Travel the Top End

The top end if referred to the top part of the Northern Territory. Its called this because there are three main spots in the NT that are relatively close to each other. And when I say close to each other I mean like five hours between.

The three main areas are, Litchfield National Park, Kakadu National Park, and Katherine Gorge. It looks like and upside down triangle. Now obviously this is not the only thing to do in the NT, its just the most common.

Now, one really important thing to know about the NT and be aware of, Its the crocodiles! There are two types, salt water crocs (salties) and Fresh water crocs (freshies). Now to make things more confusing freshies won’t hurt you, its totally okay to swim along side them, salties will. They will actually bite you and do the hunt flip thing, store you under a rock to rot a little and then eat you. Talk about playing with your food. So don’t swim with salties, okay cool, but salties also live in fresh water, 70% actually. In the NT when its many season salties are able to cross roads and get into places they don’t normally live. The floods of the wet season allow them to travel south, so don’t swim unless marked safe to do so. That watering hole might look so nice to get into on a 45 degree day, but DON’T DO IT. Unless you have a death wish! Many places in the summer months November - March don’t allow canoe tours in the nationals parks because of this.

Okay, so now that we have the croc talk out of the way, lets chat what I did.

First and foremost you have to go to a jumping croc tour! They have many around Darwin that your able to do. I went and did the Spectacular jumping croc tour and it was fab. Now its a tour with nature, so you don’t have control of the weather and what the crocs are up to. But on this tour you take this very safe boat into this very dark and yucky looking river and spot the crocs, salties! (MOST IMPORTANT- DON’T HAVE LIMBS OUT OF THE BOAT. Unless you don’t need a hand anymore. Seriously a croc will jump up and steal it.) So, the guides put these huge chunks of meat on a string connected to a rod and launch it out to the croc and pretty much play with them and tease them to jump out of the water. Its very cool, the guides know all sorts of facts about them, and every crocodile has a name. They refer to the tour boat as an ice cream truck for salties.

The first national park I visited was Litchfield National Park. The biggest thing that I noticed was how big the Termite mounds were! I know its kind of gross with they were huge, its hard not to acknowledge them. Lichfield is super east to get to with sealed roads covering most the park which makes it easy to get around. So many waterfalls and walks and swimming holes! The swimming holes are unbelievable. Now remember what I said about salties, only swim in marked places. And don’t be dumb if you can’t swim, don’t go alone, and bring something for safety. But always have a floaty with you!.

For us next stop was Katherine Gorge! Probably my favourite place of the top end. Katherine is a small town, I found the whole area very friendly. Once at the National park we did a few walks that took up a few hours. There is so many hikes here, ranging from a few hours to a few days! It gets very hot here in the summer, so I would recommend coming in the winter. Winter is the high season for travel in the NT as summer is hot and rainy. While at the park we also did a river tour. This is one of the best ways to see the park, learn the history of the area and listen to the stories of the natives that lived and founded the area. In fact all over the Northern Territory you will be able to find aboriginal expertises from learning what they ate and how they lived off the most extreme land to sunning artworks and learning the dots!

Next up Kakadu, Now please don’t be like me and go with a 4x4. You will need it fo go to most areas. That is unless you want to spend an arm and a leg doing a tour. Now you might be able to get to some of these place in dry season but when I went the areas had received record rain the week before so most roads were closed. Again, you can’t get made at Mother Nature. I did get to see the are work pained all over Kakadu, its called Nanguluwurr Art Site. And it really was incredible. How these painting have stayed on these rocks is remarkable.

Now, the trip wasn’t to end here, I was to continue on to Uluru and the red centre but as covid is still large and in charge we had to cut the trip short. Lets get into that story…

Before flying to the NT they had a few cases but it was all on the decline and seemed to be getting bette. We were doing the trip as planned and once we reached Katherine the rural town we thought we were good and in the clear. Through out the travels we never gone out to eat, and made our own food along the way. We did everything not to be at an exposure site. While we were in Katherine we got word that they were going into lock down, in an HOUR! So we rushed and packed up all of our belonging and fled the town. Now lockdowns include as whole area, so we had to drive out of the greater area in 30 mins. WE MADE IT!! Passed the police setting up the road closed signs and everything. We weren’t the only ones doing this either. The special thing about the NT is that they really have no phone service, like anywhere, so we stayed in the most interesting motel, no phone service for 24hrs. We still managed to carry on with the national parks but couldn’t go anywhere near Katherine as we couldn’t afford to be in a hotspot. Being in a hotspot area in Australia means that you will need to hotel quarantine in your home state at your own expense. And I wasn’t doing that again. Because plans slightly changed we stayed at the most beautiful cattle station in the middle of nowhere. They had all sorts of animals we could play with and feed. It was the exact calming place I needed after hearing we wouldn’t be able to continue traveling to Western Australia. After lots of discussion, emailing, and tears, it was decided to book the next flight out of NT and fly back to Queensland. Even once I landed in Queensland I was greeted by police asking where I was and where I had all stayed. This decision was made because at that moment we could return to Queensland with no isolation and we could be in Queensland and fly to Western Australia after two weeks in Queensland. The covid refuses here in Australia are forever changing. Each states acts like its own individual country and it has made travelling very tough. Thing change retrospectively!! Because of this change to trip we had to cancel Uluru and the northern part of Western Australia.

Perks is that I managed to get most of the money back in cancellations. And It allows me to come back here and do western Australia in winter when it really should be done to avoid cyclone season entirely!

Hove you enjoyed my experience in the NT and fleeing a town to avoid a lockdown, its really all part of the experience. And trying to navigate covid while travelling has been my reality since the start. I have now really just got used to having flight credits everywhere and going with the flow. Its just out of your own personal control, so no point in getting upset over it or obsessing over border and new rules.

I know I’m so far behind, it’s because I haven’t been travelling with my laptop. But do you like hearing about the whole trip? Want me to be more specific? where I stayed? And specific places? Let me know your thoughts! I would love to hear them!

Xo Nic