Can’t honestly say that a visit to Australia was ever in my original plans before I left London the first time BUT as I travelled around Asia, it made sense to drop into Australia and renew my residency visa for another 3 years. I thought about where I wanted to go and the answer was Darwin as it meant that I could get out to Kakadu National Park.

Flight to Darwin was full of delays as you can read from my previous postings. Arrival though was brilliant. My Australian residency visa is 30 years old and in a passport from when I was 10 years old. I’ve had 4 passports since then (no, I’m not 50 years old. My passports just get full and I have to renew them – the current one is 6 months old and nearly full already!). When flying into Sydney I usually get held up in immigration for an hour or two whilst they sort it out since most immigration people have never seen that visa. In Darwin it took 5 minutes. The woman knew what it was, linked it to my latest passport and job done, the Aussies let me back in!

Having arrived in Darwin some time around 5am and also having chosen the WORST accommodation I have had anywhere (with the exception of a hotel in India back in 2001),  I had managed very little sleep before jumping on a tour out to Adelaide River. The tour itself was great. The guide was a young Darwin girl who had lived in London for a couple of months and kept wanting to talk to me about London. I think she missed the place.

When we got on the bus. we were given a safely briefing not unlike an aircraft safety briefing. All exits were pointed out. We were told how to put on our seat belts. We were told where the fire extinguishers were and how to break the windows in case of emergency. It was a little over the top and I did have to stop myself from laughing whilst it was happening.

Anyway… First stop Fogg Dam to look at the birds and wetlands.

View over the wetlands from Fogg Dam

Second Stop… Windows on the Wetlands which is basically the highest point in the area and allows you to get a better look at the wetlands.

View from Windows on the Wetlands

Third Stop… Meat Pie and a can of Solo. Well, not really but yes. We actually went to see the jumping crocodiles and I had my first Aussie Meat Pie in their kiosk in either 2 or 5 years (not sure which). Nobody makes meat pies like the Aussies.

You’ve gotta crack a Solo!

Jumping Crocodiles were pretty amazing. These things were NOT tame and I’m not sure I would have liked to have got in the way of them. We went out on the river for a cruise whilst the boat crew fed the crocodiles from a pole causing them to jump for their food. It certainly was one way of getting up close to a croc!

Crocodiles jumping for their food

Day 2: About 2 hours of sleep because of the noise in the world’s crappiest ever backpackers. Picked up at 6am to go out to Kakadu. Was a brilliant day. First stop was breakfast where I had the best ever bacon sandwich at some little roadside cafe – most important that I mention that as it seems my Aussie stop over was about food products that I havent eaten in a while.

We stopped at the Aboriginal Cultural Centre outside Kakadu where I was surprised to see that Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert is still alive and well. I got talking to her/him and her/his aboriginal friend because I wanted a photo. Turns out that the aboriginal friend is singing in London at Greenwich for the Olympics as part of the BT River of Music. Unfortunately it is before I get home so I wont be able to go otherwise it would have been fun (and easy) to go and watch.

Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert and his/her friend who is singing at the Olympics

Whilst at the Cultural Centre I managed to find my favourite ever ice-cream, although I am stunned to have had to pay $3.80 (£2.50) for it. For the record a Magnum was $4.95 (£3.30). I admit to throughly enjoying the ice-cream regardless of the price!

The worlds best ever ice-cream!

Following my ice-cream indulgence, we did a cruise through East Alligator where we got to see some more wildlife and lots of crocs before climbing Ubirr to see Aboriginal rock paintings.

Kakadu Crocodile

A water lily

Aboriginal Rock Art

Reached Darwin at 8:30pm, jumped in a cab straight out to the airport for my next flight… It was a very quick trip to Oz but I enjoyed it.