After leaving Darwin we made the short trip (<100kms) down to Litchfield National Park. Litchfield is considerably smaller than Kakadu and can be checked out within 2/3 days. However the waterfalls and pools are still pretty magic. Not insignificantly, Litchfield's waterways aren't laden with salt water crocs in the same way as Kakdau. Our highlight was Wangi Falls which dropped to a picturesque pool which we all had a great swim in.

We went for a boat ride up the East Alligator River, croc spotting. We were'nt disappointed; there's heaps of them! Everywhere in Kakadu there are warnings about swimming in rivers, billabongs and natural pools. The more popular natural pools are checked for crocs at the start of the dry season but there is no guarantee as the dry goes on and the number of cool wet places reduce, that salties haven't made their way into the pool you're considering swimming in. Ca...

We were in Kakadu for four nights at a great campsite in Jabiru. We trundled around the sites (including this pretty stunning lookout over the wetlands near Ubirr) but really needed at least a week or more, to see everything. We had also come off the back of six days of constant driving where we camped for one night and moved on in an attempt to gt through to the Top End pretty quickly. In consecutive nights we stayed at Emerald, Longreach, Mt Isa, Barkly Homeste...

We really enjoyed checking out the traditional rock shelters with their associated artwork. Gracie always loved chalk drawing on the paving at home so she was very quick in adapting her style to what we saw and knocked up this one of me which I think has a remarkable likeness.

This photo doesn't do it justice, but just south of Katherine is Mataranka thermal pool. It's an oasis in the scrubby outback; beautiful clear, warm waters surrounded by palm trees. At the start of WWII it was just a creek filled with naturally heated spring water, running a short disatnce from the spring down in to the nearby Roper River. Soldiers stationed at Mataranka during the war, widened the creek and made it into a small pool. I've been surprised by the ...