[It's morning again]

After a terrible night's sleep, I'm the last up at 7am. We started the night with Iain and me in the same swag, to keep warm, but it was too cramped. We split up, but even then I couldn't sleep, but for no apparent reason. I'm knackered when Iain wakes me, and want to go back to bed.

It's our last morning, and whilst we're enjoying the trip, I'm looking forward to getting our own space and itinerary back again. We pack up camp, roll our swags, and leave at 8.15am. We're not due back in Darwin until evening, so we've got a full day's trips.

[Rock art]

[Explanation]

We drive out to some Aboriginal rock art sites; there are only a few open to the public in Kakadu, most are sacred and closed off. Rangers have to be careful about this, as some have been vandalised. These pictures are more diverse and detailed than others we've seen. X-ray art is a speciality in the area, showing the inside bone and tissue structure of animals and humans. We see pictures of Aboriginal creation beings, hunters, and disturbingly, white man, with his hands in his pockets, telling them what to do, and later with a gun. It's hard work climbing the rocks to get up and down to these sites, but worth it. I've been told by Damo that we don't have any walking today, so he's obviously forgotten just how bad my foot is.

[Mimi spirits]

[Hunting roos]

The Visitors' Centre is our next stop, where we see an exhibition on the history, culture and ecology of the park, and pay our park fees. Kakadu is a World Heritage Site, and home to some of the densest fauna population in the world. The toilets at the centre have hot water and soap - the first we've seen for days, hurrah!

A long drive sees us back outside the park. We drive past huge areas used by the army for training - I forgot to mention the other day that on the way into the park we drove past a couple of tanks with "learner driver" plates bombing down the road. I failed to take a photo through incompetence.

[Just resting]

Today we're off to do canoeing and quad biking. I've already decided both of these activities are too risky for my foot. We stop at a scenic billabong for lunch by the water. There are stupid amounts of ants and flies. Damo tells us crocs can't live in the billabong. They even tried to breed them here and they died. No-one knows why. Flies have been a pain on the trip, but nothing compared to what they're like in the wet season. Mosquitos and leeches have thankfully not been evident.

[Quad damage]

It's pretty hot today and we sit in the shade - Iain is a bit sunburnt on his back after yesterday's swim. I take the opportunity to practice on Damo's didgeridoo, whilst everyone goes biking, in two pairs at a time, for twenty minutes driving and twenty minutes pillion. The bikes are 4 wheeled and can reach 80kmph apparently. When everyone gets back they're red/brown from the dust. Iain and the others walk into the billabong fully clothed to clean off. It's so hot the clothes are nearly dry half an hour later.

Unfortunately the canoes are holed, so everyone goes swimming instead. I give this a miss, to rest my foot. The area is pretty, but I'm getting bored waiting around - we didn't bring books as we were told to pack lightly.

[Too quick for the camera]

[How to worry the tourists]

We go for our crocodile cruise, on the Adelaide river, near where we went a few days ago on the Litchfield tour. This time, though, it's just ten of us on the boat, and it's a small aluminium "dinghy", with sides only a foot out of the water, and benches to sit on. It's around three metres by eight metres.

We're fairly ambivalent, having done this before. Some of the others are seriously scared, and won't sit anywhere near the water. The first croc we see is relatively small, but this is enough to worry most people. Damo is doing his Crocodile Dundee thing again and is completely fearless. He dangles buffalo meat over the water at waist height - the previous cruise guide was around two metres from the water.

[Aggro turns up]

[And decides tourist is tastier than buffalo]

After an hour, we finally spot "Mr. Aggro", the six metre dominant male we saw previously. Unfortunately he misses the meat Damo dangles for him, a few times. He lives up to his name, and starts snarling. By this time, he's only a foot/30cm from the boat, and I'm right in front of him, trying to get a photo. It's one of those moments when you know something terrible is going to happen, time slows down, but you can't prevent it from happening.

Aggro lunges at the boat, towards my face. His teeth are an inch long, and his breath smells of rotten meat. He's around six inches from my face when he rears back, stopped by the side of the boat, by which time I've launched myself backwards a couple of feet. Iain sees all this happening, and later recalls that I moved away a split second before everyone else - the Italian guy next to me was even closer, and still shaking when we got off the boat.

Damo is panicking, as he thought someone fell in - Aggro crashed into the water with a huge splash, then disappeared. A couple of seconds of fear later we realise he's thankfully backed off. Damo gets us out of the river fast, and we head back for the jeep, shaken. Everyone is stunned by what happened. It doesn't knock us for long though, as adrenaline replaces fear. We drive to a pub for a beer.

The group buys Damo a "slab" (24 cans) and some of his favourite tobacco to say thanks for his excellent guidance and spirit. On the way home we play "Down Under" loudly - it's a bit of a trip theme, and hearing it in the future will always remind me of Kakadu. The atmosphere on the bus is great, relaxed and friendly. When we get back to Darwin, everyone makes plans to meet for dinner an hour later. Damo says he can't make it - I overheard him earlier making plans to meet other guides and presumably dissect their trips. He's got a day off then may have another trip the following day.

We check in, shower, unpack, dump a ton of stuff in the washing machine (by now everything is covered in dust and ash, and smells), and walk down the main road to the restaurant. It's a backpackers bar, and we decide it's not where we want to eat - we're on our own again for the first time in three days, and want some time alone. An Indian restaurant has been recommended, so we try this - we haven't had a curry for three weeks. It's expensive and fiendishly hot - both of us have a green Thai curry and both of us are sniffling. Even the poppadums are spicy. The wine is nice, though, it's from a winery in the Barossa Valley, which we visited.

We're aching with exhaustion, and crawl into bed at 11pm. Tomorrow is our only, and last, day in Darwin.

With hindsight, I wouldn't have done both the Litchfield and Kakadu trips - Kakadu repeated some of the stuff like crocodiles, and termites, and some of the scenery is similar. Kakadu, however, is more spectacular. It shouldn't be done in a day (the locals call it "Kakadon't"), but if you have a few days it's fantastic. It was hard on my foot, but a wonderful and amazing place - some of the best views I've seen in Australia so far.