To do or not to do

That is the question we had come across about Kakadu , mostly from the more seasoned grey nomads. Fortunately, I had never taken it seriously and had always intended to have a good look at what sounded like a pretty amazing place.

We took a cruise on Katherine Gorge in the Nitmiluk National Park before heading north. People tell us that by the end of an Aussie lap you can become "all gorged out" . This has not happened yet and we thoroughly enjoyed our 2 gorge cruise which was just the right length of time for the concentration span of our party.

Katherine Gorge

It was then up into Kakadu starting with Gunlom Falls at the Southern end of the park. We had been especially keen to visit these falls after seeing the Evans' spectacular family photo taken in the infinity pool. While the falls themselves did not disappoint, my many attempts at securing an equally spectacular family shot were not successful even after mastering the self-timer.

The next few days were spent in the heart of Kakadu where we enjoyed two of our best days of the trip. The first was a full day travelling to the Twin Falls and Jim Jim Falls with our friends the Hammonds from Mornington. Then a trip to the Northern area of the park where we included a short trip into Arnhem Land. Visiting these areas makes you see why some people might not like Kakadu. They take a bit of effort to get there but you are richly rewarded for your efforts. The scenery into Arnhem Land was spectacular and makes me want to investigate this area in more detail in the future .

Yellow Waters sunset

Heading into Arnhem Land

Twin Falls

Alison swimming at Jim Jim Falls

Jim Jim Falls

We left Kakadu and headed to Point Stuart Wilderness Lodge where we planned to take a cruise on the Mary River Wetlands. The cruise was amazing with some excellent opportunity for wildlife spotting including salt- water crocodiles, all sorts of birds and beautiful flowers. Unfortunately my efforts to photograph the wildlife were not overly productive so I will not bother including examples here as they do not do justice to the flora and fauna on offer.

We are now in Darwin after some time around the Berry Springs area where we swam plenty and enjoyed a few trips into Litchfield National Park which had some amazing waterfalls and rock holes . Our swimming was limited somewhat by a croc sighting in Wangi Falls , the day after we had all been enjoying  a very pleasant dip. No wonder Ruby and Ella had been a bit on the nervous side. 

We will be in Darwin for a couple of weeks where we will be joined by Al's mum Julie ( MaMa) . Everyone is looking forward to her visit.