To conclude this series of articles, I think I should pass on what I have learnt about travelling to Kakadu National Park.
This is what I would have done differently. We arrived in Darwin mid Saturday afternoon. On the Sunday we drove to Jumping Crocodiles which as it turns out is about 60K toward Kakadu. We could have postponed this event until Monday (which was our first day into Kakadu) thereby saving 120k of driving and several hours. I would have used this ’several hours’ to see more around Darwin including the Art Gallery and Museum. You can use the time in the pub if you wish as it is of course your time.
Katherine Gorge
What else? Well I would have added 2-3 days longer and travelled to Katherine Gorge. I was told that Katherine is stunning and quite an experience. Here is a site that you mind find helpful. Katherine Gorge Pictures.
More, I would have asked Gagadju Lodge @ Cooinda if or when they were going to run a Star Gazing trip. I would have loved to go away from the lights and gazed skyward. I didn’t do this on my own for the simple reason of safety. The idea of stumbling near a water hole or encountered a wild pig etc was not high on my list of safe things to do. It was pointed out to us on several occasions that the NT is the 6th most dangerous place on earth to visit for a holiday. The 1st to 5th places involved guns! One thing I think you should always do when away is to pay close attention to the locals who said “DONT GO NEAR THE WATER”. I have also in my past been involved in several close encounters with wild pigs. Not a healthy choice.
Ok so some must do’s.
1. Stay out and away from ANY water that doesnt involve a swimming pool or your bath and even if it does, check first.
2. Carry much more water than you think humanly possible to drink. We bought cartons of 400ml water bottles. Good option. Carry a bucket of sunscreen and the biggest hat you can find. Ohhhh and the biggest can of mozzie repellent you can find.
3. If you are going to drink alcohol, buy it in Darwin and cart it with you. $8 beers is not a joke after a while. Its expensive in Darwin but more so in Kakadu
4. Petrol. Never have less than half a tank. I don’t care what the price is at the pump (and one local price was $1.65 a litre), fill up. Remember the 230k detour I wrote about earlier?
5. Allow way more time for driving time than you think you need. Driving after dark is a dangerous thing to do especially without a bull bar and the lunar modules landing lights.
6. Take a camera. Make that take 2. I took one DSLR and 2 camcorders. One camcorder was for my son to use and do you think we remembered to take them on the chopper ride. DUH.
7. Take at least,two memory cards. One of mine failed whilst photographing my son holding his first ever Barra.
8. Take at least, two batteries. No comment needed. AND take a charger.
9. If you have a flash. Take one. I managed to get some nice portraits of my son backlite by the setting sun and used the flash for some fill flash on his face. I also took an OC-e3 cable but didn’t use it.
10. Take a tripod and monopod. Now this is odd for me to say this as I didn’t use either of them once. However there was several possibilities of events when a tripod or monopod would have been very handy.
11. Do everything you can. Take more money than you think you will need. The chopper ride was expensive at $390 for 20 minutes. The point is that both Jake & I now have a memory that will stay with us for a life time. Making memories is the best investment you can make. Go ahead and enjoy the dividends year after year.
12. Get to know the locals as best you can. We were fortunate in that we knew the GM of Gagadju so we were involved with the staff and other locals upfront. This, I am sure added to our experience.
and lastly – SMILE.
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My interest in photography goes back as far, if not further, than I can remember. My Grandfather had a thing called a box brownie and i remember being amazed at how it recorded history. I was given a 120 film camera when I was about 10 as evidenced by some black and white photos I recently found of my sister when she was 5 or so - she turned 40 in 2008.
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Photography. "For the thrill of it."
Photography. "It's where life is happening."
Photography. "When time stands still."
Photography. "Maybe it's just about being there again." 
