Last Day in Darwin and Australia

3/30/20252 min read

Goodbye to Darwin

Today was our last full day in Darwin and Australia, we were up early for a 7.30am pick up to see the jumping crocodiles. We went for a meal last night at Ella by Minoli which was really nice. I had beef cheek which I hadn't eaten before but was excellent. We did make sure we were back early and sober for the early rise today.

Jumping Crocs, Cobber

The minibus today took as through completely different scenery, to our previous routes, going through wetlands and swamps. This really emphasised we were in a tropical climate. The river where got on the boat was really wide and could easily have been in Asia.

It took no time to see the crocodiles. They were incredible, so sinister as they swim silently across the water, then the incredible power to jump out of the water for the food being offered. Some food was also thrown into the water for the kites and seeing about 20 big kites all swooping down to pick bits up was also amazing.

We have no idea how ethical the crocodiles feeding is, but they claim not to over feed them, meaning the crocs still have to hunt for food as well. I also hope if it was dodgy the rangers or indigenous people would step in and either stop it or ensure changes are made.

Darwin has been great, a laid back city. I think lots more to see than what we did but you'd need some slightly cooler weather if you wanted to walk round. We're definitely glad to have had time in an hotel to relax here in the city.


Adios, Oz!

We fly to Singapore tomorrow then onto the Philippines. So a quick summary of our 6 weeks in Australia. In a sentence it has been fantastic.

Amongst the highlights, getting to Sydney and not really believing we were here. Catching up with Conor and Sarah and enjoying their lovely lifestyle and company for a few days. Port Fairy Folk Festival great music and very laid back. The Stuart Highway (the flies were a nightmare though), Uluru was simply amazing. The walk at King's Canyon was terrific made us feel we'd earnt the incredible views and then our time in Darwin.

We expected Australia to be expensive so thought worth sharing how much we spent over the 6 weeks. It was just under £12K which was cheaper on a cost per day than Canada and the US, the other 2 more expensive legs. This was helped by sterling's current strength against the Australian dollar

The 12K included everything except our travel to and from Oz. The big cost was the campervan hire at £4500 and the petrol on top of that, but the van meant cheaper accommodation and gave us the option to eat in. I think we hit the right mix of cooking meals ourselves and eating out. Although yoghurt, fruit and granola for breakfast did slightly lose it's appeal after 30 days.

Australia has been great and we're sad to leave. Also, aware we're 7 months in and less than 4 months to go on our journey.