On our way to Tennant Creek was the famous sight of "The Devils Marbles". We stopped here for a quick walk around and find out what these giant stones are all about. Apparantly they are the remains of a huge mountain that has been eroded of millions of years and are now mere spherical rocks! Fascinating and a photographers dream!

Only staying in Tennant Creek for one night, we find the time to visit the disappointing cultural centre and the suprisingly informative information centre! Pitched up at a quiet caravan site, with a freezing cold pool, then enjoyed some refreshing beverages from the caravan site bar.

As we head further north, the days (and nights!) are getting more humid and sticky, making the weather feel hotter as the wet season approaches. We would give quite a lot to stand under some hard rain at times, especially when stuck in a sweaty car for most of a day!

The journey from Tennant Creek to Katherine was broken up by a visit to the fascinatingly decorated, and highly recommended, Daly Waters Pub. This place has become a mecca for travellers who leave just about anything they can in the pub for it to be added to the interior walls! There's everything you can dream of here from clothes of every variety to x-rays of a rib-cage and pelvis, every sort of ID card (didn't come across a passport though!), money from all currencies and an awful lot more!!

We arrived at Katherine Gorge (Nitmiluk) N.P at about 15:30 and the last two days travelling have totalled 1228km. The driving is not as tiresome as I imagined but i'm thoroughly enjoying the rest in between! This national park is predominately a river that runs through some stunning gorges and is inhabited by crocodiles!

Only freshwater crocodiles, thankfully, as the salties are trapped upon entry and removed. Freshies aren't nearly as big, not capable of killing humans and are only aggresive if provoked. Phew!

We walked up to the top of one of the gorges for excellent views down the river before embarking on a canoeing trip down the river and having a pleasant swim to cool off. Katherine Gorge is beautiful and contains an abundance of wildlife including intriguing birds, inquistive kangaroos and impossibly annoying flying insects!!

Just before departing here, we went on a small search for my sunglasses! Didn't take long to find them and get them from the ranger at the canoe shed! The poor things have been lost, trapped in the boot, dropped on numerous occasions and are still unmarked!

Katherine to Kakadu N.P. took about 3hrs (350km) and we found another great campsite to base ourselves for a couple of days. On the day of our arrival we drove up to Ubirr to view the ancient rock paintings before enjoying a magnificent sunset overlooking the floodplains below. Walking around Ubirr really makes you feel like you've travelled back in time to a prehistoric period, enhanced by the thousands of years old paintings. We'd had one of the most beautiful evenings that got even better on our drive back to Jabiru (our campsite). It was the first time we'd driven at night and we were extra careful because of the imminent arrival of the wildlife on the roads when, in the distance, a lightening storm approached and slowly lit up the sky to give us an almost theatrical performance from above! It wasn't just the occasional sheet or fork lightening, it was some form of lightening every second for a good 40 minutes. A skyshow!

It could well have been one of these flashes that caused a bushfire we drove through on our way back.

A full day of exploring Kakadu ahead of us, we filled up on pancakes for breakfast. Over here they have bottles of mix that you just add water too, shake, and pour into the pan! Perfect.

We drove to the Yellow Water area where we booked a boat tour and took a walk down to the jetty. The walk took us through the bush and by the river - inhabited by salties - and this was the most aware i've probably ever been! It was only later we found out that when it's hot, the crocs will stay under water and not come out of the river until it's cool enough, so from dusk til dawn!

The instant we made it to the jetty, the beauty struck. The boat tour lasted 1.5 hrs and we saw hundreds of birds and a few crocs that had come up for air - they can stay under for up to 40mins so we had to see some! We found out afterwards that the crocs are all out in the morning and evening but our tour was at 11.30am! I wish we knew that before. The cruise was thoroughly enjoyable and the guide was extremely knowledgable about all the wildlife around.

We then went to the Aboriginal Culture Centre for an insight into the natives and their way of life but in all honesty, we were just abusing the building for its air-con because we were hot and sweaty (again!) and very exhausted from the constant travelling and heat. The centre appeared to be really good though but not for us at that time!! This exhaustion continued into our next visit when we had a short walk around Nourlangie Rock to admire more ancient art but, again, we were easily irritable and the fly's and heat were extremely irritating! So we took some pictures and left. Fortunately our campsite welcomed us into the pool for the rest of the day!!

Looking forward to getting to Darwin at this point if only to enjoy an air-conditioned room. The humidity is verging on unbearable and every day & night is just like the last, there is no let-up! Our last stop in Kakadu was the Mamukala wetlands on the morning of our drive to Darwin. This was a birdwatchers paradise with stunning views over the wetlands where thousands of magpie geese flock at this time of year.

3 weeks from Adelaide and 5000km later, we arrive in Darwin - the most northerly point in our Australian tour. I think we've got here a little earlier than we planned but we certainly haven't missed an awful lot on our way up, stopping at just about every attraction worth a mention along the route and even some that aren't! It's been a journey that the landscape completely changes just about every 300km or so and sometimes more frequently. From desolate outback to monsoon forests, from rocky mountains to flat plains with nothing to see with the naked eye, we've seen it all!

Darwin is a fairly small city - i think the population is around 70,000 but it has enough to keep us busy for 3 days. Although, we find ourselves doing very little in this time because of the climate and also to rest our weary selves.

We went to the main beach (Mindil) and there was only 1 other person (a jogger) apart from us! I think this has something to do with the waters being dangerous at this time of year due to the box jellyfish (stingers) - whose sting can be fatal - that inhabit the waters in the northern, tropical waters of the country from october to april. I guess we won't be swimming in the sea much then!

Next to the main beach is a wonderful, free museum that contains an indigenous art gallery, wildlife section, dinosaurs and an area dedicated to cyclone tracey that hit on christmas day 1974. We had a fun couple of hours in this air-conditioned building!!

The only other notable attraction of our visit to Darwin was the deckchair cinema. Opening the show was a sunset over the bay closely followed by a distant thunderstorm which took us into the main feature. The film was good but it wasn't so much the film that made the event so appealing, the whole idea of sitting outside, under the stars, relaxed on deckchairs with the occasional bat swooping past is what gave it the novelty feel. A great evening was had by all!

The final mention goes to the hostel. It was called Gecko Lodge, was fairly basic, not the cleanest place (not filthy but just not clean!), air-con only permitted at night, and a good 20min walk from the city centre but (there had to be a "but"!) for breakfast they served up unlimited, free, gorgeous pancakes! They made the whole place worth it - and we would go back there!