4/23. Arrive at Darwin ~2pm.
Felt like an oven. Headed east on Arnhem Hwy to Mary River Park with A/C in full blast. Saw many cathedral termite mounds along the road. Overnight in the park with a couple of small geckos. Walked a bit towards the river. Trail overgrown, partly flooded. A few Rainbow Lorikeet sang from the trees on the lawn. In the evening, saw two giant spiders in the laundry room.4/24. Witnessed two wallabies fighting while having breakfast.
9am river cruise along Mary River. Almost no other tourists. The season hadn't started yet. Just end of the Wet. The water level was still high and many roads remained closed. Only saw 3 Freshwater Crocodiles on the river bank and one salty of over 2.5m long. Saw a black bittern, a White-breasted Sea-eagle, a few of Rainbow Bee-eaters, some Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher, Azure Kingfisher, hundreds of Flying Foxes.Continue east to Kakadu National Park. Checked into Aurora Kakadu an hour later.
10km east, Mamukala observation deck overlooks a lovely large swamp partly filled with water lilies. Saw two Double-barred Finch, a Sulfur-crested Cockatoo.~30+ km further east is the township of Jaribu (a better choice for accommodation location than I had picked), center of the park road system. A mile or so south on Kakadu Hwy, is Bowali Visitor Center. Was showing an interesting movie about the park. No AC. There was smoke and fire by the road close to the visitor center. Part of the fire management program the park has adopted from the old aboriginal practices.
Headed north for 43km to East Alligator area, the spot for Barramundi fishing. Didn't see any crocodile along a riverfront trail (closed due to floods).
Ubirr,
3km further north, is a wonderful area with a concentration of aboriginal rock art. A short climb to the top of a rocky outcrop leads to an inspirational view of Nardab floodplain: white cockatoos flying above, wallabies jumping about, reflection of the sunset on the swamp.Twilight doesn't linger here. Little frogs climbed on the pavement, especially on the bridge over South Alligator River. Probably have run over hundreds of them on the way home.
Barramundi for dinner. Tasted like trout.
4/25.
Awoken with 10+ Little Corellas in front of the window, trying to catch the water condensation from the tip of the air condition pipe. 
Two wallabies were munching on the lawn. Birding at the river crossing 2km east of hotel: a lot of Glossy Ibis, Great Egrets, Pied Herons, Radjah Shelducks, 2 Magpie Geese, a Black Bittern, a Bush Stone-curlew.Tried fishing at the muddy shore of the South Alligator River. No luck. Even lost the hook. Tried my luck around sunset over a little creek before the bridge. A little unnamed fish caught my hook by so much surprise that I lost the reel in the process. Didn't even put any bait on. The next half an hour, nothing happened. After putting some entrails of this fish on the hook, finally caught 2 even smaller catfish. Saw many white egrets resting on top of trees. Dinner: BBQ-ed fish.
4/26. Heading out the park along Kakadu Hwy. Most of the hikes were closed due to the high water level.
Stopped at Nourlangie Rock. Fascinating rock art dated to possibly 5000 years ago. Elaborate paintings of naked match-stick people, and fat gods. A short walk up a large rock formation provides a fine view of the woodlands and AnBangBang billabong. However, less interesting than Ubirr, and too hot to linger.2nd stop: Mardugal at Yellow River area. A pleasant 2 km walk in the woodland. Saw Red-winged Parrots, and Australian King Parrots.
An hour and half later on Kakadu Hwy is the boring town Pine Creek. Here, we turn north on Stuart Hwy (a main throughfare traverses the country: 1400Km south would reach the middle: Alice Spring). A few pink head Major Mitchell's Cockatoos here.
2 hours later
is Litchfield National Park. Magnetic Termite mounds is the first stop. Around a hundred of thesetall, thin, flat mounds, oriented north-south. 2nd stop: Tolmer Falls. A short walk leads to an overview platform.
Camped a minute walk from Wangi Falls, which was closed for swimming due to some minute probability of crocodile presence. Had dinner with my legs soaked in the water while the sun turned the rocks and water to crimson.4/27. Woke up with 4 bloody mosquitoes in the tent and maybe 50 bites on my limbs.
On the way out of the park, dipped into the "swimming pool" at Florence Falls. Perfect spot with no one else around. Walked up to the car along a creek, felt the temperature rising with each step. Breakfast at Buley Rockhole (not nearly as nice as Florence Falls). Then, non-stop to Darwin. Totally driven about 1080Km.Arrived at Gladstone airport with one bag missing. Needed to turn the clock half an hour ahead.
