We’ve strung you on long enough, so this will be the final post about our trip up to the top end.

Waking up early in Jabiru, we headed out to do a 12km loop hike up and around Nourlangie Rock. The trail took us through many different ecosystems.  The trail was shockingly narrow at times and included harrowing drop-offs.

The hike featured aboriginal rock art at various spots along the way.  This helpful sign points the way.

We managed to finish the loop hike in about 4 hours without encountering anyone else (so crowded!)

We then headed back to Jabiru and hit up the German bakery for lunch.  Then back to our room / pool for some R&R.

That evening we headed up to Ubirr to witness the sunset – it did not disappoint.

During “the wet” the entire plain below this rock is completely flooded.  Looking out on the large expanse of green, it is very hard to imagine that volume of water.

After the sun set, we made a quick dash back to Jabiru, as we were warned it is very dangerous to drive at night due to the high number of single vehicle accidents involving wildlife.  I didn’t want to hit any kangaroos and thankfully didn’t.

The next morning we awoke for our last day in Kakadu with a 3 hour drive to Darwin in front of us.  We checked out some wetlands on the way out of the park and were generally surprised by the amount of water (and birds!) even though it had been 3+ months since the last rain.

After seeing smoke everywhere the entire time we were in Kakadu, but never seeing fire, we finally came upon an active bushfire right along the side of the road.  Apparently, these are, for the most part, set intentionally to refresh and renew the landscape.  Still shocking to drive by.

We made it to Darwin and checked into our nice big hotel room with a big balcony on the 25th floor.  In Darwin we saw the Axis of Awesome (comedy rock band) and also saw a movie at an outdoor movie theater.  Other than that, we mostly just relaxed and spent time at the wave pool.

A good quality Handel Holiday all around.