Last full day in Australia so took a trip down to Litchfield National Park a hundred KM south of Darwin. We stopped on the way down at the Adelaide River to see the famous jumping Crocodiles. And jump they certainly do. The trip is amazing. You take to the water in a small 40 seat boat and set off down the Adelaide river. It all seems so peaceful, just the place for a swim, until you notice a dark shape heading towards the boat like an exocets. It all gets very surreal then as the boat driver dangles a pork chop on a fishing line over the side of the boat and suddenly this monster is alongside the boat snapping and leaping until it can twist its jaws around the meat. It's like going through a theme park and difficult comprehend that the enormous reptile alongside the boat is not some anamotronic put there to please the crowds, but a killing machine looking for food. We saw two massive males, both over 5 meters long, and several smaller females. Very exciting. In the afternoon we visited some waterholes where you could actually swim, they were high enough in the hills that they were croc safe.

Took a trip down to Kakadu National Park, some 300km south east of Darwin. It's a big place roughly the same size as Slovenia. and stuffed full a birds and animals. Being the wet season there is a bit more water around than in the dry season, something bright home when the guide on the boat trip pointed out we were sailing round the dry season Car Park, and indeed we were as yoiu could see the One Way signs just peeking up from the nine feet of water now over the tarmac. The park has a number of ancient Aboriginal paintings of various gods and spirits, etched onto the cliffs, some of which are up tp 40,000 years old. It is also home to 80% of the Crocodiles in the Northern Territory, which is an awful lot of Crocodiles. However most of them were hiding so we only saw one female, protecting a nest.

Took the two hour flight across the top of Australia to my last stop before home, Darwin capital of the Northern Territory., a place nearer to Singapore than it is to Sydney. It's getting towards the end of the wet season up here so there was sunshine when I arrived at a balmy 30 degrees. But I have never known a place where the weather can change so suddenly. One minute bright Sunshine and literally the next torrential rain. Not even time to get your umbrella out, not that it would do much good with the force of the rain. And then ten minutes later Sunshine again.

Darwin itself is positioned on a promontory surrounded by water. It's a very young city, founded in the life of my Great Grandfather, settlers arrived in 1862. The city had been flattened twice, once in 1942 by the Japanese Air force and once in 1974 by Cyclone Tracy which destroyed 75% of the city. So there are a lot of memorials and plaques around commemorating those two events.

40 Centigrade here in Alice at the moment so rather warm. Been following in Charlies footsteps today, up to the desert park and the Flying Doctors centre. Never sweated so much in my life. Got back from Ayres Rock yesterday. It is a marvolous sight and one you should see sometime in your life. The stars at night were fantastic. You forget, living in coludy and poluted Europe, how wonderful the clear night sky is, with millions and millions of stars all around.

Get a flight to Adelaide tomorrow and then pick up my car to travel round the coast to Sydney

Just got back from seeing the marvellous spectacle of the sunset on Ayres rock. A wonderful sight with the edge just taken off by the hundreds of flies swarming around. Earlier I walked round the rock, all 10 kilometres round. I decided against climbing it for two reasons. First the local Aborigines don't want you to, and second because it was closed due to high temperatures. 39 Centigrade today.

Off to the Olgars tomorrow for sunrise and then back the 450Km to Alice Springs. May detour to kings Canyon if I have time but it is a 183Km detour. Alice springs still feels like a frontier town, and you can easily imaging the pioneers working here. The drive is very long as the roads are almost all straight. There are a lot of Kangaroos hit and so you have to be a bit careful. The Kangaroo is the equivalent of the hedgehog here.