by navigating the billabongs and rivers that survive during the dry season.

In short, one of the places that impressed me least in the Australian territory, and naturally, this remains my personal opinion, probably not shareable by many.

Among the most spectacular points of the park there is certainly Ubirr (about 50 km of detour to be unavoidably retraced on the way back too), interesting both from a landscape and cultural point of view. This imposing and mysterious rock offers at its base some of the most important rock art sites, with paintings depicting the typical animals of the bush, such as wallabies, fish, turtles, but above all the important figure of the Rainbow Serpent, symbol of evocative legends and capable of causing violent floods and earthquakes.

The climb to the top is short but steep and with the suffocating heat of the afternoon it becomes rather tiring. The effort is repaid by one of the few and most impressive panoramas that Kakadu offers, where the view ranges over the underlying alluvial plains and over the whole escarpment of Arnhem Land visible in the background.

At the end of the long day we move to the Aurora Kakadu (€ 120 with breakfast), isolated on the Arnhem Hwy. It's a lovely resort with cottages set in a lush garden with wallabies hopping here and there, a pleasant pool and an excellent restaurant.

Day 18, Kakadu NP. - Darwin

Last unmissable stop, right after exiting the park in the direction of Darwin, is the spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise (about € 40 per family), on the Adelaide River.

There are various companies that carry out the boat excursion, all with the same characteristic: attracting the enormous crocodiles that live in the river by means of pieces of meat tied to a pole, until they come out of the water and make astonishing jumps.

In the afternoon, we quickly continue toward Darwin where we visit a bit of the center, practically an enormous and modern shopping center, with many venues where in the afternoon rivers of beer are already being consumed. A lovely seafront, a small harbor with characteristic restaurants (Cullen Bay), and breathtaking sunsets from nearby Mindil Beach, where every Thursday and Sunday the characteristic night market takes place with numerous food stalls.

There's nothing left to do but head to the airport, for the night flight with Tiger Airways (€ 115) that will take us back to Singapore.

We bid farewell to this immense continent (calling it a Country seems rather reductive to me), aware of having visited only a tiny part of it, but which has literally bewitched us with its wild places, breathtaking nature, luminous colors, vast pristine and deserted spaces. Every time you take a plane to move from one place to another, you find yourself in a place completely different from the previous one, a succession of unforgettable emotions, in close contact with nature, a journey to remember for eternity, a journey that makes you understand how many wonderful corners our mistreated planet still offers….

But the adventure isn't over yet…… (continues in Singapore-Redang)