We have a bad night, the air con unit is noisy; without it we're too hot. We get up, aching with tiredness, at 6.15am. A minibus (Coo-ee tours) picks us up, there are eight people on the trip, an older Irish couple and a German guy all from Melbourne, a young backpacker and two girls in their twenties from the UK. Sandy is our driver, and she owns this company with her husband. She's friendly and helpful.

We drive south, seeing a little more of Darwin. The coastline is stunning; I wish we had more time here to relax. We see mist over fields of crops being watered, and drive an hour into watery floodplains, with water buffalo, crocodiles, and plenty of birds, including a jabiru (what a great name, when pronounced with an Australian accent).

The wetland scenery is stunning, particularly after seeing a week of deserts. We stop at a visitor centre with a lookout, to learn about the wildlife. When it rains for six months, enormous areas (we're talking the size of small European countries here) are flooded.

[Saltie going for a swim]

[Having a nose around]

We go on a crocodile cruise on the Adelaide River (doesn't go to Adelaide which is the opposite end of the country, 3000km south). There's a boat taking around sixty people on two decks, the lower one glassed, the upper open. There are two types of crocodiles, freshies and salties. Freshies live in fresh water only, and are harmless unless provoked. Salties live in fresh or saltwater and are aggressively lethal. They're regularly cleared out of tourist areas, but make their way back in the wet. The cruise is excellent. This part of the river is inundated with crocs, around one per 50 square metres. We see around eight of them, including the dominant male ("Mr Aggro"). The crocs have names and personalities, and many tour boats a day feed them. This boat has a guide who holds pork chops on the end of a big stick and dangles it. They have to splash it in the

[Having a mud bath]

[Smile!]

water for the crocs to see it, then they hold it up for the crocs to jump. It's a bit exploitative, but natural behaviour; crocs jump for birds. The crocs are up to 5m long, and jump 2m high. It's impressive; they're incredibly strong and scary. The lower deck provides close views of their jaws as they leap and snap very quickly. The guide is great, and talks a lot about the ecology, and the crocs.

[Just showing off now]

[I wonder if he's hungry]

[This croc's over 5 metres long]

[Sea-eagle pinches Junior's lunch]

[And then takes a piece from the pole]

[Sand Monitor]

[Wangi Falls]

We have a long drive to Wangi Falls. We see a sand monitor goanna hanging around the picnic area, it's over a metre long. We walk to the falls, which are stunning. There's a plunge pool (croc free) with people swimming. It's crystal clear, and there are loads of fish. We decide to swim later in the day, when it's warmer. We have a wander round the woods, then the group has a picnic lunch. It's fairly sociable group, and we trade info with the UK backpackers.

The next waterfall we visit is quite a hike, so I stay in the van and talk to Sandy. She says the tourist industry is down 50% at the moment; partly due to Sept 11, and partly the World Cup - people didn't travel, and if they did, they just watched TV. They're struggling to survive and her

[Random other falls]

[Another random falls]

husband is having to work for another company to support the business. They've been doing this for twelve months, and moved up from Melbourne, just down the road from Iain's aunt, in fact.

[And Again]

At the last falls, we swim in some of the half dozen pools which cascade down into one another. It's wonderfully refreshing in the heat, though my foot is struggling a little; Iain can get into some pools I can't reach. It's pretty busy, and we've seen loads of tour buses today. People tend to do one day tours to Litchfield and 3-5 days to Kakadu, where we're off to tomorrow.

[Cathedral termite mound]

[Magnetic termite mounds]

We see termite mounds, up to 4m tall. There are three types. Magnetic ones face north, cathedral ones are big castle--type structures, really wide, and tree-piping ones hollow out trees. There are billions of termites inside, no-ones ever counted! They're good for the environment, recycling vegetation. the mounds are made of spit and faeces. Nice. There are thousands of mounds, as far as we can see.

We get back to Darwin at 6pm, and have a take-away thai curry, which is fab. Darwin has an area full of restaurants, take aways, hostels and fab little shops.

[Someone was bored]

[Is Cathy actually seeing Australia?]

Being dedicated, we spod for two and a half hours, sending photos and writing the diary, then we go to bed at 11.30pm. We're being picked up at 6.30am to camp in Kakadu for three days. This is the bit of the trip I've been really excited about; people have told me it's fabulous.