The following day we drove to Kakadu which is a huge National Park about 2 hours east of Darwin.  Originally, I had wanted to rent a 4wd since many of the roads are only accessible with a 4wd.  Then I learned that summer is wet season and those roads are closed anyway 4wd or not.  I was a bit disappointed since we would not be able to get to some of the main sites of the park.  Our first stop was the Mamukala Wetlands where we saw many different types of birds.  It was just very uncomfortable because we felt as if we were in a steam room and flies kept circling our heads and landing on our faces.  We would break off a twig with leaves and wave it in front of our faces which alleviated the problem of the flies though now we had leaves brushing against our faces but somehow it was less annoying than the flies.

Birds of Mamukala Wetlands

We also stopped by the visitors’ center which is a little museum as well.  There my dad was persuaded to take a scenic flight on an airplane since in the wet season it is the only way to see the famous waterfalls.  Then we checked into the Jabiru crocodile hotel.  There are very few hotels in Kakadu and this is the only one in Jabiru.  It’s a novelty since the hotel is shaped like a crocodile but that is mostly noticeable from the sky.  I went to the local supermarket to pick up some food for lunch since the only option was to eat at the restaurant which was very expensive.  Since we were going to eat there for dinner we didn’t want to eat there two times a day.  The store practically didn’t have any food and it was all so expensive.  I bought Jello fruit cups and that was it.  Surprisingly, the gas station had a bit more choice and it was going to be open on New Years so at least we wouldn’t starve.

Jabiru and the crocodile hotel (picture taken the following day from an airplane).

Hendrik and I decided to go see what was going to be happening for New Years Eve and we were told that there were two bars.  The first looked desolate and closed down and the second which was the “golf club” was getting ready for festivities.  The “club” was tiny and looked like an elementary school cafeteria and a few people, in desperate need of a shower, sporting mullets were putting up streamers.  We knew that we were not going to be celebrating there.

I had wanted to spend New Years in Sydney since there were a lot of things going on and it is famous for its celebrations.  My dad wanted to see more of AU than Sydney so he did not want to spend another 3 days there so we were in Kakadu instead, one of them most remote places on earth.  We had dinner in the Hotel which was nice, but they were not going to be open until midnight so we bought a bottle of champagne and just brought it to our room and watched the TV.  Darwin is ½ an hour behind Sydney so we watched the fireworks bursting from the harbour bridge over and over again and when we were sure they were going to announce New Years in Darwin the news ended.  There was no countdown or mention of Darwin welcoming in the New Year, so the night was a flop.