The best waterfalls in Northern Territory

Wangi Falls Was the Best Day of the Whole Trip, McDonald's Breakfast and All

We landed in Darwin the day before and didn't do much with it — you never do, after a flight. Litchfield National Park was the actual start of the trip as far as we were concerned, and we treated it that way, breakfast included. Nobody wanted to cook, so it was McDonald's from a drive-through on the way out of town, eaten more or less in the car.

Litchfield is about 90 minutes to two hours south of Darwin, depending on where in the city you start, and the road in is sealed the whole way, so it's an easy drive even half-asleep with a McMuffin in one hand.

We Should Have Bought the Pool Noodle at the Servo

This was before Wangi Falls, earlier the same day. We pulled into Florence Falls right around one or two in the afternoon, which is not when you want to be doing anything active in the Top End, but it turned out to be exactly the right time to be getting into cold water.

Florence Falls is inside Litchfield National Park, a bit over an hour and a half south of Darwin, and it shares a road with Buley Rockhole, so the two are easy to hit on the same stop. The falls themselves are fairly modest by waterfall standards — twin drops of somewhere around 10 to 15 metres — but what people actually come for is the plunge pool underneath them, and that thing is enormous.

Jim Jim Falls, Northern Territory

Kakadu National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering 19,816 km²—roughly half the size of Switzerland. It's one of Australia's largest national parks and a sanctuary for countless native wildlife species.

Unlike Uluru, Kakadu doesn't have well-developed tourist infrastructure. Many of its most spectacular attractions are only accessible by 4WD, so if you're renting a vehicle, make sure to check whether the rental company allows off-road driving. The trip also requires a reasonable level of fitness, and with crocodiles found throughout the park, it's definitely not a place to take unnecessary risks.