After picking up the van in Darwin, we headed east to Kakadu National Park and spent our first night at a bush camp in a place called Ubirr (a bush camp is a (usually unmanned) government run and maintained campsite with basic facilities). Next day we drove down through Kakadu, visiting a number of Aboriginal art sites, before spending the night in Cooinda. The Aboriginal art was a little disappointing to be honest – of little artistic worth and interesting only due to it’s age (and we suspect much of it was more modern than was suggested). The next night was spent in a lovely place called Edith Falls. Fantastic, picturesque, waterfall fed billabongs to swim in and a really excellent campsite with a super friendly atmosphere. Next we drove down to Katherine Gorge and then on into Litchfield National Park. Again, lots of great billabongs and rock pools to swim in (crocodile risk is minimal!) and cool places to camp. Our final night was spent in the best campsite of all, at a place called Berry Springs. Lovely, shady sites, free fishing tackle hire, a freshwater crocodile enclosure, kangaroos bouncing about the place and even an open air cinema! The mother of all campsites!
Driving in the outback basically entails hours of nothing but termite mounds, crappy trees and a roadside littered with kangaroo carcasses, punctuated by the occasional town (often consisting of little more then a petrol station and a small shop). Whilst the national parks were good, the best bit for us was the camping as loads of Aussies do it and they seem to really love it, with their enthusiasm and friendliness really rubbing off on us. We’re definitely keen to come back here and spend more time driving round the country.
Tomorrow we fly in to India. Whilst it’s a fairly daunting prospect, we are both really excited and can’t wait to get there.
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