Darwin - Litchfield NP
Litchfield NP - Corroboree
Corroboree - Pine Creek
Pine Creek - Katherine
Katherine - Kununurra
Kununurra
Kununurra - Fitzroy Crossing

Total Kilometres Driven in Week One: 2405km

Day 1 - Before departing Darwin in our camper van which we have aptly named Florence we headed to Casuarina Square to stock up on food and necessities (picnic blanket, mobile phone etc). As we spent hours browsing and faffing around we didn't actually start our Road Trip until 3pm. Our first destination was Litchfield National Park, where we stayed overnight in a campsite.

Day 2 - On our first full day of campervanning, we headed to Wangi Falls (closed for swimming, *phew* as Helen is scared of estuarine crocs - Salties), Florence Falls (spectacular falls, swam in the plunge pool), Buley Rockhole (rock pools, Nick jumped in and when we saw a Mertens Water Monitor enter the water he jumped out like lightning, and then forced Helen to go in - which she did!), Termite mounds (a field of them standing up to 2 metres high with the thin edges pointing north-south to minimise their exposure to the sun - never say termites are thick!).

We then headed to Kakadu National Park (apparently the same size as Wales as Nick found out on his travels with Fergus!) and stopped by the Window on the Wetland (overlooks the Adelaide River floodplains), and to break up the journey we stayed in Corroboree with its own resident crocs. This confirmed that Helen is scared that a croc will appear out of nowhere and attack!

Day 3 - The day started with visiting the jumping crocs on the Adelaide River, some of the crocs can jump unbelievably high which further increased Helen's anxiety of a croc landing on the boat and eating everyone!! The tour was great as we also got to see birds of prey catching meat from our boat. We left at about 11am to try and make it to Ubirr for the aboriginal rock art but when we stopped at a visitor centre we found out that our destination is only accessible by 4 wheel drive due to water levels. We then changed our plans and headed to Nourlangie (another Aboriginal rock art gallery). We had planned to go to Yellow Water only to find that it was closed, then we found out that our planned campsite was also closed. This changed our whole plans so we headed to Pine Creek and covered good ground.

However, this means that our whole journey in Kakadu was purely a driving journey as nearly everything was closed either due to it being low season or they are capturing and relocating Crocs to make the waters safe for swimming. Or the attractions were only accessible by 4 wheel drive! Still it was a nice drive spotting kangaroos, wallabies, dingos and various birds of prey. Overnight was spent in Pine Creek.

Day 4 - We set off for Katherine via Edith Falls (an idyllic waterfall/pool but we weren't allowed to swim as they hadn't checked for crocs). On arrival at Katherine we booked ourselves onto a two hour Nitmiluk (Katherine) Gorge cruise. Nitmiluk is hauntingly beautiful, and we saw several crocs. Before heading to the campsite we visited the Katherine hot springs (32 degrees) and had a little swim. Our campsite was a little homestead, apparently the oldest in the Northern territory when Alfred Giles drove 2000 cattle, horses and 12,000 sheep from Adelaide.

Day 5 - After feeding the ducks their breakfast we set off on a long trip, from Katherine to Kununurra (513 km) stopping off at Gregory's National Park and Gregory's Tree (of course, Nick used this as a photo opportunity!). We then entered Western Australia giving up all of our fruit/vegetables and changing out clocks - we gained an extra hour and half!

On arrival at Kununurra we checked into our swanky hotel (all paid for by Nick for Helen's 30th) and after swimming in the pool we headed out for fish and chips to celebrate Helen's last night of her 20 something's!

Day 6 - Both of us woke up surprisingly early (to do with the time difference!) headed out for breakfast at what is supposedly the towns best bet for breakfast, stocked up on food and headed to Lake Argyle (apparently Australia's second largest freshwater lake, it fits in the Sydney harbour 18 times over!) we played frisbee and had a picnic under a tree.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped off at the celebrity tree park (where celebs who have visited Kununurra have planted a tree!). When we got back to our room, Helen found a bottle of champers, strawberries and chocolates waiting to be eaten (Thanks Nick) and had a swim in our pool. The evening was spent at the Pumphouse restaurant, on Lake Kununurra which is exactly what it is although it has been converted into a restaurant and both of us feasted on yummy food.

Day 7 - The following day, Nick surprised (although it wasn't a surprise as when Helen went to the hotel reception two days earlier the receptionist held up a brochure asking if she wanted to go ahead and book the tour...the receptionist realised that she had let the cat out of the bag when Helen replied saying 'I don't know anything about this' - the look on her face was priceless!) Helen to a 45 min helicopter ride over the Bungle Bungles (Purnululu National Park) where we saw ochre and black striped beehive domes (iron oxidisation) they were absolutely stunning and it's amazing that White people only discovered them in the 80's.

After the helicopter flight we covered good ground and arrived at Fitzroy Crossing before sunset.