All New Blog

For a long time – for about a year to be exact – nothing happened on this blog. While so much was happening on my journey across Australia and my visits to Singapore, Indonesia, Fiji and Vanuatu, I simply did not know where to start. So I never did.

As I had settled down on the Central Coast for a while, I was thinking about bringing the blog back to life again, but was too busy in my job as a store manager. Now that I have started travelling again and there is some things to talk about and some pictures to show, I finally made my decision to re-open this blog with a new strategy.

Instead of keeping everyone informed about every step of my journey, in the future I will post about a place at a time. This could be a town, a national park, a beach or any other point of interest that I either have been to and would to share with you, or a place that I am currently at. No matter which one of these, only the best and most interesting places will be reviewed in this blog.

Coming up is a what I would call a summary of amazing spots throughout Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and maybe occasionally some from my visits to South East Asia. From secret beaches to famous cities, from stunning attractions to wildlife and national parks…

Let this be an inspiration or even your personal guide to an amazing holiday downunder.

Enjoy!

Goodbye, Darwin!

Time to say “Goodbye”.

What a time it has been. I came to Darwin without a clue, with no plan, no job and no money. I found friends after a week, a car and a job after two weeks, a girlfriend after three weeks, what a great start. But the six months working as a Concierge in a five-star hotel went by like no time at all. And here I am, ready to go. Not ready to leave my friends and girlfriend behind, but I have no choice. Its time to go to Queensland.

On Wednesday, the 15th of September, the journey will begin. Darwin-Brisbane, the way I will drive it, there are 6.061 km ahead of me. Australia is such a big country, 6.000 km is more than from Lissabon to Moscow, to give you an idea in European terms.

My journey will be made of three parts. Part I is the easiest, all along the same major Highway, the famous Stuart Highway that goes all the way from Darwin to Adelaide. I won’t be driving that far: I will turn off just after Alice Springs, Part I is Darwin-Uluru. 1.938 km, enough for 4 days driving. Darwin is °13 South, Uluru is 26°. In Darwin we get 34 °C everyday. Ayers Rock gets frost at nights.

After climbing up Ayers Rock, the second part is through the desert! Almost 1000 kms of dirt road through the middle of nowhere – literally! Part II, Uluru-Cairns, is a total of 2.637 km, and will be driven in 6 days.

The third part is the most entertaining one, and the safest drive of all. Roughly 1.400 km along the Coast. Part III is Cairns-Bundaberg.

I will keep you updated, once I am on the road. I am travelling safe, with plenty of water, plenty of extra diesel, two spare tires, two jacks, and enough food to survive for a few days. Let the roadtrip begin…

More on Wednesday, the 15th of September!

The Katherine Gorge Famil

Saturday, the 29th of May 2010

Since Maryanne and me came back from our little holiday in Kakadu National Park I had worked every single day. I had just worked 13 days in a row and actually three of them with a double shift, because I was helping out in Banquets. This means, I worked from 7 am to 3.30 pm as a Porter, then had half an hour off to recover and get a couple of cigarettes down my lungs, before I had to get back to work two floors above our lobby. A wedding, a birthday party,  business meeting. 150 People wanting to get their food at the same time and drinks as well, of course. So I worked in Banquets from 4 pm until 11.30 pm. Straight home to bed, a couple of beers and back to work at 7 am…

And then the Sales Rep from AAT Kings came to my desk, a few days before the 29th of May. “Simon, are you still coming to the Katherine Gorge famil?”, she said.

“It’s this Saturday, right?” I asked her. Good, that I can join them, I thought, I have a day off that day. But bad, that this is my only day off and I knew, Katherine Gorge is not around the corner. Getting up at 5 am to be ready for the bus pickup at 6 am at Crowne Plaza and not returning before 8.30 pm – that’s a long day! I tried to find people who would join me, but some cancelled their RSVP, even those who worked a lot less than me.

“Niall, you wanna come to Katherine Gorge on Saturday?” He is a good friend from the Food & Beverage Department.

“How much is it?” he asked.

“For free. It’s a famil. We’ll get a cruise and free food.” I answered.

So there we went. We were tired, but ready to go. It was 6.05 am, when the AAT Kings bus showed up. Lucky I packed my pillow.

The first couple of hours were just a long ride on the highway. Most of that time I hugged my pillow, falling asleep, waking up from annoying comments of the bus driver, or should I say, ‘tour guide’ and falling back to sleep. It was a good tour guide, his comments were just annoying to me, because I was tired. And I can get grumpy when I’m tired.

We stopped in a little town called Adelaide River, where people went inside a restaurant to have a little brekky. Me and Niall had our own breakfast. Energy drink, chocolate bar, a smoke. And back on the bus, where I continued hugging my pillow. After a nother not very restful nap we arrived in Edith Falls at around 11 am.

Left: Edith Falls, where Niall and me swam all the way over to the Falls. Middle: There were signs warning about saltwater crocodiles. However we didn’t get to see (or feel) any while we swam across. Right: After the swim at Edith Falls we continued to Katherine Gorge where we boarded a couple of cruise ferrys and enjoyed lunch on the boat.

Left: The beach at which we landed. Because the water level gets low in the dry season, we had to stop here with the first ferry and walk five minutes to the second ferry that was waiting for us where the water was deep enough again. Middle: Niall enjoying the walk. Right: Me posing rather awkwardly for a photo.

Left: Niall and me posing in front of the huge cliffs at Katherine Gorge. Middle: The most famous part of Katherine Gorge. In the wet season, the water would be several metres higher. In the dry, the water sinks down, sometimes making it impossible for the boats to get as far as this. Right: Niall, me and other guests from the AAT Kings Katherine Gorge famil.

Left: The weather was awesome the entire day. No clouds and 32 Celsius, just like it is almost every day in and around Darwin. Middle: Niall enjoying the tour. Right: Cliffs and trees in Katherine Gorge.

Left: Maybe Niall got annoyed with me because I was running around with my camera like a japanese tourist, taking photos of pretty much every rock and every tree. Middle and right: Bats, Bats and Bats (oder zu deutsch, Flughunde). These little vampires are very common in the north of Australia. Sometimes, when I sit on my balcony at night, they come up and hang of one of the trees next to our apartment. With a wingspan of more than 120 cm takeoff and landing can be impressive events!

On our way back to Darwin I got a bit bored on the bus, so I took these pictures. This is what you get when you take long term exposures (e.g. two seconds) out of a bus thats doing a 100 k’s on Stuart Highway.

I can really recommend this tour to Katherine Gorge if you don’t mind spending eight hours on the bus, or if you bring a pillow or a good book. AAT Kings offers this tour for $199, Pinnacle Tours for $157 and with Topend Escapes you can go from $109, depending how much time in advance you make the booking (Prices of July 2010).

After this day I only had another two days to work after that for my real days off. On the 31st of July Maryanne and Me went to Singapore and Batam (Indonesia) for a few days. My next post will be about our holiday in South East Asia, of course with lots of photos, as usual.

Have a great week!

Kakadu National Park Part III

Saturday, the 15th of May 2010

So I had now idea what to expect. As I mentioned in Part II, there was a surprise waiting for me. My birthday present from Maryanne. I was wondering, what else was there to do in Kakadu National Park? We had done the Yellow Water Cruise, been to Nourlangie Rock and Jabiru. There is not much left to do, especially not something that you have to get up early for. She was driving this time and as she was heading for the dead-end road heading to the old mine, I became an idea of what I might get. I knew where this road goes to. The airport of Jabiru is down that way.

A scenic flight. Left: Taking off at Jabiru Airport in a Kakadu Air 6-seater. Middle: The first detour went over the town of Jabiru. In the middle you can see the Jabiru Holiday Inn in the shape of a giant crocodile. Right: After 25 minutes of flying over the vast plains we got to Twin Falls, which is only accessible by boat. There is no road all the way to the falls.

Sorry, I know it’s large, but I wanted to share this picture of the magnificent Jim Jim Falls in full size. The water falls down more than 200 metres from the Arnhem Land plateau into the shallow Kakadu National Park area. According to geological information, about 150 million years ago, the whole of Kakadu was under the sea and Arnhem Land was only a flat land next to the sea with vertical cliffs on the coast. Today the Arnhem Land plateau rises up to 330 metres at its highest points. In the wet season there are tonnes of water flushing down the falls, much more intensely than on my pictures which was taken at the beginning of the dry season. For a public picture of Jim Jim falls in the wet season click here (external link). In the dry season the waterfall can dry out almost completely. There is a 60 km dirt road to Jim Jim Falls but it is for 4WD only and only accessible in the dry season. In the wet season there is no way at all to access the area in a vehicle. All pictures you find from the falls in the wet season were taken from a helicopter or an aircraft.

Left: Flying over the Arnhem Land Plateau. Middle: Returning to the hotel and checking out. The entrance of the crocodile shaped Holiday Inn is a giant crocodiles head, you enter the lobby through the mouth. Right: Hundreds of flies and other insects have died on the bumper and bonnet of our 2010 Toyota Camry.

Left: On the way home we stopped at Fogg Dam, where this little creature crossed the road. Middle: From the car park at Fogg Dam we saw this 4-metre saltwater crocodile. It could easily walk up to the road and nibble on us tourists, but it decides to stay in the water. Right: Getting back into our Toyota Camry. This hirecar had only driven 600 kms when I picked it up in Darwin. Well, we arrived back in Darwin at around 5.00pm on Saturday and had a quiet night. I had to get up early for work the next day.

If you want to see all the photos I took in Kakadu National Park, click here to view the entire album (144 photos) on flickr.

Kakadu National Park Part II

Friday, the 14th of May 2010 still onboard the Yellow Water Cruise

Click on the pictures to enlarge. Left: No leaves, just branches. Beautiful dead trees along the river. Middle: Reflections of the wetlands grass in the river. Right: We had only been on the cruise for about twenty minutes, when this huge male saltwater crocodile came our way. It didn’t jump of course, not like the jumping ones on Adelaide River. There they are actually trained to jump up high, since they know they will get food. If they cancel a tour, the crocodile will still come back to the spot where the boats usually go past, even at the exact time. Thats why they say, if you camp out in the wild, never go to the same waterhole twice. The crocodile will wait for you.

Left: If you like birds, this would be the place to be. Middle: We almost didn’t see this one in the dirty water. This is how they work. They hide underneath plants or a few centimeters under the surface until their meal walks up to the river to refresh itself with water. Then they literally jump out of the river and grab whatever they can hold on to. Usually the croc wins the battle and drags the food back to his safe home. Right: Another one of those funny looking birds. From the top of the tree he has the best view over his home.

Left: Beautiful creatures they are though. Great to watch them – from a safe distance. Middle: I can definitely recommend the Yellow Water Cruise as one of the best things to do in the whole Northern Territory. Probably the best way to see Australian birds and reptiles in their wildlife. Right: The conditions in these vast plains are utterly hostile. In the dry season the waterlevels are found to be several metres lower than in the wet season. In February or March, this tree would hardly be seen, maybe a few top branches would stick out of the water. In the dry season a few billabongs run dry, blocking the saltwater crocodiles from getting into freshwater areas.

Left: Aboriginal art sites at Nourlangie rock. These drawings are approximately 10,000-20,000 years old. Middle: Palm trees around Nourlangie Rock. Right: The rock where these drawings are found constantly provided shelter for several indigenous peoples. It was used until several decades ago, which makes this rock one of the most inhabitated aboriginal sites in Australia.

Left: I have no idea what species that is, but this spider is not a small one. Middle: Me infront of Nourlangie Rock. Right: Even a short climb will do. Here you can get a great overview of the vast countryside.

Left: Brown leaves infront of another rock of the whole Nourlangie rock complex. Middle: Maryanne, Nourlangie Rock. Right: The weather was perfect. About 33 degrees Celsius and hardly any clouds. It has been like this for about two months now. The next drops of rain will be a while away. The forecast says October or November…

Well, now you know, what I did on the 14th of May 2010. The reason for our short holiday was my birthday. I didn’t feel like a big party for my 24th. So me and Maryanne had a great weekend away from Darwin, away from work and the big city. Later on we went back to the Holiday Inn and relaxed by the pool. I had a few phone calls from Germany during the day and for dinner we enjoyed the room service (The Steak was great!). At the end of the day, Andrea, a german friend who also works at Crowne Plaza Darwin, and her boyfriend arrived from Darwin as well. We had a few drinks and shared our stories about all these Dingos and Wallabies on the Arnhem Highway.

We had an early night, because the next day we had to get up quite early again. There was a surprise waiting for me – my birthday present from Maryanne. She refused to give away any details, so I was exceedingly excited. Yellow Water Cruise, crocodiles, historic rock art sites, relaxing by the pool of the Holiday Inn, drinks with friends – I had a great birthday!

Kakadu National Park Part I

Thursday, the 13th of May 2010

I finished work at quarter to three and rushed down Mitchell St as excited as I hadn’t been for ages. I picked up the white Toyota Camry from the Advanced car rentals, not a single scratch on the car. A 2010 model, only 927 kms on the odometer. I drove back to work, picked up Maryanne and then I dropped her off at home before I went to my place. I packed, and I usually pack to much. Because I pack everything. Laptop, Internetstick, external hard drive, cables, adapters, panadol, other medicine, insect repellant, maps, and of course clothes. We stopped at McDonalds before we left Darwin and at around 6 pm we were on the road. By the time we turned into Arnhem Highway the sun had set and the amount of insects that we drove into made it look like it was snowing outside. I was surprised that the narrow road down to Kakadu National Park had a speed limit of 130 kph. But it was good, there were hardly any other cars. And then the animals came out.

We saw half a dozen dingos and a few little kangaroos or wallabies, not sure. It was either one or the other, that was jumping out of the bush next to the street and stopped right in front of the car. Luckily it wasnt too big and didn’t cause any damage. But it certainly didn’t surive being hit by a 2010 Toyota Camry. Anyway, it was the only one we hit so we kept driving, listening to music, mostly very loud. I was bored by the road that would just look the same for miles and miles while Maryanne fell asleep, woke up, fell asleep, the usual passenger thing.

It was almost 10 pm when we got to Jabiru and checked in at the Gagadju Holiday Inn Hotel. A bit old-fashioned and out of date, but at least the largest crocodile in the world. Out duty manager from the Crowne Plaza booked as a free tour on the Yellow Water Cruise in Cooinda, so we knew we had to get up early. We stayed awake until midnight and a couple of glasses of bubbles before we went to sleep.

Friday, the 14th of May 2010

It was hard to get up that early, because Cooinda was about 55 km away from Jabiru where the hotel was. But it was worth it…

The sunrise over the East Alligator River wetlands.

Yellow Water Cruises operates with four boates from Cooinda Yellow Waters.

The morning sunlight creates an impressive atmosphere over the wetlands.

The wildlife is amazing and more likely to be seen on the morning cruise. Huge birds with wingspan of more than a meter can be seen especially on the sunrise tour.

The calm water reflects everything above the horizon perfectly. It also reflects the colours of the sunrise,and that’s why these waters are called Yellow Waters.

To be continued with more photos in Part II…

Sociodigital Reincarnation

To most people this will be a surprise, to some a positive one, others may be disappointed. Some may say I didn’t keep my word. Some others might be glad I didn’t.

I am returning to facebook. I have been thinking about it for a couple of weeks now, and the reasons are good. There is more reason in coming back and joining it than there is for not doing it.

But there will be conditions that time. I will not post pictures or at least not hundreds a month. Pictures will be selected and should not show me on the floor of a random bar bladdered as can be or climbing up a tree on a private property because I think I can fly. I have come to the conclusion that pictures like that do not seem to be funny to everyone, because there are people out there who lack a sense of humour.

And there are people who lack a sense of communication. In the past months without facebook I have received heaps of e-mails, but not as many as I expected. Some people just don’t know any other communication than facebook. I would like to call it the post-email-generation. Believe it or not, some people do not even have MSN, ICQ or Skype. And if they do, they usually forgot what their password was and weren’t able to log on for ages.

So anyway, back on facebook I shall be, months after my digitial suicide. I kept my word, acutally, because I did it. I never said I m not going to go back one day. In the months of living without it, I learned that facebook is not really necessary, but still a good way to keep in touch with those who depend on facebook.

I will go through my contact list and delete a few people though. So if you see an alert “Add Simon to your friendlist” after we had been friends already, don’t worry about it. I deleted our digital friendship for a reason. Sorry, mate!

Do you like this new layout? This theme came up new and I quite liked it, so I thought I should give it a try.

Yesterday I started work at 6.00am and worked until 1.00pm, then caught the bus to Casuarina where I was helping out in a stocktake of a clothes shop until 10.00pm. Another 16 hour-day. Today is my day off, but tomorrow I will start at 6.00am again and work in different environments until midnight.

I have been in the new flat for two weeks now. The place is huge, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, two balconies. My flatmates are from Brisbane and not to bad to live with. I will stay here until the beginning of September.

Next weekend I will go to Kakadu National Park with my girlfriend. I booked us a fullsize hire car and were staying in a four-star hotel. Which will cost less than 20 Euros per person per night, since I work for the company with more than 4,000 hotels around the world.

Enjoy the weekend and I ll see you on facebook!

R.I.P. Petrus T. Ratajczyk

I have eight favorite bands and these have been my favorite bands for several years. I will summarise them for you before I get to the main topic of this post.

Dream Theater is my main favorite band. They were formed in 1985 in New York, USA and their genre is mainly progressive metal and progressive rock. I have all their albums and DVDs and I have seen them live on stage twice (in Bonn and Stuttgart, Germany). It is probably one of the only bands in musical history (espacially in the rock and netal scene) where all bandmembers are married to their first wives and have a bunch of kids each.

Symphony X is another progressive metal band and also one of my favorites. They were founded in New Jersey in 1994 and their guitarist Michael Romeo is also known as one of the best and fastest ever. I saw them live on stage in Stuttgart in 2007.

Dredg was formed in 1993 in California, USA in the genres of indie, progressive rock and alternative rock. They have only released four albums so far, but each of them so different to the previous, you would think it was a different band playing. Unfortunately I haven’t seen them live yet.

Live was a alternative rock/post-grunge band from Pennsylvania, USA. They published seven albums between their forming in 1988 and the split-up in 2009. Especially the live-DVD from the Paradiso in Amsterdam I can highly recommend. I have never seen Live live.

Pink Floyd is also one of my favorite bands, needless to say much about them. I think I have all their what feels like hundreds of albums. It is hard to believe that they were founded in London about 45 years ago, and yet their music is still so popular even amongst my generation. I have never seen them on stage, but I have their P.U.L.S.E.-DVD which is pretty awesome.

Rammstein is a controversial topic. Outside Germany they are really popular and for most Australians and New Zealanders it is one of the first things that comes to mind when you ask them what they now about Germany. Other things might be the Oktoberfest, BMW, Hitler, an incredible culture around tasty sausages and the best beer in the world. Anyway I am a big fan and this “Neue Deutsche Härte”-Band, which I would describe as a mix of electro pop and hard rock, was founded in Berlin in 1994 and has released six albums and a very interesting live DVD called “Völkerball”. I have never seen them live but I can’t wait to attend one of their amazing pyrotechnically enhanced stage shows.

Muse is also one of my favorites. They are well known in Australia, New Zealand and, obviously, the UK because that’s where they’re from. They were also founded in 1994, just like Symphony X and Rammstein – what a great year! Their genre is a mix of alternative rock, art rock and new prog. On each album all the songs cover most main genres and sound totally different to other songs on the same album. I saw Muse live in Auckland on the Big Day Out in January 2010, to see pictures of the Big Day Out simply click here.

And then, at last, there is Type O Negative, founded in 1989 in New York. Their music is, like their name suggests, quite depressive, the genres are Doom Metal or Gothic Metal and, as wikipedia tells us, also Alternative Rock. And this is what I actually wanted to write about in this post. Petrus T. Ratajczyk, or better known as Peter Steele (stage name) the unique singer of the band, died of heart failure last wednesday, the 14th of April, at the age of 48.

Source: wikimedia.org

I saw Type O Negative at the Wacken Open Air Festival in 2007, and Steele was drinking bottles of red wine during the concert (which he threw into the crowd when they were empty) and as far as I remember got extremely drunk towards the end of the show. Since his deep bass voice really made up for most of the dark, depressive atmosphere and character of Type O Negatives music, I believe they will never publish any music or play at any concerts or festivals again.

One of my favorite songs is “Love you to death”, which you can watch on YouTube.

If you’re a true metal fan and all this got you quit upset, I also have something to cheer you up. It’s just a little taste of what sort of people you can find on Australian TV, click here

This is it for today. I hope you’re not planning to fly anywhere while this nasty volcanic cloud sits over central Europe. Take the bus and enjoy the weekend!

New photos on flickr

I’m not doing too bad. I have to admit completely stopping smoking was not possible, since I am around smokers all the time. Incredible, how many backpackers smoke, concerning that they should be on low money all the time and saving for tours, petrol or flights. But I have reduced it a lot. There were times when I went through a pack a day, thats 25 Pall Mall cigarettes a day. Now a pack lasts a more than a week, I still have maybe one or two cigarettes a day. When I go out and drink, it is even more difficult, kind’a not surprising.

But I’m not drinking as much as I used to. I go out maybe twice a week, that helps the fact that I m still trying to quit smoking. So I ll keep you updated on how I m going. I m sure I ll make progress, just give me some time.

I m working heaps at the moment. This week I only have one day off, which is today. Working for the Crowne Plaza is great though, time runs by so quickly and I enjoy working in a hotel and dealing with hotel customers all day. My workmates are awesome, I can hardly describe how great it is to be part of the team here. I have never seen such a nice bunch of people working together, and I have worked in all sorts of places before.

Some of you might have realised that I have uploaded some more pictures on my flickr-website. Almost 1000 pictures were uploaded this month, so have a look around and enjoy. I will go through a few recent uploads, so you know how to find them.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

I stayed in Sydney in October 2009 for two days and also in February 2010 for one week. Simply click on the picture above to get to my pictures from Sydney.

Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand

To see the pictures from one of the most beautiful places in the world and also probably the place in the world where it rains the most (more than 8.000 mm per year), simply click on the picture above, the newest pictures are on page three to five. This place is also quite a nasty location. If you don’t get wet, you will definitely get eaten by sandflies. Start eating a sandwich outside and you’ll be surrounded by dozens of those little flies within seconds.

Shanghai, China

There are not many pictures of Shanghai on my website, because I only had a couple of hours in the city. My flight from Frankfurt landed just after lunchtime and I was flying out again at 7.20pm. Only because of the MAGLEV, the fast magnetic transrapid train, which does 431 km/h I was able to actually have a look at one of the city centers.

Whitianga and the Coromandel Peninsula, North Island, New Zealand

Some more pictures from Whitianga. These ones were taken in the time between November 2009 and January 2010 when I worked in Whitianga as a bartender, chef and waiter at Wild Hogs Bar and Restaurant. Same procedure – click on the picture, the newest pictures are on page ten to twelve in the album.

I will keep uploading pictures, but I always load them up in a strictly chronological order. So you have to wait for pictures of Darwin until the rest of what I did before Darwin is online. Shouldn’t be too long anyway.

I hope you are all very well!

Litchfield and Crocodiles

67 posts I have published, all of them in german. This is post number 68 and it is the first one in english. Welcome to www.zapletan.com, all my australian friends and bro’s from New Zealand! Great to have you here keeping in touch with what I am up to.

My first post will be about Litchfield National Park, one of the most spectacular places if you end up spendind time in Darwin.

It was about 6.50 when the bus picked me up outside my hostel. I was still tired of course, since I went to bed at around 3 am. So I hopped on the bus and fell asleep before we even left Darwin. I have no idea how long it took us to get down to Litchfield since I slept all the way, but by the time we got there I was right awake. The first stop was Florence Falls, where we stopped for about one hour and had the chance to go for a swim. A huge waterfall with a nice swimming area below, full of fish and crystal clear water.

After we have all had a swim down there we proceeded to the Buley Blowholes, an area within a single creek creating different swimmingholes while making its way downstream.

We all went for a swim for at least half an hour before we had to get out of the water again. After those two swims we drove down to Wangi Falls where we weren’t allowed to go for a swim because of the risk of saltwater crocodiles but we did get some lunch down there. Sandwiches with ham, bacon or roast beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, mayo, beetroot, pickes and onion – anything anyone felt like…

We stayed at Wangi Falls for about an hour and found some interesting spiders in the shelter.

I forgot what this one is called, but it is quite pretty and it is about the size of a matchbox.

They call this one a Huntsman spider (Sparassidae), a species that can get a legspan of up to 30 cm. Their bite is not toxic but can cause some serious pain, inflammation or even irregular pulse. It is however considered to be peaceful unless attacked, so we were safe looking at it and taking pictures of it from a safe distance.

And then we saw the red-legged golden orb-web spider (Nephila inaurata) which creates webs that even catch little birds or bats. This species is more common in South Africa or the Indian Ocean but can also be found in Australia. This particular spider was about the size of an adult’s hand, so roughly about 300 mm long and 150 mm wide. Click on the picture to get a close-up view on it.

After seeing all those huge insects we continued to see some huge reptiles. Our bus tour continued from deep in the heart of Litchfield National Park back towards Darwin, past Humpty Doo to Adelaide River. Most tour companies, like TopendEscapes or AATKings use the local Jumping Crocodile Cruise to send their guests to, whereas Wallaroo Tours have their own property next to the river, and they own their own boat – which is the smallest operating the Jumping Crocodile Cruise… and that means you get a lot closer to the crocs than with anyone else!

This one is a female saltwate crocodile, about three metres long, trying to catch the meat on the rod, but it was probably the smallest and least aggressive one that we saw on Adelaide river this afternoon. It didnt take long until Barry, our tour guide, identified one of the males that ruled the area of this part of the river.

When you see those wild reptiles less than a metre in front of you, almost five metres long, and jumping out of the water about two metres high, you feel the fear and respect that these animals deserve. Those crocodiles are believed to be about 200 million years old whereas dinosaurs became extinct about 65 million years ago. You have to remember – whatever killed the dinosaurs did not kill the crocodiles, they are excellent survivors. The largest crocodile ever sighted was more than seven metres long and weighed probably more than 2,000 kgs. When you see these huge creatures in action, there is one thing that comes to your mind straight away… stay away! They would love you to be part of their food chain!

This male crocodile leaps out of the water about 1,5 metres since it is hungry and wants to be fed.

An eagle above Adelaive River, the habitat of more than 3,000 saltwater crocodiles which would all be more than happy to nibble on one of the 1 million curious tourists that come across the top end of Australia every year.

Wallaroo Tours operates the smallest boat on Adelaide River doing the Jumping Crocodile Cruise – which means, you won’t get as close to the crocodiles on any other tour…

After spending more than an hour on the river, getting close-up pictures of huge saltwater crocodiles we made our way back to Darwin. The bus headed straight to East Point in Darwin to be back in time for the sunset around 7 pm.

The conclusion of the day was Champaign and Prawns while we watched a magnificient sunset over the bay and reflected our experiences of the day. Everyone was still speechless from the beautiful waterfalls in Litchfield and the giant crocodiles in Adelaide River.

Wallarroo Tours dropped everyone back at their place of accomodation at around 7.30pm, after such an interesting and long 12-hour-day of seeing waterfalls, spiders, birds, crocodiles and the beauty of the Northern Territory of Australia.

Many thanks to Barry, our tour guide, bus driver, boat captain and crocodile expert.

And thanks for reading all of this.