Darwin and Beyond

We went to Litchfield and Kakadu in a Nissan Maxima. We saw all that we wanted to see at both places in the 2WD. You may want to save yourself a quid by hiring a 2WD.

Unless you want to go off road and even then when hiring they cannot guarantee that you will be permitted to take their car off road until the day before pickup.

Before I finish it may be helpful if you give us a bit of background on yourself and the other of the "we" that you mentioned.

What have you done in the way of camping or 4WD off road touring etc.

Phil

Go to Litchfield and visit all the falls, one of my personal favorite places ever, and in kakadu a must is Gunlom Falls (UDP Falls) but just about any place you visit in both parks is a experience and will offer you all great memories, and you will always dream about coming back...

OK, so you have about 10 days out of Darwin. I don't mean to be a kill joy but it stopped raining here (after a very poor wet) a couple of weeks ago, so it won't have rained for 5 months by the time you get here. Most water holes would have started to stagnate by then and it will be starting to warm up again.
Yep, Litchfield for 2 or 3 days. The tourist brochures will tell you where to go on that one.Kakadu, Gunlom, camp overnight (showers, toilets) and do the walk up to the top of the falls (20 min). Nice safe swimming spot. Do a cruise on Yellow Waters, bird life will be excellent by then. Norlangie rock and Ubir, black fella rock art. Do the walk (1/2 hr) to the lookout at Ubir, spectacular! DONT camp near Ubir (Merl campground ), you will be eaten alive!
Jim Jim and Twin Falls are great when flowing and probably still worth seeing even when almost dry. The walk to the top of Twin is AWESOME and depending on water quality you might be able to swim (DONT PUT YOUR HEAD UNDER or drink it ) It is a HARD 1.5 - 2 hour walk each way.
If hungry when in Jabiru go the the bakery, great food of all sorts, it's in a dead end street and a bit hard to find, sort of behind the servo, just ask someone if you cant find it.
I guess you could stop and see the jumping croc's too, if that's your thing?

Cheers

Lyndon

Where and why - check out My Blogs (2009) - also for Litchfield. We had three days touring Litchfield, and eleven days in Kakadu seeing just the main sights. You could easily spend the whole two weeks there.

Motherhen

Thank you for all your posts, give us plenty to do.
Wato

Don't forget Adelaide River, you could stay at the Mt Bundy Caravan Pk just 3.2 Klms out of town. , visit the Railway Station Museum, Adelaide River War Cemetery, and many WW2 sites at Mt Bundy and surrounding area.

.

Edith (Leliyn) Falls is worth a visit. The turnoff is about 50km south of Pine Creek. Great place for a swim and there's a walk around the top of the falls. The campground is run by National Parks.

Graeme

if you do decide to do a jumping croc baot ride, then the mob that run out of the Fogg Dam area are who i'd suggest you go with. smaller boats and you get real close to the snapping hand bags. we also stopped in at Shady Camp for the night, just to see all the crocs that are at the weir wall when the tide comes in, being it was night time when this happened for us, it was like party lights on the water with so many red eyes about, absolutely amazing to see.
as mentioned already Ubirr in Kakadu at sunset is a must do (take a torch for the walk back, something to eat and drink up there and enjoy the view as the sun sets, no alcohol allowed though from memory), plenty of Aboriginal rock art to look at there also before the sun sets, so don't leave it too late to arrive for a look.