Kapalga Travel Cairns to Darwin

Map

DAY 1: CAIRNS TO UNDARA

Pick-up is at 7:30am at the Reef Hotel Casino in Cairns, and the first swim of the trip comes early, at Josephine Falls, at the foot of Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain at 1,622 metres. Up on the Atherton Tableland you stop at Millaa Millaa Falls, an 18 metre curtain of water that has starred in shampoo advertisements. Then the rainforest gives way to open grassland and you reach the volcanic country, with views from the rim of Kalkani Crater, a grassy cone with a walking track all the way round.

Overnight: Undara (camp)

DAY 2: UNDARA LAVA TUBES TO CROYDON

A two-hour guided tour takes you underground at Undara, where a volcano erupted about 190,000 years ago and sent lava flowing more than 160 km. As the outer crust cooled, molten rock drained out underneath, leaving these huge tubes behind. In Georgetown the Ted Elliott Mineral Collection shows thousands of minerals and gems found across Queensland, and the Cumberland Chimney stands alone, the last brick of a 19th-century gold mine. A swim in Lake Belmore cools you down before Croydon, where gold was found in 1885 and thousands rushed in.

Overnight: Croydon (camp)

DAY 3: NORMANTON TO ADEL'S GROVE

In Normanton you meet Krys, a life-size replica of an 8.63 metre saltwater crocodile shot on the Norman River in 1957. At Camp 119, blazed trees mark the most northerly camp of Burke and Wills, from where they pushed towards the Gulf in 1861. At Leichhardt Falls the river spills over a broad rock bar, a trickle in the dry and a torrent in the wet. By evening you reach Adel's Grove, named after Albert de Lestang, who grew an experimental garden here from the 1920s.

Overnight: Adel's Grove (camp, two nights)

DAY 4: BOODJAMULLA (LAWN HILL) NATIONAL PARK

A whole day in Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park, Waanyi country. Lawn Hill Creek is fed by springs from the limestone of the Barkly Tableland, which keeps the gorge green and its water emerald all year. You walk into Lawn Hill Gorge and the Upper Gorge, swim below Indarri Falls, where the creek spills over a natural wall of limestone tufa, and climb the Island Stack, a rocky outcrop in the middle of the gorge with views down both reaches. There are swims all day.

Overnight: Adel's Grove (camp)

DAY 5: RIVERSLEIGH TO HELLS GATE

This morning you visit the Riversleigh fossil fields, World Heritage-listed in 1994 for fossils of strange marsupials up to 25 million years old. You cross the Nicholson River causeway and reach Hells Gate, a sandstone pass with Aboriginal sites. It earned its name in the early 1900s, when it marked the point where the police escort from Burketown turned back and travellers went on alone. Nearby is Echo Gorge, before camp close to the border.

Overnight: Near the Queensland/NT border (camp)

DAY 6: WEST TO BORROLOOLA

Today the Savannah Way, the 3,700 km outback road between Cairns and Broome, crosses rivers and creeks lined with cycads, ancient plants whose family dates back to the age of the dinosaurs. You restock in Borroloola, a remote town on the McArthur River best known among anglers for its barramundi, then head on towards Limmen National Park.

DAY 7: SOUTHERN LOST CITY AND BUTTERFLY GORGE

Along the Savannah Way you walk among the Southern Lost City, a maze of sandstone towers and domes worn down along cracks in the rock until they look like the ruins of an abandoned town. Then a swim at Butterfly Gorge, named for the common crow butterflies that cluster in thousands on the paperbarks along the water. You call in at the Nathan River Ranger Station and look for waterbirds around Lomarieum Lagoon before camp in Limmen National Park, one of the Territory's newest national parks.

Overnight: Limmen National Park (camp)

DAY 8: ROPER BAR TO MATARANKA

The road follows the Roper River, named by Ludwig Leichhardt in 1845 after John Roper, a member of his expedition. At Roper Bar you see the ruins of an early police station. In the afternoon you reach Elsey National Park; Jeannie Gunn's 1908 book about her year on Elsey Station made this country famous across Australia. The swim is in the thermal springs, either Mataranka Hot Springs, a clear pool around 34°C shaded by tall Livistona palms, or Bitter Springs, where the warm blue-green water carries you gently downstream.

Overnight: Elsey National Park (camp)

DAY 9: INTO KAKADU

You enter Kakadu National Park, nearly 20,000 square kilometres of wetlands, escarpment and woodland, about the size of Slovenia. At Gunlom Falls a steep climb takes you to a natural infinity pool on top of the escarpment, looking out across southern Kakadu; the falls were one of the settings for Crocodile Dundee in 1986. At Maguk, also called Barramundi Gorge, the clear plunge pool is full of freshwater fish.

DAY 10: YELLOW WATERS AND JIM JIM FALLS

Morning at Yellow Waters, a billabong on the South Alligator River floodplain where jabirus, egrets and whistling ducks feed among the lilies. More than 280 bird species have been recorded in Kakadu, about a third of Australia's total. At the Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre, built in the shape of the pig-nosed turtle it is named after, you learn about the Bininj people, Kakadu's traditional owners. In the afternoon a 4WD track takes you to Jim Jim Falls, where the water drops about 200 metres off the escarpment into a deep pool ringed by sheer cliffs.

Overnight: Kakadu National Park (camp)

DAY 11: EAST ALLIGATOR RIVER TO DARWIN

The last day starts on the Guluyambi cultural cruise on the East Alligator River, led by an Aboriginal guide who shows you traditional tools on the Arnhem Land bank. At Cahills Crossing, the tidal causeway into Arnhem Land, crocodiles wait for fish on the rising tide. At Ubirr the rock galleries include x-ray paintings of fish and turtles, and the lookout gives a 360-degree view over the Nadab floodplain. On the drive west you stop at Mitsuaki Tanabe's granite carvings near the Mt Bundy Range, and reach Darwin at around 6pm, with a drop-off at your accommodation.

Map

• Sleeping bag and pillow
• Soft suitcase or backpack, and a day pack
• Sturdy walking shoes
• Sun hat, sunglasses and sunscreen
• Swimwear and towel
• Spare clothes

Preparing for the trip

Private tours and families

Booking the trip

Who travels with us

Cost and Fees

Whilst on tour