The camp used for our various courses and trips is located on the border of Kakadu National Park, at Swim Creek Station in the Northern Territory. The area spans four different ecosystems and is a natural classroom for the guiding courses and bush adventures. Kakadu National Park itself is 257 kilometres east of Darwin along the Arnhem Highway.
Accommodation is in African-style walk-in safari canvas tents to provide an authentic and rustic feel to your experience in the Australian outback. Although a bush camp, accommodation is confortable with good ablution facilities and an atmospheric camp fire area.
The name 'Kakadu' comes from an Aboriginal floodplain language called Gagudju which was one of the languages spoken in the north of the park at the beginning of the twentieth century and the descendants of these language groups are still living in Kakadu.
Kakadu National Park is managed jointly by its Aboriginal traditional owners and the Director of National Parks. The traditional owners are proud to share their country with visitors. Aboriginal people have occupied the Kakadu area continuously for at least 40 000 years. Kakadu National Park is renowned for the richness of its Aboriginal cultural sites.
The Park is located within the Alligator Rivers Region of the Northern Territory of Australia. It covers an area of 1,980,400 ha (4,894,000 acres), extending nearly 200 kilometres from north to south and over 100 kilometres from east to west. It is the size of Israel, about one-third the size of Tasmania, or nearly half the size of Switzerland.
Kakadu is ecologically and biologically diverse. The main natural features protected within the Park include:
The north of the Australian outback has a tropical climate and any time of the year has its advantages and disadvantages for visiting the Kakadu area and the Northern territory.
A tropical climate means a distinct dry and wet season. The dry season (Late April / early May - September) is considered the best time for travel, it is cooler too. It is characterised by high temperatures, low humidity and little or no rainfall.
Most roads are open and the weather is reliable. Early in the dry season – between May to mid June - there is also still a lot of water around, but it dries up pretty fast. Crocodiles can often by seen warming themselves up at this time of year!
The late dry season (September/October) is the best time to see wildlife. The big floodplains that you see during the wet have been reduced to isolated billabongs (permanent waterholes) and that is where all the birds and other wildlife congregate in huge numbers.
By October it can get very hot; October to mid December is the hottest period and this is also the wet season; hot and humid. The wet season arrives in January and lasts until late March or early April and is characterised by a combination of high temperatures and frequent and heavy rain. Temperature highs reach the low 30s (°C) and volumes of rainfall can vary from between 1,300mm and 1,500mm depending on the location. Wildlife is everywhere busy mating and reproducing!
This is just a guide as the actual maximum or minimum temperature may be 5 degrees above or below!
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | July | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
| Average daily max | 33.6 | 33.1 | 33.5 | 34.4 | 33.5 | 34.5 | 31.6 | 33.7 | 36.1 | 37.6 | 36.8 | 35.0 |
| Average night min | 24.6 | 24.4 | 24.3 | 23.5 | 21.7 | 19.1 | 18.3 | 19.1 | 21.5 | 23.8 | 24.9 | 24.8 |
2hrs 30mins hours drive from Darwin or 25mins on light plane
The dining and lecture facility is an open-air structure that forms the centre of the camp with a fire pit and relaxation area near by.