superbecc

Oh my jesus this place was hot. We were there at the end of the dry season. I’d love to see Kakadu in the wet season, but after suffering so badly in the dry season I fear I wouldn’t be able to stand the weather!

That said, Darwin’s a nice enough little place. Youngish population (lots of tourists and an army presence) seems to have led to its few main downtown streets being correspondingly full of bars and nice little cafes with outdoor patios. It’s on the ocean, but you won’t be able to swim in the surf at certain times of year because of saltwater crocodiles. Still, bay views are nice (especially at the tail end of a 14-day interior trek, which is my experience!).

If visiting, choose somewhere with access to a pool and you’ll be good. :)

It’s unlikely you’ll be able to climb Uluru even if you want to — the climb is closed 5/6ths of the year (whenever it’s windy or temperatures are predicted to rise over a certain heat, at which point it’s just plain life-threatening to climb).

But I’d also recommend not climbing just because you’ve been asked not to by a people who’ve got no ability to do anything BUT ask nicely, given an unfair arrangement whereby their longstanding relationship with this land was eventually recognised and ownership of this area granted, but only on the provisor that they lease it to the government long-term, which strips them of the ability to have any control over that which they legally own. It’s symptomatic of the poor way in which we’ve treated the indigenous population of this land overall, and, to me, seems symbolic of your endorsement of that treatment if you do climb.

The base walk’s recommended much more highly anyway for getting a sense of the place — there’s not a whole lot to see from the top of the rock, and what I think would be interesting to see from a high angle — the shape of the thing from above — would be better done from a plane, helicopter or balloon flight, all of which are available to do.

Seconding the warning about flies! Ohmygod, they’re bad! There’s a rock painting some thousands of years old in Kakadu, depicting an Aboriginal guy holding various items including a bird wing, used like a fan to swat the flies away; so I think we can say the fly problem’s pretty long-term! ;)

Cute place. Travelled there just for the Dar Williams show the other night. Wasn’t expecting the town itself to be so pretty: a nice surprise! :)