Australia: the Top End, Darwin, Kakadu and Litchfield

1. Day 1: Arrive in Darwin

   Darwin International Airport to your hotel in central Darwin

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Darwin
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Darwin International Airport (DRW), about 13 km from the city centre, and a driver meets you in the arrivals hall for the short run to our central hotel, a few minutes on foot from the Esplanade. Darwin is Gulumoerrgin in the language of the Larrakia people, its traditional owners, and it is a young-looking city for a reason: Cyclone Tracy flattened most of it on Christmas Day 1974. 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. Then we walk to dinner together as the sun goes down over the harbour.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Free until the 6 pm briefing

   Activity: Land by about mid-afternoon to settle in before the briefing; later arrivals are met and join the group at dinner.

2. Day 2: Darwin with the Larrakia

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Darwin
   Day 2 details

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

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Darwin

   Activity: Easy walking, mostly indoors and in shade.

   

3. Day 3: 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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Jabiru
   Day 3 details

   We leave Darwin at 8 am and reach Fogg Dam within the hour, while the egrets, jacanas and whistling ducks are still busy on the water. Then it is east along the Arnhem Highway, across the Adelaide and Mary river floodplains, into Kakadu National Park, listed by UNESCO for both its nature and its culture. A short boardwalk at Mamukala leads to a bird hide over the wetland. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Walk the flat main gallery circuit at Ubirr and watch the sunset from its foot, skipping the climb to the lookout.

   Activity: About 3.75 hours of driving with three stops. Ubirr's circuit is about 1 km, with a short, steep scramble of about 250 m up rock to the lookout.

   

4. Day 4: Burrungkuy at opening, Yellow Water at golden hour

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

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Jabiru
   Day 4 details

   We are at Burrungkuy, also called Nourlangie, when it opens at about 8 am, while the rock shelters are cool and in shade. A loop of about 1.5 km leads past the Anbangbang shelter, used by Bininj people for thousands of years, to the main gallery and its painting of Namarrgon, the Lightning Man, who brings the storms of the wet season. If a Parks Australia ranger talk is running, we join it. From there we drive to Cooinda and the Warradjan Cultural Centre, which tells the story of Kakadu's seasons and peoples. 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. Dinner is back in Jabiru.

   Included

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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Stay on the flat lower path at Burrungkuy and the Anbangbang Billabong shore, skipping the lookout climb.

   More active option: Climb to Gunwarrdehwarde Lookout at Burrungkuy for the view to the Arnhem Land escarpment.

   Free time: Middle of the day free at Cooinda

   Activity: About 2 hours on foot in the morning, on sandstone paths and steps. The drive back to Jabiru, about 55 km, is after dark.

5. Day 5: 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

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Batchelor
   Day 5 details

   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. 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. Dinner is in Batchelor.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Swim in the shallow pools at Buley Rockhole, a few steps from the car park, and skip the stairs down to Florence Falls.

   More active option: Walk the shaded Florence Creek track between Buley Rockhole and Florence Falls, about 3 km, while the van goes round.

   Free time: Time in the water at Buley and Florence is unhurried; the evening is free after dinner

   Activity: About 4 hours of driving in all, on sealed roads. Florence Falls has a long flight of steps down to the pool.

6. Day 6: Wangi Falls and back to Darwin

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

   • Drive about 2.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   Day 6 details

   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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay by the pool at Wangi Falls instead of the loop walk.

   More active option: Walk the Wangi Falls loop, about 1.6 km, up through monsoon forest to the platform above the falls.

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 3:30 pm, or stay on in Darwin; we can drop you at a city hotel instead of the airport.

   

Wildlife and weather: We run only in the dry season, May to October. Days are around 30 to 34 C with low humidity and almost no rain; May and June evenings are pleasant, and by September and October the heat and humidity build, so we walk early, rest through the middle of the day and swim in the afternoons. As the dry season goes on, water shrinks back into the billabongs, so wildlife gathers at Yellow Water and Mamukala: saltwater crocodiles, jabiru, magpie geese, whistling ducks and white-bellied sea eagles. Wallabies are common at dusk; Wangi Falls opens for swimming only once rangers have checked it for crocodiles, often in May or June.

• Darwin2 nights
• Jabiru2 nights
• Batchelor1 night