This weekend we went to Litchfield National Park, it's about an hours drive from Darwin! There were 17 of us going on the trip so there is not surprise we were late leaving. It was dark when we arrived at a little campsite near Florence Falls, some of us set off into the bush armed with torches in search of firewood! As it was dark we had failed to see the information board on the way in that said we should collect wood from along the roadside, we managed a pityful fire that kept going out all the time. We kept the lights on on one of the cars & had music playing from another while we had a few casual drinks.

Saturday most of us awoke very early after a lousy nights sleep, after what seems like the longest breakfast ever we hit the waterfalls! They were gorgeous and the water was clean and clear, It wasnt long before we had found ways up to platforms on the rock faces and were bombing, diving & flipping off them. On one of my jumps i emerged from the water to find i had lost both of the plugs from my ears. We went back to camp and Brad lent me half of his sockett set to put in my ear lobes, i put cable ties through them so if they came out again i wouldn't lose them.

In the afternoon we went to a place called Buley Rock Holes, Basically it was a rocky river but some of the rocks formed pools that were so deep you couldn't touch the bottom if you tried. All the guys lined up to jump in off the sides, again bombing, diving & flipping. We had a tennis ball and were throwing it up for people to catch mid jump, this made for some unbalanced jumps and lots of belly flops! Saturday night we got a decent fire going, ate dinner and sang songs with Ben on his guitar. It was Ross' birthday on sunday so we proceeded to get very drunk and celebrate the first few hours of it.

Sunday we packed up camp and drove to Wangi Falls for the last swim of our trip, There were signs here warning that Saltwater Crocs could get to the falls undetected. The pools were full of people though and we headed to a small rockholes which formed like a natural Jacuzzi. Here was the only sign of civilisation i saw in Litchfield, a Burger bar. Before heading home we went to the Magnetic Termite mounds, they are something like 5 metres tall and 4 metres round, They dwarfed our full group of 17 and made for a great group photo!

Hello, Its been a good few days since i last posted yet i have nothing interesting to report on! Basically i've done nothing all week.. i'm going to Litchfield national park today for 2 days and 2 nights with a group of 17 people! We have hired cars and are all camping out! I should have plenty to write about on Monday, also lots of pictures of something other than the inside of a pub!

Last night we went to a free concert on the Darwin Esplanade as part of the Darwin Festival! When we arrived a band was just taking the stage, they Were an Aboriginal Reggae band and they were really good. It reminded me of going to see UB40 at Perth Zoo! It seemed the entire place was full of drunk people, but for once i was sober! After the concert someone in our group started talking to a drunk Aboriginal guy with a guitar, he sat down and started playing. He probably played for about an hour although i think it was the same three songs repeated! He played; 'Imagine' by John Lennon, 'It's All Over Now' by The Rolling Stones & a Guns 'n' Roses song.. can't remember which one! We all sang along, the drunk ones danced too!

Today I went to the beach, although i've been 4 or 5 times before i'd not been in the sea until today! I was really surprised to find the water was really warm, 'Danger'Ross, Neil, Gresh & I all played catch, I forgot my swim shorts so had to go in in my boxers and every time i jumped or dived they nearly came down.

On Sunday night, or should i say Monday morning.. I had all of 45 minutes sleep before i had to get up to go to Kakadu. We all got in the 4x4 for a long drive to the park and all chatted along the way! The first stop would be the highlight of whole trip, 'Jumping' Crocs! We went on a boat on the Adelaide river which was full of Crocodiles, big ones too! The operators hang meat over the side on a string and the Crocs jump for it! I was sitting litterally 3 or 4ft away from 5 metre Crocodiles!

Next stop was the 'Escarpment'.. Basically these are inland cliffs developed over millions of years by the inland sea's in the wet season, Up in the cliffs there are hundreds of Aboriginal paintings loads of wierd and wonderful trees. After that we went back to set up camp and have dinner! As it was Emma's 30th we had a few drinks and melted marshmellows round the campfire!

The next day we got up bright and early for breakfast then back in the 4x4 to go to 'Twin Falls', to get there we had to go down a really long 4 wheel drive track, through a river, walk a kilometre, then in a boat through a gorge, then climb some rocks! A long way out but it was fun and really picturesque! After that we went to a place called Jim Jim which was again down a long 4 wheel drive track, then a long walk over rocks. It was worth it though, we came to a beach at the end of a huge gorge cut off from the Crocodiles by the big rocks and a big pool of perfectly clean water. As there was sand there i kept expecting it to be salty water. We did alot more but these were the main things! It was a great trip!

Wednesday evening at 6:30pm started a pubcrawl which has become a 3 day hangover! One of the guys working at the hostel orgnised it; about 20 people, 6 pubs and international drinking rules applied! There was no pointing, no calling eachother by our real names, no calling the alcohol by its real name and in the 5th pub we weren't allowed to talk at all! We got a free drink and happy hour prices in each place.. it got quite messy!

Dispite drinking around 20 drinks i felt quite good on Thursday, i insisted that i wasn't going to drink all day until a rep from a pub came to the hostel offering free food! Our group all went out in persuit of this free food and ended up drinking aswell, i only had about 5 or 6 though! When we got back we all stayed up talking until 6:30am, when me and Gresh finally fell asleep outside on the top balcony. I woke up at 8am and went to bed feeling terrible!

Friday i again insisted that i wasnt drinking as i felt terrible, i lasted until about 8pm when Emma offered to buy me a drink. "Hair of the dog" actually worked and i felt much better after that pint! The Ross's, Emma and I went to the bar next to the hostel for a few casual drinks, on returning to the hostel we again stayed up talking to some Italians until 4am! Today i've spent a lazy day around the pool, until i got roped into doing aqua aerobics with a biiiiiiig group of people! It was really fun! I'm insisting that i won't drink tonight and am now hangover free.