I arrived in Darwin on Wednesday afternoon after flying from Cairns. I checked into my room and then went for a walk around to see what there was. This is when I realised how hot it was. It was boiling hot, so humid! Even inside it was hot. I walked around the block where there were many shops and found a woolworths. I went in to buy myself some food for dinner and it was like heaven. Their air conditioning was amazing, it was the only place where it wasnt hot. After taking my time in Woolworths I went back to the hostel and made dinner. It was so hot in the kitchen I think I was cooking as well as the food! That night I had a 6 bed dorm all to myself so it was nice to have a bit of time to myself after the hectic days in Cairns.

The next day I woke up with a slight red rash on my arms and as I went outside they began to itch. I had got a heat rash it was that hot. I walked down to the waterfront and sat there for a while before walking back and looking in all the shops on the way back. There wasnt too much to do in Darwin as it was only a small place and I was looking forward to my tour starting the next day. I went back to Woolworths again to cool down and headed back to the hostel. Whilst I was eating dinner it started to absolutely chuck it down with rain. It was torrential, however it was still hot! It lasted about half an hour before stopping and returning to a sunny day. That night I had people in my room but I had an early night as my tour started at 5:30am. I was looking forward to meeting the group of people and making new friends.

I got up early, checked out and made my way a couple of doors down the street to the Adventure Tours office. There were a few other people there as well. Gradually more people arrived and so did the bus. Our driver guide was called Rick. There were 16 of us in total on the bus. The first part of the trip was a three day tour of Kakadu National Park and Litchfield National Park. The first activity of the day was a river cruise along the Mary River Wetlands however it didnt get off to a brillient start. We were almost there when the bus started spluttering and stopped! It had broken down and wouldnt start again! I wasnt having too much luck with tour buses it seemed! Rick ran the office to arrange for another bus and he also rang the cruise people to come pick us up in their bus so we didnt miss out on our cruise. We got to the river and boarded the little ferry boat. We cruised around the river for a few hours. There were lots of lily pads with flowers making it look beautiful. We saw many different types of birds that live around the river. One bird we saw on the bank with a fish, it was flicking the fish up in the air and trying to catch it in its beak so that it would just slide down his throat. It did this many times before giving up and flying off. I think we might have scared it off. Birds werent the only wildlife we saw as we also found a few crocodiles lazing around under trees at the waters edge. Rick wasnt back with the new bus when we got back so we got to have another half an hour on the boat cruising around. When he did arrive we got on the new bus and drove to a road house where we had lunch which was hot dogs.

In the afternoon we drove to a waterfall which we could swim in and then to a cultural centre where we learnt a little bit about the local aboriginal culture. We stopped a few times along the way to look at a lizard on a tree and to get a closer look at the termite mounds. We then drove to our campsite. It wasnt quite what I was expecting as instead of small ground tents they were more like canvas rooms with 2 proper single beds inside. So much better than I was expecting. I shared my tent with a Northern Irish girl called Kat. That evening we had a selection of new meats to try. First was camel sausages and then kangeroo steaks. Both were nice. The camel sausages just tasted like normal sausages really, I would never have guessed they were camel or something a bit different. The kangeroo steak was very similar to normal steak as well. After dinner it was time for bed. I didnt sleep too well as it was so hot in the tents.

The next day we got up early and had breakfast. We had a day of waterfalls ahead of us. We drove so far but then we had a 45 minute walk to reach the waterfall called Motorcar falls. The walk was through bushland along a stoney path. It was really hot. We were all sweating so much is was dripping down us, not attractive. To make it even worse there were millions of flies and all they seemed to want to do was fly into our eyes or up our nose! It was horrible we spent the whole 45 minute walk wafting our arms about infront of our faces. Even putting sunglasses on didnt help as they kept flying behind them! Then once again there were also some of those flies that bite just to be even more annoying! Eventually we got there and could cool off in the nice pool of water at the falls. Once we came out of the water the sun almost instantly dried us and then once again we began sweating again as we made the walk back down the path. Just before the car park we took a left turn and walked 10 minutes to another waterfall to cool off once again before driving to lunch.

After lunch we went to another cultural centre before going to check out some aboriginal rock art at Ubirr. We could see pictures of kangeroos and people hunting clearly on the walls of caves and mountains. Rick told us some stories that go with the paintings about their beliefs and customs. We walked up to the top of a rocky path to get a good view over the National Park. Then it was to our next camp. This time they didnt have proper beds in but more like a shelf with a green plastic mattress on. It was still nice though just very hot once again.

The next day we headed into Litchfield Park to visit more waterfalls. One of the waterfalls called Wangi falls we werent allowed to swim in as there could be crocodiles there so instead we climbed up and over the waterfall to look at the amazing view. Part of the walk was through the rainforest where we saw a massive spider in a web. Rick told us that we dont have to fear spiders in webs they wont hurt or kill us, its the ones that are on the ground that live in holes etc that are poisonous. After swimming in another waterfall and looking at some different kinds of termite mounds we started to make our way back to Darwin.

There were six of us that were carrying on with the trip further south so we all got a room together at the hostel. There was Me, Kat, Nat (Natalie), Nikki, Helga and Gertie. That evening we went for a group meal to Monsoon where we shared pizza between us. After the meal I went to meet Mark as he was in Darwin as well and say a proper goodbye to him as it would be the last time I'd get to see him. I arrived back in the dorm at midnight and Nikki was just getting back then as well. Kat and Nat were still out drinking!