Tours Touring Travel and Sightseeing

Northern Territory - Australia

Darwin - The Capital City of The Northern Territory and the North's Principle Port and is often the starting off point for tours, touring and travel in the region

Shortcuts to travelling in NT	Darwin Day Trips	Further Than a Day Trip From Darwin

Darwin

The best time to visit Darwin and the Northern territory is, without doubt, in the winter months from around April to October.

Late in the year it becomes very hot and humid and after Chrismas the monsoons and thunderstorms arrive.

Apart from which most visitors love to visit the beach and have a swim to cool off and at this time of the year the waters are infested with the deadly box jelly fish.

In fact swimming in general needs to be treated with great caution in the northern regions of the Northern Territory as the rivers and estuaries are nearly all infested with crocodiles.

Darwin Day Trips

A visit to Aquascene at Doctors Gully outside Darwin is well worth it. Here, at each high tide, you can wade amongst hundreds of fish that come in for their feed. It is also popular for visitors to also hand feed the fish.

South East of Darwin is the conservation area known as Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve where you can rare birds from the watching platforms as well as encountering the harmless water pythons. Towards the evening you are likely to find wallabies as well.

Further east out of Darwin is the Mary River National Park and the Mary River.

Take a boat cruise and see the countless salt water crocodiles and you will understand why it is a good idea not to swim in their waters.

Further down the river, in the floodplains, you are most likely to see sea eagle, egrets, pelicans, jacansa, spoonbills as well as kingfihers.

South of Darwin is the Berry Springs Nature Park and Territory Wildlife Park. This is a good sightseeing trip for a day as it is an easy drive from Darwin and so leaves you time to take in the sights to be seen in the area.

Also south of Darwin is the Litchfield National Park. This is about the furtherest south from Darwin that you would do in a day trip. Your'e looking at around 350 km without diversions. The round trip from Darwin to the park entrance and back is about 250 km.

Note - If you are travelling by 4wd and are an experienced 4x4 driver you may want to spend a couple of days in this park working your way south.

Litchfield National Park it has some of the more spectacular scenery of the Northern Territory.

Turn off the Stuart Highway towards Bachelor and enter the park at the northern end. This area is accessable to all vehicles, including those towing regular caravans, and it is where the main visitor activity takes place.

There are several camping areas in the park and it is a bush walkers paradise.

Four wheel drive vehicles can access the track that runs through the park north to south. Here you would join the Daly River Road. During your trip south you will experience rough tracks and your vehicle should be well prepared and equipped.

You will be rewarded by stops at The Lost City, an excellent spot for photographers looking for spectacular rock formations. the Tjaynera Falls and several other spots.

Further than a day trip from Darwin

Click on these links for quick access to - Kakadu and East of Darwin
Ulura (Ayers Rock) and South of Darwin

Distances between places can be enormous and adequate precautions should be taken at all times to ensure that you are carrying enough food, fuel and water. Always seek the advice of locals before venturing of into the bush.

Travel in the Northern Territory is as close as you will get to real Outback Travelling. Four wheel drive travel is the only way to experience all that the territory offers. A fair amount of the area falls under the Aboriginal Land Trust for which you need a permit to enter. Make local enquiries before venturing into these areas.

The Nothern Territory is split into, and known the world over, as The Top End and The Red Centre.

Naturally The Top End as it is at the top of Australia, and The Red Centre, which has Alice Springs as its main centre, and Uluru ( Ayres Rock ) its main tourist attraction, because of the red earth colours found here.

Apart from Darwin The Top End is famous for The Kakadu National Park and Arnheim Land to the east of Darwin. Aboriginal people are known to have lived in the Arnheim Land area for over 40,000 years.

The World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park should be on the itinery of any serious traveller and visitor and is approximately 150 km east of Darwin..

Kakadu covers a vaste area and stetches accross to Arnheim Land in the east and the Van Diemen Gulf in the north.

Kakadu is home from time to time to up to one third of all of Australia's bird life. The range of species found here is enormous.

Some organised tours do Darwin to Kakadu and return to Darwin in a day or two. Do yourself a favour and allow at least a week, or even longer if you can. This is a unique area with a lot to see.

You will need to purchase a permit on entry into the park which will allow you multiple accesses over a fourteen day period and also encluding free camping in several areas.

The best time to see Kakadu is during the wet season when everything is very green and lush, however remember that this time of the year can be unbearable hot and humid if you are not used to it. Mosquitos are everywhere and quite a few roads will impassable and, therefore, closed.

On the way to Alice Springs, and ultimately Uluru, is a regional centre called Tennant Creek.

South of Tennant Creel, and about about 150 km east, of the Stuart Highway, is Davenport Range National Park.

The park sees a change from the tropical areas of the north to the desert in the south. There is very little access for conventional vehicles and the four wheel drive access can be extremely rough.

The area holds some historical significance due to the traditional Aboriginal Lands surrounding the park. More recent history has seen activities in mining in the area for various products, such as gold and copper along the Frew River and Hatches Creek.

Check with the Parks and Wildlife Commission at Tennant Creek for conditions before you leave Tennant Creek

Uluru, in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park also known as Ayers Rock and The Rock is extremely popular as a visitor destination with climbs up the rock being undertaken by all ages of people. It is 348 metres high and has a circumference of about 9 km.

The walk to the top is about 1.6 km long and there is a view of the vaste stretches of desert with Mt Conner on one horizon and the Olgas on another.

At the base of The Rock there are many caves to be found. During the day Uluru is a reddish colour which changes to a purplish colour at sunset.

Uluru is about 400 km south west of Alice Springs, about 1500 km from Darwin and about 80 km north of the South Australian border. (that is an as the crow flys distance, by road about 160 km).

Uluru is situated in the Kata Tjuta National Park. About 50 kms from the rock are the Olgas, also known as Kata Tjutu. The tallest rock rises 546 meters above the ground.

This area has very strong spiritual ties with the Aboriginal people.

Alice Springs is the common starting off point for a trip to Uluru and is the main town in the centre. In fact it is almost in geographically in the centre of Australia.

From Alice Springs you can head south for Adelaide in South Australia.

The diatance from Darwin to Adelaide is about 3000 km and Alice Springs is roughly half way.

Darwin is about 4000 km from Perth.

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Some of the National Parks mentioned on this page
Davenport Range National Park Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve Kakadu National Park
Litchfield National Park Mary River National Park Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

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