Hiking and swimming in the rock pools of Kakadu National Park
Summary
Kakadu is the highlight of the top half of Australia’s Northern Territory. A vast national park where the combination of scorching dry seasons and flooded wet seasons have created sharp rock formations and billabongs that attract a variety of wildlife and make it feel like the definition of what you have in mind when you think of Australian Wilderness. In addition, its one of the best places in the country to experience the traditional Aboriginal way of life with its ancient rock art
Only a brief travel entry on this occasion as we only had a day in this wonderful place, but is to head out to one of the many hikes that finish with a refreshing swim in the rock pools and views across the national park. Motorcar Falls was in particular beautiful
highlights
#1 Hiking up to the beautiful rock pools that sit up on top of the rocky outcrops that are littered through Kakadu
#2 Taking a boat trip through the billabongs just after the rains and being able to drift through the steep rock sides
#3 Seeing some of the huge crocodiles up close . . . maybe a little too close
#4 Taking a swim in the cool rock pools after a hot hike in summer
#5 Checking out some of the giant termite mounds that are just about everywhere through the national park. As you can see, enormous
#6 The overall adventure of it all as you drive through what feels like the definition of Australian wilderness
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Fresh Water Swimming Experiences around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone