G'day.

After a few weeks on the coast it was time to experience the other side of Australia. So a cheap flight halfway across the country (only 4 hours!) and we're in Darwin.

Darwin is ... well a bit of a dump. It has a port, a couple of half-attempts at tourist attractions but is really quite sleepy and small. Like a few places in Australia the town is particularly ugly and from a town planning point of view pretty awful. (Admittedly one of the reasons for the 1970's architecture is the 1972 hurricane that blew the whole city down but still it's pretty grubby). But we're not here for this reason. We're here because Darwin is the place to go to explore the tropical north & Kakadu National Park.

Now most of you are probably more familiar with Kakadu than you think, for it is the location for those great Australian films 'Crocodile Dundee' and would you believe 'Crocodile Dundee II' wow! And although we didn't have Paul Hogan with us we did have a fantastic guide Rick (or was that Mick) who lead our intrepid group through the rain forests and swamps. Rick has been doing these tours for years and he took quite a shine to our group (which coincidently was 90% female), so as well as the usual sites he enjoyed taking us a bit more off the track to climb a tricky peak and to view some Aboriginal cave paintings that officially don't exist (so I never told you about them ok).

As well as viewing the local art, we had three wonderful days walking, swimming under waterfalls and seeing all kinds of crazy birds and creatures (Jabiru anyone?). A particular highlight was a boat ride down a crocodile infested river. It was brilliantly scary and crikey we saw quite a few crocs (Irwin would have loved it).

We were quite content sitting back safely observing these killing machines when our guide declared he would 'see if he could make one jump' - interesting. So we pulled our little tin boat alongside a 5 foot croc and out guide wiped out some horse meat (never leave home without it) ties it to a bamboo pole and starts whacking the surface of the water. Fascinating stuff as the croc circles then leaps out the water gobbling up the remains of Black Beauty. Awesome stuff.

One evening as we were dozing off in out camp we heard an Australian tourist calling out to his mate: "Bruce, Bruce where are you Bruce" - and we really felt we were in Australia