The Big Lap – days 114 and 115 | alison richards

DAY 114

7th April 2021

We drove to the B24 Liberator site where the American plane Milady crashed on a training mission. Was really interesting, and a good drive in – very jungley!

The bits of Milady are strewn all over the jungle.

One of the tallest termite mounds I think I’ve seen!

We then had a look around Wagait Beach, definitely no Bondi!

Off to Darwin then. Did the Bunnings and Supercheap run and got some stuff then head towards the city. Darwin city was really nice, with some HUGE houses on the water and fancy boats. Too humid for me to live here though, I'd constantly be a dripping ball of sweat.

We then drove back down the highway and towards Kakadu, stopping off at the Corroboree Park Tavern for the night. They had a pool but it was too dark by the time we were ready to go in it. I also ended up showering in the men’s bathroom at the same time as Josh because a) there were SO MANY BUGS and b) there were cane toads around and I was scared lol.

DAY 115

8th April 2021

Said hello to the crocodiles and water buffalo at the campsite – in cages like a zoo. The saltwater croc was HUGE.

We then drove to Kakadu NP via Jabiru. In Kakadu, we stopped at several places where there were Aboriginal cave paintings and art but you had to walk at least 2km to see them and it was just so humid that neither of us felt like it. Usually I’d be up for it but the humidity was just so energy sapping.

One of the cave paintings that we saw walking about 400m on the trail. It was too humid to continue

Also mostly everything here was closed that there was just no point paying for the $50 parks pass, what a waste of money when you can’t visit anything. Very disappointing and frustrating. I really wanted to go to the Maguk swimming hole but it was closed.

We went to Cooinda Lodge caravan site for the night – very much a caravan park but was really close to where we were going on a cruise of the wetlands tomorrow. Plus they had a pool which we both gratefully got into!

That night we cooked dinner, showered and then hustled up to the tent. There were SO many mozzies around, the air was just thick with them. Plus there were cane toads as well, and it was humid all night. We had the fans on the tent on all night. I also heard some noises that night – turned out that there was a resident dingo and wild horses and I heard both of them pass by our car in the night. Crazy!