While in Darwin we decided to change our flight to Singapore to 25 June which gave us an extra week in Darwin. We also added extra time to our Asia leg so we that we could fly Bangkok-London-Prague on the 26^th August. An extra week in Darwin became necessary because of a school camp and we extended our time in Asia so that we could travel slower and stay in some places longer than the three to four days we had been.

We arrived in Darwin late afternoon on June 3^rd. Sarah’s stepmother, Karyn and younger brother, John met us at the Darwin airport and took us to their house in Howard Springs, about 20km south of Darwin. It's a nice airy place on a decent block of land that Bruce is planting with native trees. It has a pool and even an outdoor dining area set amongst the bush. On arrival Bruce informed us that he'd volunteered us to go on a school camp with 11 year old John and 60 of his classmates. Thanks Dad! It ran from Tuesday to Friday at Batchelor, about 100km south of Darwin. Our duties included assisting the qualified outdoor instructors with various activities for the kids. We had a great time - we climbed rock walls, paddled canoes, rode bikes, helped kids on rope courses and visited a butterfly farm. Because we were the help we could get away with ducking off to the pub, the Rum Jungle Recreation Club to be exact, at the end of each day, which meant we met some of the local colour. The first night we were there we met another Kiwi who was living in Batchelor and working at the local abbatoir. He fed us Stolichnaya vodka mixed with Fanta all night while we watched the second State of Origin league match. NSW won by a small margin, which meant the 3rd game would be a tie-breaker. It was interesting to note that most of the Territorians supported Queensland over NSW, despite the rivalry that seemed to exist between NT and QL.

We were pleased to be relaxing with Bruce, Karyn and John and their ugly smelly dogs! Actually, they’re lovely dogs really – a black Labrador called Bo, who pongs just a bit, and a small Pekingnese thingy called DJ. Bruce prefers to call her Fugly. We enjoyed spending time with John, who is into dinosaurs and animals in a big way and a big Star Wars fan. Episode One: The Phantom Menace was playing so the three of us went to see it. The two old fogies, ie those old enough to remember seeing the first trilogy the first time round, were less than impressed by the shaky plot but enjoyed some of the special effects. John loved it and was busy saving his pocket money to buy Darth Maul and Anakin Skywalker figurines for his collection!

We spent several days exploring Darwin. Sarah spent the first eight years of her life living there and not surprisingly have changed a lot since she left in 1983, and even since her last visit in 1993! She was born nine months (go figure!) after Cyclone Tracy, a tropical cyclone that almost completely flattened the town, and spent the first 8 months of her life living in a caravan because her parents’ flat was destroyed. The Northern Territory Museum has an interesting exhibition showing Darwin before, during and after the cyclone. There are also several audio accounts from people who were living in Darwin at the time. The centre of the city has several really nice bars and restaurants and you don’t have to walk far to find a park and some shade. We enjoyed picnics in the Botanical Gardens and walks along the beach. The market at Mindil Beach has been going for years and we had a great time bargain hunting while we sipped our mango smoothies. We even managed to spend a night drinking very cheap cider at the Darwin Ski Club. No, there’s no snow in Darwin but there’s plenty of room on the water for water-skiing. The club is members only but is surrounded by a knee-high fence that we just stepped over. We found ourselves a table, drank delicious Tasmanian cider and tried to look like members, which worked for a while. It started to fill up pretty quickly and the bouncers were soon checking membership cards. Lucky for us, we’d chosen a big table and were joined by a group of members who told the bouncers we were their guests!

On the 14^th of June we visited the Territory Wildlife Park with Bruce and John. It is a large reserve, which is home to a large number of Australian native animals. It’s so big that there’s a tractor which tows around two carriages between exhibits and you just hop on and off as you need to. The many exhibits include an amazing aquarium with a very large crocodile in it. There's just an inch of glass between he and you and he watches humans with great interest. There was also a Kelly Tarlton-style walkthrough aquarium with barramundi and a big swordfish. John's favourite part, the nocturnal house, contained many small marsupials and other rodents including a couple of decent sized bilbys and those little desert mice that hop around like crazy miniature kangaroos. The oddest rodents would have to be the fat-tailed mice – they store fat in their tails so that they can survive droughts and food shortages. Very nifty but it does look rather odd.

Another fascinating experience was watching the keepers feed the birds of prey. They give a talk while these great birds swoop and grab morsels in mid air. Their sense of sight is amazingly powerful. They also have a buzzard that uses a stone as a tool to break open emu eggs. This behaviour is innate, not learned as some other hunting techniques are. There was drama when one of the birds caught the strap on his leg in a tree and several branches had to be lopped off in order to free him. Not even the bird’s keeper wanted to get too close to the beak of a distressed kite. We spent the whole afternoon in the park and got kicked out at closing time! The wildlife becomes much more active near the end of the day, as it starts to get a bit cooler, so even some of the shyer animals were starting to emerge. We managed to catch a glimpse of the dingoes, which were just waking up. After getting hot and sweaty at the park we stopped on the way home for a dip at Berry Springs, where the water is pleasantly warm and the fish nibble your toes. The picnic area is inhabited by several goannas that keep visitors amused, although no-one gets too close! It's one of Sarah's favourite places from her time living here.

Once we knew we’d be visiting Darwin, we decided that we would hire a car for a few days and explore Kakadu National Park, Litchfield Park and surrounds. We managed to get a really good deal and we were only the second people to hire the little white Hyundai. We drove our pocket rocket 1600km around the top end over five days and saw everything we could in Kakadu without a four-wheel drive, and a fair bit of the Top End. On our first day in the park we drove to Ubirr to look at Aboriginal rock art. Kakadu has one of the greatest collections of ancient art in the world and, for this reason, it is on the United Nations list of World Heritage sites. At Ubirr, you can climb to a lookout at the top of the rocks where there are expansive views out across the park. The landscape is amazing in that it varies from the barren escarpment country to billabong wetlands and tropical bush and you could see examples of each from this lookout. The walkway up there leads past a lot of paintings on the rock overhangs. Because they’re in sheltered spots some of them are particularly well preserved. It’s hard to believe that some of them are thousands of years old – it is thought that some could be up to 20 000 years old!

The same evening, we went on a sunset cruise at Cooinda, or Yellow Waters. It was a beautiful still day and the sunset was absolutely spectacular. The water was like glass so the reflections of trees and the sky were like mirror images. It gets extremely dry in the dry season and Cooinda is one of the few patches of permanent water in the area. Birds follow the receding water as the dry season wears on and we saw hundreds of them - jabirus, herons, sea eagles, egrets and magpie geese to name just a few. Like the birds, salt-water crocodiles follow the permanent waters in the dry season and the large numbers of birds mean they don’t go hungry. We spotted several large crocs basking on the banks, keeping one eye trained on our boat as we gently chugged past. Driving back to our hostel after the cruise was interesting. The park crawls with wildlife to the extent that it's not wise to drive at night because you risk hitting large and small critters alike. We were kept amused by the frogs that were jumping right over our car! Unfortunately, a few misjudged the distance and ended up under our tyres. We drove slowly as we’d been warned about larger animals such as dingoes, kangaroos and goannas coming out at night. We didn’t see any of these but Sarah did managed to attract the whole Kakadu population of mosquitoes when she got out of the car. They’re big and they’re mean and if they like the smell of you, watch out! Kakadu is not a malarial area, but some mosquitoes do carry the Ross River virus, which is almost as nasty, so Sarah was grateful that the tropical strength repellent we’d bought actually worked.

The following day we drove round all the sealed roads in the park. We checked out more rock art at Nourlangie Rock and walked around the Anbangbang Billabong. We climbed to the Mirrai Lookout at the top of Mt Cahill which was hot work but definitely worth it for the view. We were kept amused by a goanna that kept falling out of the tree it was attempting to climb! We were both very impressed by the Aboriginal Cultural Centre, near Cooinda. It contained a fascinating account of the local Aboriginal history and culture and was a wonderfully cool place to retreat from the midday heat. Heading south, we stopped several times to look at huge termite mounds, called Cathedral mounds, that were many metres taller than us. Our last stop in Kakadu was the Bukbukluk lookout, near the park’s southern entry. The sun was getting pretty low in the sky by the time we reached it and the rocky land we were looking out over was glowing in many shades of pink and orange. Spectacular. We’d decided that we would spend the night in Pine Creek and as we drove south out of the park we drove through several burnoffs. This is something that happens a lot in the Northern Territory. Early on in the dry season, areas of scrub are burned back for two reasons. Firstly, it prevents the vegetation from getting so dry that it spontaneously alights at the height of the dry and secondly, it stimualtes growth when the wet season arrives. The Aborigines of the area have been doing it for 1000s of years and now the local authorities also do it. At one point the bush on either side of the road was alight and the heat and crackling of the fire was pretty intense. We started to worry that our tyres might melt. The smoke in the atmosphere also meant that the sunset was absolutely spectacular so we found a good vantage-point to watch the last rays disappear in a blaze of purples and oranges. We’d booked a night at the Kakadu Gateway Caravan Park and were pleased to find a clean, self-contained caravan with air-conditioning. Our only mishap occurred when Sarah sat on the edge of the bed – one leg went through the floor. When we looked more closely at the floor, we discovered it was pretty rotten so we trod softly after that!

On our way south to Katherine the next day, we stopped at the Pine Creek museum which contained fascinating, if rather jumbled, relics of Pine Creek’s mining days. The strangest exhibit would have to be the mangled outboard motor plonked in the middle of the replica of the blacksmith’s workshop. Closer inspection revealed toothmarks from an enormous crocodile that had attacked the museum curator’s boat while he was out fishing. He lived to tell the tale and proudly displays the outboard as proof of his escapade.

On the highway south to Katherine (the road goes all the way from Darwin to Alice Springs in pretty much a straight line) we took a turn off to the Edith Falls. We cooled ourselves down by swimming and cooled the poor little car down by parking in the shade. We were pleased we made the effort to walk up to the top pool as not many people did and it was much less crowded. It was on the way back to the highway that we realised that the petrol gauge was looking suspiciously low. Josh drove conservatively and we managed to cruise in to Katherine’s first petrol station just as the sputtering started. The first thing we did when we arrived was book ourselves a place on cruise down the Katherine Gorge. We then set about trying to find somewhere to stay. We decided to give the Katherine Youth Hostel a miss because a foursome of newly retired South Australians we’d met in Pine Creek had already told us they were staying there. We don’t have anything against South Australians but these ones were very talkative and hard to get away from! We found another hostel, the Victoria Hostel, on the other side of town and rather hesitantly checked it out. It obviously used to be a motel, but had definitely seen better days, or so we thought. The paint was peeling off the concrete buildings and it all looked decidedly shabby. We decided it wouldn’t hurt to take a look and we were pleasantly surprised to discover that the inside had been recently redecorated and was lovely. The next job on the owner’s list of things to do was an exterior paint job! Gives new meaning to the old adage "Never judge a book by its cover". We had a two-room suite to ourselves and enjoyed a night of luxury.

The Katherine Hot Springs were a few minutes drive from our hostel and we decided that early evening, before the mosquitoes started coming out, would be a good time for a dip. It seemed crazy lowering ourselves into hot springs when the temperature was in the 30s (Celsius!) but it was surprisingly refreshing and we spent over an hour immersed. Feeling most relaxed, we headed into town. The Katherine Hotel seemed like the least seedy pub around and we spent several hours playing pool, chatting to the locals and drinking far too much beer!

What’s the best cure for a thumping hangover? A cruise through the Katherine Gorge on a beautiful day, that’s what. We were both feeling decidedly seedy as we boarded the boat, but the spectacular scenery and fresh air soon revived us. In some places, the sandstone cliffs are 100s of feet high. There is also Aboriginal rock art in many places along the base of the escarpment. It’s a good place for bird-spotting too and we saw plenty of examples.

That afternoon, we headed south to the Cutta Cutta Caves, which are about 30 kilometres from Katherine. The limestone caves are home to thousands of bats, which managed to remain hidden from sight. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stay around until dusk when you can see them leaving the caves. Thousands of bats flapping their way through a small opening certainly would be a sight to see. We were surprised that, as we got deeper underground, it got hotter, not cooler as we’d expected. The stalagmites and stalactites were amazing, as were the many glow-worms.

We emerged into bright sunlight and stifling heat from the caves so it was a relief to hop back into the air-conditioned pocket-rocket. We headed back through Katherine and north towards Litchfield Park. About 130 kilometres north of Katherine we came across the Douglas Hot Springs. Don’t tell the rental Car Company but we broke the rules and drove on unsealed roads! We had a long relaxing dip in the pools, some of which were too hot to sit in. Others were freezing so we spent a bit of time finding one that was just right. After dragging ourselves back to the car we drove to Mt Bundy, where we’d booked a room at the Mt Bundy Station. The current owners of the station hire out the shearers’ quarters outside shearing season. They were sparse but very clean and equipped with ceiling fans to keep things cool. We made use of the barbecue before crashing out!

The next day was the last day of our Top End driving trip. We headed straight into the Litchfield Park. We stopped to look at a field full of magnetic termite mounds (as opposed to the Cathedral mounds we saw in Kakadu). The mounds aren’t actually magnetic but are very cleverly built facing east-west so that the temperature inside them remains constant. You can only spend so long oohing and aahing over big mounds of dirt so we pressed on to the Buley swimming holes for, you guessed it, a swim. The water was very cold but very refreshing as once again the temperature was in the 30s. (Just a note here about the climate in this part of Australia: Darwin’s average temperature is 32° C every day of the year. The humidity levels differ between the dry and wet seasons but you can guarantee it’s going to be HOT every day.) Next stop was the Florence Falls, which are not huge but are very pretty. We walked down to the plunge pool where you can swim out under the falls. Some idiots even jump from the top of the falls but the pool is not really deep enough and the rocks at the bottom shift after heavy rainfall. For this reason, there is a radio in the carpark so you can call for an air ambulance to pick up jumpers with broken limbs! After spending over an hour floating happily and being massaged by the falls, we made our way back to Darwin.

The Darwin Crocodile Farm is just outside the city. We stopped here for lunch and bravely tried crocodile burgers. We were both surprised that the meat is white, not red, but it was quite bland and a bit tough. The farm’s Café is not exactly cordon bleu so that may be due to the way it was cooked. We watched the saltwater crocodiles being fed. There is a very large pond that is home to hundreds of adult salties. Hungry crocodiles are pretty vicious and it was definitely a case of survival of the fittest as they all snapped and lunged at each other. The sound of their jaws snapping shut is like two big blocks of concrete being banged together. Away from the main pond there are enclosures with the smaller Johnson’s freshwater crocodiles, some American alligators (which were exchanged for an adult male saltwater croc and are for display only – they won’t get made into handbags or burgers) and the pens containing the young crocodiles. The saltwater crocodiles that are too old, tough and scarred to be used for their skin or meat have their own individual pens. Many of them were captured after they attacked livestock or people, and transported to the farm rather than being shot. Burt, the star of Crocodile Dundee, is 5 metres long and weighs 1000 kilograms! One other adult male is almost as big and is so cranky that the keepers won’t go into his enclosure to feed him, they just throw the food over the fence. They can’t even get in to clean the pen so he just gets hosed down every week! The baby crocodiles are surprisingly cute. Crocodiles lay large numbers of eggs because, in the wild, many of the babies will die before they mature. This means the babies are used to being surrounded by other babies. The pens are crawling with them! They lie on top of each other and when you lean over to look in they all get a fright and scuttle into the water.

We returned the car to the rental company. They laughed at how dirty we managed to get it. We didn’t tell them we’d gone offroad but had to laugh at their story about the guy who drove from Darwin to Broome on a whim. Nothing too unusual in that except that it’s in Western Australia and the company’s regulations state that you are un-insured if you take the rental outside the state you’re in. We were exhausted after our Top End adventure so we spent the evening on the couch with Bruce, watching the World Cup Cricket final. We were disappointed that New Zealand lost their semi-final match to Pakistan but Bruce was over the moon that Australia had reached the final and even more over the moon when they beat Pakistan to take the Cup.

We had three more days in Darwin before our flight to Singapore so we made the most of the pool and the nice weather. We also saw Notting Hill and Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged me. The best thing about Notting Hill was the preview it gave us of London, the worst thing was Julia Robert’s inane grinning and Hugh Grant’s annoying bumbling. We had a laugh over Austin Powers but both agreed that the jokes were all recycled from the first one. The day of our flight Bruce dropped us off at the airport several hours early. He had a busy day and that was the only time he could drive us there. We were grateful we didn’t have to pay big bucks for a taxi to take us from Howard Springs to the airport, and anyway, there’s a bar at the airport! We had fun playing pool and drinking Australian bubbly. The bar had no public toilets and the nearest ones were miles away so we snuck into the staff toilets. We were both amused to see rude magazines piled in there. What do the staff do on their breaks?! We couldn’t resist taking the centrefold from one and sticking to the wall above the pool table just before we headed for Customs.

We bought our quota of booze at the Duty Free Shop, as we knew that it was expensive in Singapore and hard to buy in Malaysia. Because Gin and tonic is such a good hot weather drink, we bought our favourite Bombay Sapphire. Delicious. The flight itself was uneventful. The food was revolting but the cabin crew were all very friendly (the best thing about QANTAS) and generous with the drinks. Shakespeare in Love was the in-flight movie and we were both relieved not to be subjected to yet another Julia Roberts flick. The Bus Company we travelled with in Oz obviously got a good deal on her films (or the drivers like her) because on every trip we took we were shown one.

The Australian leg of our trip was over and we were looking forward to Asia. Stay tuned for the story of our Malaysian adventure.