Shady camp is a camping area on the banks of the Mary River within the Mary River National Park in the Northern Territory. The road to the park is a well maintained gravel track off Arnhem Highway. Camp facilities are pit toilets, wood fired bbqs and a crocodile viewing platform. We spotted a crocodile or two during the day, at night we saw quite a few as their eyes are quite obvious under a torch light. The camp grounds are dusty and laden with prickly grass seeds that will penetrate the floor of your tent as we found out. We thought Shady camp would have not been too busy given the unsealed road and Kakadu being close by, however it was quite busy. We stayed one night only, spending as much time as possible fishing for barramundi. The mosquitoes here are the worse I have ever seen. Completely ridiculous. Still it was worth it, for that night I landed my first ever barra! Take extreme care when fishing at night here. The crocodiles are out and about. We had one person in the team dedicated to crocodile spotting with a bright torch whilst the other two fished. You need a torch of at least a few hundred lumens for this job. To add to the excitement, some road trains were going back and forth over the crossing at night. Assuming they are picking up cattle. Some people had parked their cars in the way, they were gently asked to move.

In the morning we packed up and hit the road towards Kakadu. We stopped off the the Bark Hut Inn to grab some lunch. Joe had a steak sandwich. Then off to Merl Camping Area in Kakadu.