Arrived in Darwin late on Tuesday. Checked into the hostel.. which is very basic - prison like beds, a lockable cupboard, communal bathroom. It was a bit of a culture shock after the luxury of hotel accommodation throughout the 2 week tour in Asia. Suddenly we were in a quiet room with no group of people surrounding us. A strange feeling!

Over the last few days we have had a walk around the town which is very small and very expensive. The most expensive place in Oz! Thankfully we managed to find a pub, The Vic, where you buy any one drink with a voucher you can get at the hostel reception every night and you get a free meal.. So we have been living in there every evening. They pile the food on the plate and you get a range of hot meal choices, school dinner style.

The Marina is very beautiful with lots of milk fish floating around. It is quite deserted here as it is the start of the wet season- we were rather shocked! We fancied a dip in the sea and so took a walk to Mindil Beach, but unfortunately we can't swim in it due to box jelly fish- fabulous! We were looking forward to the sunset markets on Mindil Beach but this has come to the end of the season. Darwin Waterfront is very clean and you can see that during the holiday season would be buzzing with tourists. It appears to be the only place that has an area of the sea netted off so that you can go swimming.. Known as the lagoon.

We went on a 3 day Kakadu and Lichfield National Park tour with Territory Expeditions. There was 14 of us and a real mix of nationalities on the tour - English, French, German, American, Canadian, Asian and Spanish. We were picked up in an army style off road vehicle, and was driven about 4 hours to Kakadu. We spent the first 2 days in Kakadu, trekking through the outback, learning about some of the aborigines wall paintings and the laws in which the aborigines live to, and taking stops at waterfalls and water pools for us to have a cool down swim. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking and the rock pools simply take your breath away. We didn't see that much wildlife, a few birds, no crocs (bitterly disappointing) apart from a foot long baby croc, a huge spider, kangaroos and a wollaby. I brushed passed a tree and got covered in biting green ants - they got down my top and trousers and I was panicking like crazy, slapping myself and pulling my clothes off like a mentally unstable person!

On the last day we travelled about 2 hours to Lichfield. This is a lot more commercialised - clearer walkways and a lot more tourists. The views and the scenery is just as beautiful as Kakadu.

Overall we must have trekked about 10-15km, not only in the blazing heat, but constantly being surrounded head to toe with flies. I must admit they nearly cracked me a few times, especially with them constantly pestering you in the face and around the ears. The only way to get rid of them was under the water. We are both covered in insect and mosquito bites. There was a particular larger fly (marsh fly) that when it bites you it stings and draws blood, and our guide warned us to stand the pain and then kill the fly by hitting it or else it will keep trying to bite you - those were a b*****! I look diseased because I seem to react really bad to some of the bites - they swell up. So I'm back on the antihistamines to try and take the swelling down. I'm so glad I brought my trousers, at least some parts of my body are disease free!

On both nights of the tour we went back to the same base camp in Kakadu (we were in porter cabin style dorms, with a separate building where the communal bathrooms were) where our guide, Anthony, cooked up two delightful evening meals around a fire in the still of the night, under the stars. We ate a lot of very beautiful beef. We also tried crocodile and buffalo. Buffalo is very tasty and like beef. People say croc tastes like chicken, I thought it had a funny after taste and was rather bland.

On the second day we lost one of the Canadian girls in the outback, luckily Anthony travels quick and knows the bush like the back of his hand, so within an hour he found her- phew!

Being on the 3 day tour I lost all my dignity - having to have loo stops behind the truck on deserted roads and having to lower my normal expectations for personal hygiene. However it was a great experience and I would definitely do it again. I will certainly not miss the flies!

Last night we went out with the group we went on the tour with, and had a few drinks and of course a meal at The Vic, it was great being in a group again.

On Wednesday we are catching The Ghan train to Alice Springs.

Lauren x