Mum's Birthday 2007. Kakadu to Darwin.

This morning it is torrential rain and despite the obvious stupidity of sailing in such weather with the thunder peeling and the lightening strikes the group decision is to sail the Yellow Water Cruise.

One of the joys of group travel is that the loudest voices prevail even if they are not in the majority.

That said, I have to confess that the weather clears as we sail over the Wetlands from Home Billabong to Yellow Water Billabong and on to the South Alligator River (which at roughly 200km is the largest river in Kakadu).

** A billabong is a permanent body of deep water that exists even in the dry season.

Kakadu is Australia's largest National Park and like everything else on earth it was created as the Aboriginal's dreamtime ancestors travelled across the land.

Today we saw birds like the Darter and the White bellied Sea Eagle(the second largest bird of prey in Australia) and we even saw a crocodile.

Lunch is at Corroboree Park Tavern. I must say that it was much nicer to see a crocodile in the wild than penned in at Corroboree for tourist entertainment. It did make me wonder if the star attraction here (Brutus) would not be better off as a pair of shoes?

In Darwin and we check into Mirambeena.

Darwin is the capital of the Northern Territory and during world war II it was heavily bombed by the Japanese.

Tonight we will head out for sunset at East Point. It was here in 1940 that a boom net, the largest in the world, was installed to protect the harbour from submarine attack. The net moorings are still visible today.

At East Point I also visit a battery observation tower and a gun emplacement. If you ignore the vandalism and decay you can imagine the troops manning this gun as even the turning tracks are still here. There are many remnants of wartime defence structures here in Darwin.

Well...here I am at the top end of Australia watching the sun gone down over Fannie Bay...this trip just keeps getting better and better!!

Our last official tour dinner is tonight at Tim's Surf 'n' Turf, before we all head out to Shenannigans for the dancing.

My most important task all day has been trying to get in touch with my Mum at home and tonight after many attempts at the useless payphones that simply swallow cash, I finally get through to Scotland to speak to my Mum and wish her a very happy birthday.

I am so lucky. My Mum is the most caring and sensitive person you could ever wish to meet. She is intuitive and I certainly would never have survived the ordeals of the past year without her support.