Nature's Way, Darwin - Kakadu - Britz

Six nights and 985 kilometres in a loop from Darwin in a campervan, along Nature’s Way through Kakadu and Katherine, with Litchfield closing the circuit.

Fogg Dam comes first, a wetland reserve with one of the highest concentrations of water birds in the Top End, then Ubirr inside Kakadu, where rock art galleries under an overhang include a painting of a thylacine, extinct on the mainland for thousands of years, and a lookout over the floodplain.

The Yellow Water billabong follows, best taken by boat at dawn when the birds and the crocodiles are both active, then Pine Creek and Katherine, with Nitmiluk and its thirteen gorges cut through sandstone, and Edith Falls on the way out. Litchfield closes the loop with Florence and Buley, plunge pools that are safe to swim in and busy for exactly that reason.

Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. The water is the whole point of this route and the season governs it: the falls run hardest after the wet, when some access roads are still closed, and by late in the dry several of the pools have dropped considerably. Crocodile warnings here are not decorative, and swimming is only sensible where the signs permit it. Seven days is enough to do Kakadu and Litchfield at a reasonable pace, which is more than most Top End itineraries manage, and the loop means no backtracking.