I was feeling great after a successful afternoon’s shooting the previous day, a relax and a great couple of swims… I was up early and managed to pack up most of my camp at around 5am. I started making coffee and breakfast but decided to set up the camera for a little bit of pre-dawn astro photography as I was so early! I drank coffee and snacked whilst I was shooting several long exposures waiting for the sun to come up.

I didn’t shoot that sunrise from Rocky Gully. The area didn’t excite me in terms of photographic opportunities!

Leaving Rocky Gully that morning I had to wear the fly net again - the second time during the trip. I really think it’s something to do with cattle - the stronger the evidence of cattle (including being able to smell them!), the higher the prevalence of flies! After an hour or so of wearing it, I’d decided it was safe to remove it….. and then proceeded to swallow a fly. Haha!

I'm always looking for places to go in the Top End region, new places to explore and photograph. I was recently looking for some information on Maguk (or Barramundi Gorge) in Kakadu National Park and although could find the basics from the Parks Australia website - http://www.parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/ - I found it difficult to find "real life" experiences on exploring and the location. When I say "real life" experiences, I mean blogs from travelers of where to go, when is best to go, different routes and walks, experiences on what people saw, what was great, where to look for certain things, etc etc. There's actually not much in depth, local information in a "kakadu blog" google search. What does show up are mainly short excerpts from people just doing the highlights of Kakadu as part of an extended trip.

Anyway. So what I want to start doing is sharing my experience and knowledge of these places in Kakadu….

We ended our 6 day walk with the final 5km down from Sweetwater Pools to Edith Falls. Edith Falls was a welcome site at the end of the walk - it's probably one of my favourite swimming/relaxing spots in the Top End…

Day 4 was the big day on the Jatbula trail - 17km. The walk was broken up in to two chunks, 12km and 5km with a stop at Edith River crossing after the first 12km. We got through the first 12km a supersonic speed and arrived at Edith River crossing when we thought we still had 3km to go. A lovely shady spot for lunch with a chance for a cool off! The first 12km on this day was an easy walk - flat and good terrain. The remaining 5km proved to be a little trickier…

Day 2 was a longer day than the first, travelling across the top of the escarpment. This day ended at Crystal Falls as the campground, although we actually didn't see any "falls" until the walk the following morning….

I’ve just returned from a hike in the Katherine region known as the Jatbula trail - a combined photo-trip/remote camping getaway! This walk is the first multi-day bush walk I’ve done in years and the first one my partner had ever done. The first thing I have to say about the Jatbula is that it was AWESOME! We loved it! The walk was really interesting and travelled through a variety of Top End habitats. Maybe we appreciated the varying landscape a little more than an interstate or overseas visitor, as we could really notice the smaller differences in the vegetation and the types of habitat as we were a little more familiar with the area.

We travelled through open woodlands on top of the escarpment, where we saw some amazing open views across hills, cliffs and buttes. There were monsoon pockets, bushfire-burnt regions, 2-metre high grasses, mushy marshy floodplains, amazing rock formations and colours, creek crossings and some of the best waterfalls I’ve seen in the Top End. We saw so many birds too (but thankfully only one snake and no face-to-face encounters with buffalo)!

For anyone considering walking the trail…

Last weekend was a public holiday here in the Northern Territory, and due to our light rain levels this year the Kakadu rangers and road-workers managed to get the awesome Gunlom pools open to visitors…

I am travelling overseas for six weeks, leaving on Sunday. By the time I return to Darwin, the wet season will be well and truly over and we'll be in to the start of another awesome dry season! Mindil Beach markets will be back on, and life will be hectic for another season. So, I thought I would take a couple of days to get some shots of the Katherine region….

A branch-i-licious bolt from tonight's storm….

Tonight's sunset from Darwin's Lameroo Beach…

The country surrounding Darwin has more than its fair share of waterfalls. Our landscape is patterned with rivers and rapids, gorges and escarpment. Our landscape goes through extreme seasonal changes: whilst our waterfalls are perfect for a refreshing dip in the dry season (as long as they are crocodile free, of course), they become a deathly torrent of raging flood waters in the wet season. Our waterfalls are some of our most loved attractions - loved by tourists and locals alike. So how do you go about photographing these natural wonders….

Darwin will always hold a very, very special place with me - it is where I first became inspired to learn about taking landscape photos.

Don't worry, I'm not leaving town! I have many years to come, of photographing the NT. But I am very excited about getting out in to some new territory….

I know I haven't posted my "one's that got away" (my unseen photos) from November and December - that's because things with Christmas have been SO hectic I've not had time to take any photos, really. I think I only posted around 5 shots on Facebook for the month of December (usually around 30).