Kapalga Travel Darwin to Cairns

Map

DAY 1: DARWIN TO UBIRR

Your guide picks you up from your Darwin accommodation at about 6am, and the first stop is a wildlife cruise on Corroboree Billabong, on the Mary River floodplain, home to one of the densest populations of saltwater crocodiles in the world. Then it's into Kakadu National Park, at nearly 20,000 square kilometres about the size of Slovenia, with a stop at the Bowali Visitor Centre. In the afternoon the Guluyambi cultural cruise on the East Alligator River is 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. The day ends at Ubirr, whose rock galleries include x-ray paintings of fish and turtles, watching the sun set over the Nadab floodplain.

Overnight: Kakadu National Park (camp)

DAY 2: JIM JIM FALLS AND YELLOW WATERS

A 4WD track through the woodland takes you to Jim Jim Falls, where the water drops about 200 metres off the Arnhem Land escarpment into a deep plunge pool, ringed by sheer cliffs. It's a scramble over boulders to reach it, and the swim is worth it. Later you visit 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.

Overnight: Southern Kakadu (camp)

DAY 3: GUNLOM TO MATARANKA

At Gunlom Falls, a steep climb takes you to the top of the escarpment, where a natural infinity pool looks out across southern Kakadu. The falls were one of the settings for Crocodile Dundee in 1986. Then it's south to Katherine, on the Katherine River about 320 km south of Darwin, to refuel and restock, and on to Elsey National Park. Jeannie Gunn's 1908 book about her year on Elsey Station made this country famous across Australia. The afternoon swim is in Mataranka Hot Springs, a clear thermal pool around 34°C, shaded by tall Livistona palms.

Overnight: Elsey National Park (camp)

DAY 4: BITTER SPRINGS TO LIMMEN

Start with an optional float in Bitter Springs, where the warm, blue-green water carries you gently downstream through the palms. Then you turn east onto the Savannah Way, the 3,700 km outback road between Cairns and Broome. 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. Further on, look for waterbirds around Lomarieum Lagoon and call in at the Nathan River Ranger Station before setting up camp in Limmen National Park, one of the Territory's newest national parks.

Overnight: Limmen National Park (camp)

DAY 5: BUTTERFLY GORGE AND THE SOUTHERN LOST CITY

A morning swim at Butterfly Gorge, named for the common crow butterflies that cluster in thousands on the paperbarks along the water. In the afternoon 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. Walk quietly in the late light and you'll hear just wind and birds.

DAY 6: BORROLOOLA AND ECHO GORGE

Today the Savannah Way crosses rivers and creeks lined with cycads, ancient plants whose family dates back to the age of the dinosaurs. You drive through Borroloola, a remote town on the McArthur River best known among anglers for its barramundi. Later you visit Echo Gorge before camping near the Northern Territory and Queensland border.

Overnight: Near the NT/Queensland border (camp)

DAY 7: HELLS GATE AND RIVERSLEIGH

Just over the border, Hells Gate is 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. You cross the Nicholson River causeway, then follow Lawn Hill Station tracks to the Riversleigh fossil fields, World Heritage-listed in 1994 for fossils of strange marsupials up to 25 million years old. You arrive at Adel's Grove, named after Albert de Lestang, who grew an experimental garden here from the 1920s, with swimming holes right by camp.

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

DAY 8: 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 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 9: LEICHHARDT FALLS TO CROYDON

First stop is Leichhardt Falls, where the Leichhardt River spills over a broad rock bar, a trickle in the dry and a torrent in the wet. At Camp 119, blazed trees mark the most northerly camp of Burke and Wills, from where they pushed towards the Gulf in 1861. In Normanton you meet Krys, a life-size replica of an 8.63 metre saltwater crocodile shot on the Norman River in 1957. A swim in Lake Belmore cools you down before you reach Croydon, where gold was found in 1885 and thousands rushed in.

Overnight: Croydon (camp)

DAY 10: GEORGETOWN AND UNDARA

The morning passes the Cumberland Chimney, a lone brick chimney left from a 19th-century gold mine, and a waterhole that draws finches, parrots and waterbirds. In Georgetown the Ted Elliott Mineral Collection shows thousands of minerals and gems found across Queensland. In the afternoon 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.

Overnight: Undara (camp)

DAY 11: UNDARA TO CAIRNS

A last look at the volcanic country from Kalkani Crater, a grassy cone with a walking track around its rim. Then the road climbs onto the Atherton Tableland and into the rainforest at Millaa Millaa Falls, an 18 metre curtain of water that has starred in shampoo advertisements. The final swim is at Josephine Falls, at the foot of Bartle Frere, Queensland's highest mountain at 1,622 metres. You reach Cairns at around 3pm.

Map

Preparing for the trip

Private tours and families

Booking the trip

Who travels with us

Cost and Fees

Whilst on tour