Australia: the Top End, Darwin, Kakadu and Litchfield

Arrive in Darwin

Darwin International Airport to your hotel in central Darwin

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Darwin
• Environ 18 min de route

Après-midi

The afternoon is free. Walk the shaded paths of Bicentennial Park along the clifftop, or go down to the Waterfront, where the Recreation Lagoon is netted for safe swimming. At 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing on the days ahead: the heat, the crocodile rules and what to pack for Kakadu.

Soir

Then we walk to dinner together as the sun goes down over the harbour.

Compris

• Pick-up at Darwin International Airport (DRW)
• Welcome briefing with your guide at 6 pm
• Welcome dinner in Darwin

Activités en option

• Mindil Beach Sunset Market, on Thursday and Sunday evenings in the dry season (free to enter)

Darwin with the Larrakia

Darwin city: the Larrakia Cultural Centre, Fannie Bay and the Waterfront

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Darwin
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

A slow first morning, so you can shake off the flight before Kakadu. We start at the Larrakia Cultural Centre, where Larrakia people give an introduction to the saltwater country Darwin is built on: its seasons, its stories and the languages still spoken here. Then a short drive to Fannie Bay and the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, where the Cyclone Tracy gallery plays a recording of the storm, and the Aboriginal art collection gives you a first look at the bark paintings and carvings of Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at the Waterfront. Your guide also covers the other history people forget: Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin on 19 February 1942, and the wartime tunnels and memorials are close by.

Soir

The afternoon and evening are yours, and dinner is wherever you like.

Compris

• Larrakia Cultural Centre, entry included
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory at Fannie Bay, with the Cyclone Tracy gallery
• Sit-down lunch at the Darwin Waterfront

Activités en option

• WWII Oil Storage Tunnels on the waterfront (price shown at booking)
• Mindil Beach Sunset Market, on Thursday and Sunday evenings in the dry season

Into Kakadu: the East Alligator River and Ubirr

Darwin to Fogg Dam and Mamukala Wetlands on the Arnhem Highway, then the East Alligator River, Ubirr and Jabiru

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Jabiru
• Environ 4 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is near the East Alligator River, the border with Arnhem Land, and in the early afternoon we board the Guluyambi Cultural Cruise, where an Aboriginal guide talks about the river, bush food and the crocodiles basking on the banks. Late in the day we walk the galleries at Ubirr: X-ray fish and turtles, Mimi spirit figures and early contact paintings.

Soir

We climb to the lookout for sunset over the Nadab floodplain, then drive about 40 km to Jabiru. If the morning runs late, your guide drops the Mamukala stop rather than cut short the cruise or Ubirr.

Compris

• Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve in the morning
• Kakadu National Park pass
• Mamukala Wetlands bird hide
• Lunch near the East Alligator River
• Guluyambi Cultural Cruise on the East Alligator River with an Aboriginal guide
• Ubirr rock art galleries and sunset from the Nadab lookout
• Dinner in Jabiru

Burrungkuy at opening, Yellow Water at golden hour

Jabiru to Burrungkuy (Nourlangie), Cooinda and Yellow Water Billabong, then back to Jabiru

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Jabiru
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is at Cooinda, and the middle of the day, the hottest part, is free in the shade at Cooinda. In the late afternoon we board the boat on Yellow Water Billabong, an Indigenous-owned cruise through paperbark and pandanus, looking for crocodiles, jabiru, magpie geese and sea eagles as the light goes gold.

Soir

Dinner is back in Jabiru.

Compris

• Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) rock art walk with your guide
• Warradjan Cultural Centre at Cooinda
• Lunch at Cooinda
• Late-afternoon Yellow Water cruise
• Dinner in Jabiru

Activités en option

• Scenic flight over Kakadu's escarpment and floodplains (price shown at booking)

West to Litchfield's swimming holes

Jabiru to Batchelor by the Arnhem and Stuart highways, then the Magnetic Termite Mounds, Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Batchelor
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we leave Kakadu the way we came in, west along the Arnhem Highway, with a coffee stop near the Mary River, then turn south on the Stuart Highway to Batchelor, the small town at the gate of Litchfield National Park.

Après-midi

About three and a quarter hours on sealed road brings us there for a long sit-down lunch out of the midday heat; the drive into the park and back adds about 45 minutes, so about four hours in all. In the afternoon we drive into the park, past the Magnetic Termite Mounds, flat grey slabs up to about two metres tall that are all lined up north to south to keep cool, and the much taller cathedral mounds. Then it is time to swim. Buley Rockhole is a chain of shallow rock pools and cascades, and Florence Falls drops twin streams into a deep, monsoon-forest plunge pool. By late afternoon most day-trippers have gone back to Darwin.

Soir

Dinner is in Batchelor.

Compris

• Drive from Kakadu to Litchfield with a coffee stop
• Sit-down lunch in Batchelor
• NT Parks pass for Litchfield National Park
• Magnetic Termite Mounds and cathedral termite mounds
• Swimming at Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls
• Dinner in Batchelor

Wangi Falls and back to Darwin

Batchelor to Tolmer Falls and Wangi Falls, then Darwin International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Environ 2.5 h de route

Matin

We leave Batchelor after an early breakfast, ahead of the day-trip coaches from Darwin. First stop is the Tolmer Falls lookout, where the water drops off the sandstone plateau into a deep gorge; there is no swimming here, as the caves below shelter a protected bat colony. Then on to Wangi Falls, two falls side by side into a wide, clear pool with a sandy edge. If rangers have opened it for the season, this is the best swim of the trip.

Après-midi

A loop walk of about 1.6 km climbs through monsoon forest to a viewing platform above the falls, and lunch is a picnic in the shade near the pool. Around midday we head north on the Litchfield Park Road for Darwin, about an hour and a half away, arriving at the airport by about 2 pm. Your guide sees you to the terminal and checks your flight.

Compris

• Tolmer Falls lookout
• Wangi Falls, with a swim when the pool is open
• Picnic lunch at Wangi Falls
• Drop-off at Darwin International Airport (DRW) or your Darwin hotel