You will notice that renting a car in Darwin gives you a grand total of 100km to drive per day unless you want to fork out lots of money. Doing the math I think it's only worth renting and driving all the way to Kakadu if you are 3 people or more or actually do more things on the way. Just going to Kakadu and back as a daytrip is not gonna work. Luckily they have an affordable bus trip that picks you up bright and early (it's not early-early like a "daytrip" to Jordan from Sinai or something silly...) and drops you back at ~8pm so this isn't actually bad at all. I even took a flight out the same evening and got dropped off at the turn-off so I can grab an Uber to the airport just 10 minutes away. The coach is also super comfy with toilet and aircon etc.

The visit via this trip only covers around 1% of what the park really has to offer but I think that's normal for a park this size. The roads are really good but there is not much off-roading. This tour also obviously doesn't visit any waterfalls in the south.

The first stop is gonna be the the rock art. It's really nice although I have to wonder about the modern one. It does follow the same style but I think that when aboriginals painted these ages ago that's an achievement but if an artist does that in the '60s it just doesn't have the same feel to it. You spend a good 30 minutes looking at the rock art with good explanations from the driver/guide. I'm not a big fan of rock art but it's nice to see something different - like, very Australian style. Kangaroos and a different culture it stems from than the rock art in Europe and North America, even Africa. This covers both criteria I and IV and would be enough to get an inscription for sure. However, there's more!

There is a massive wetland in the park, stretching all the way to the north. It's a big problem to contain poachers coming in from the ocean because fishing there is legal, not in the park. The NT law also is super relaxed about needing no fishing and boating licenses from what I hear, and the law is still fuzzy on drinking and boating too! After lunch at the excellent lodge (if you want to stay for some luxury then this is it) it's time to take a boat cruise. Most people seem to get a kick out of crocs - even though they can be found all over the place especially in Australia. If you are into birds then this is also a lovely place to scan the shores and trees. There weren't many mammals because I read most of them are nocturnal. The boat tour gives you an idea what the park is like but there is just so much more to see.

The last stop on the tour is Bowali Visitor Center. It doesn't really have much to see and is more of a stop-over for shopping. If you opt for the flight tour instead you are probably better served because I thought the visitor center was not worth the time. I can't say if the flight is great but the feedback from those who were on it was very positive.

If you plan to go further south, Jim Jim Falls is very popular. However, I watched this documentary about how they catch and remove crocodiles to make visiting the falls safe for tourists to swim there - I find that highly controversial.

The town of Jabiru is going to have some changes coming up when the mining contract expires. It may turn into a ghost town and visiting here could be tougher if there is nothing but tourism in the area. Then again, mining in a UNESCO national park ...hmm