Katherine Madill's highlights from her Luxury Lodges of the Top End trip
Bamurru Plains by Wild Bush Luxury. A safari lodge on the Mary River floodplain, Kakadu, Northern Territory bamurruplains.com Luxe tent-style bungalows in a rustic retreat with a restaurant/bar and lovely swimming pool, set on a vast area of savanna woodlands and wetlands with water buffalo, wallabies, wild brumbies, crocodiles and many birdlife including 1000s of magpie geese – Bamurru in indigenous language, where the lodge gets its name. The mesh sided bungalows were fantastic, and really gave the feel of waking up on African Safari! Your stay here is fully inclusive with delicious meals, an open bar with an assortment of local products, all activities such a game drives and airboat trips through the bullrushes and waterlilies. The waterlily garden was my favourite – just magical – plus the breath-taking sunsets.
Finniss River Lodge finnissriverlodge.com.au is offers 6 luxury suites with panoramic views of the cattle station stretching to the sea. Family owned and operated, it offers personalised service, exceptional local food, and wine pairings – our lunch there was superb! (see pic) It is located within a 90-minute drive of Darwin, or we flew in a light plane from Kakadu. It would be a great place to stay for a couple of nights and is close to Lichfield National Park with some of the tallest termite mounds around. We helicoptered into the park and the pilot lithely landed us on the top of a waterfall where we could swim and picnic without the fear of crocs! Amazing!
Bullo River Station bulloriver.com.au is absolutely stunning and the attention to detail was second to none. This massive cattle station of 400,000 acres sits in the north-western corner of the Northern Territory, and the nearest town is Kununurra near the WA border. 800 km from Darwin, another small plane trip and you’re in another world! This is essentially the in the Kimberley region and the landscapes are quite different with red rock outcrops and meandering river systems. Mostly Brahmin and Wagu cattle are bred on this land for export. The guest rooms are inspired by station life with luxurious amenities and are all set along a common area with fully stocked bar fridge and places to relax. The fabulous pool being one of them – and the blazing firepit beside the outdoor dining table festooned in lights just beckons. The food was divine and they treated us to a special “Cowboy Dinner” prepared over the fire under a massive Boab tree overlooking the river. Just wow. We also spent days exploring the landscape and spotting wildlife, swimming in a remote waterhole while a BBQ lunch was prepared; discovering Aboriginal rock art and rounding it off with a river cruise and a spot of barramundi fishing (and catching!). This lodge is all inclusive – even including a short helicopter flight to watch the sun rise over the river from the vantage point of a huge craggy bluff! One more special thing we did was stargazing with a huge telescope – this was 100% dark sky territory!
Darwin This city surprised me – it was a lot nicer than I ever gave it credit for!! Surrounded by beautiful blue water, small and friendly and a great place for a few nights. We stayed at Adina Apartment Hotel located in the lovely Darwin Waterfront Precinct which included swimming pools, markets, restaurants & nightlife, and just a short stroll to the Flying Doctors Exhibit which has an excellent virtual reality feature of the Darwin bombing in 1942 - surreal. We visited the Darwin Distilling company to try the signature gin of Kakadu plum, waterlilies, and native lemongrass – yum! And had our final dinner at the acclaimed Peewees at the Point restaurant with wonderful views of the city – they even turned on the fireworks for us!! (well maybe not just us!)
