Jumping crocs

Since our flights had arrived around midnight, we had planned a 'recovery' day for our first day in Darwin. We took our time getting up and then walked to the Casuarina shopping mall, about 20 minutes away. We found somewhere to have brunch and did a bit of shopping - me for some things I can't get in PNG, and supplies from the supermarket for our first few days of campervanning. Then it was a taxi back to the hotel for what was left of the afternoon.

The next morning we packed up and made our way to the campervan hire depot. There we were given some bad news: the campervan that had been assigned to us in the system had been returned the day before with a faulty windscreen wiper and wouldn't be ready until 12:00. We had a jumping crocodile tour booked for 11:00, and when we explained this to the staff they looked into other options. At one stage it sounded like they would give us a complimentary car to go to the jumping crocs and then come back to collect the campervan - which would mean a really long day of driving! (45 mins each way to the crocs, and 3 hrs from there to our overnight stop at Jabiru.) But then they found a campervan of the same model was available from one of their sister companies, so they quickly checked it over and we loaded up.

It wasn't yet 11:00 but we weren't going to make it in time, so I called the tour company to explain the situation and they were able to book us on the 1:00 tour instead. This turned out to be quite good as there were two boats going out, so ours wasn't very full.

Jumping croc

BIG jumping croc

Impressive jumping croc

After the tour we continued the drive to Jabiru. We stopped for a short walk at the Mamukala wetlands, but not being birdwatchers I don't have much to write home about that.