Is there a silver lining in the clouds of the “Knock’em Down” Storms in Australia’s Northern Territory? My experience says ‘Yes!’

It was nearly two years ago that I had my first experience with the “Knock’em down” storms of Australia’s Northern Territory. I was at the glass door of my hotel room at the Holiday Inn in Kakadu National Park (which actually is in the shape of a crocodile) and I was witnessing a rainstorm unlike anything I had ever seen before (or since)! The rain was torrential and the thunder shook the glass. The intimidating name of these storms comes from the fact that the wind flattens fields of 8ft high grass, hence the name “Knock’em Down”. These storms, I was told by the concierge, were to occur like clockwork from 4pm to 5pm every afternoon. I had arrived during the wet season in Australia’s “Top-End”!

After the rain stopped I made my way to the hotel’s restaurant and sat down over a cold beer and some crocodile kebabs to think about the following day’s itinerary. With no more than 15 people in the restaurant, it wasn’t hard to notice it was the low season in the “Top End”. The tour options in the traditional tour guidebooks all were prefaced with “Dry Season Only”, so I had to search quite hard through guidebooks and pamphlets. Scouring over the brochure rack in the foyer of the hotel I found a tour operator that ran “Wet Season Tours”. Their product catered to visitors like me, who travelled to the region during the wet/low season. I wanted to view aboriginal rock art at a place called Ubirr (think Crocodile Dundee), less than 5km from the Arnhem Land border. Unfortunately, access to this picturesque destination was obstructed, as the road was flooded due to the torrential rain of the wet season – or was it?

It was perfect. To me, it really seemed that everything was more suited for the wet season. I was picked up from my hotel around 8am and drove for 20 minutes until we reached the point where the road disappeared into the flooded waters. We took a boat from here through a billabong to get to another bus on the other side where the road reappeared. However, they took us on the long route. The suspense of looking for crocodiles while boating through a flooded billabong was incredible and made me think that visitors travelling during the dry season would never experience anything like this. They would have driven along the road with hundreds of other people. Wet season one, dry season zero.

Sadly, we didn’t see any of those prehistoric amphibians, but we did make it to the bus without seeing any other people. Nature-based travel doesn’t necessarily need to be in an untouched environment, but it does need to provide opportunities for the tourists to have quiet moments to connect with nature and reflect on their lives. After driving for 5 minutes on the bus, we pulled into the parking lot and began an incredibly picturesque walk that looped out to several sites with aboriginal rock art dating back 1,500 years and brought us back to the mini-bus. There were no groups crowding around the rock art sites, no straining to hear your tour guide over countless others. We were able to explore and reflect on the site in peace and absent were the crowds of the popular tourist seasons. Wet season two, dry season zero.

It was truly an amazing experience for so many reasons: no people, multiple forms of transportation and an atmosphere that felt like we just had that once-in-a-lifetime experience. Sure, I didn’t have the experience of seeing any crocodiles on this tour, but that was had on the way back to Darwin on the Adelaide River with a tour operator called “Jumping Crocodile Cruise” (a real circus and a story within itself).

What does this all mean? It means not shying away from travelling to regions solely because it may be during a traditionally low season. My experience in Kakadu National Park proves that with a little bit of searching and a pocket full of Karma, a visitor can have an excellent travel experience during the “off” season. It means establishing an open dialogue with trusted tour operators to encourage them to identify and launch new tour products that cater to low season visitors. It doesn’t mean that there is not an incredible amount of wonderful things to see and do during the high/dry tourist season; it’s just a different experience in the wet season. Both have value and we should see the need to dig deeper to find unique travel experiences during different times of the year.

What other unique tour products are available around the world during traditionally low tourist seasons?

		Wet Season in Kakadu National Park		Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn in Jabiru, Northern Territory
Arriving at the mini-bus for a change of transportation
Views from Ubirr, near Arnhem Land in Australia's Top-End