Darwin and Kakadu National Park

All right it has been a while, but I will give you the details as to my disappearance finally today... I am actually in Melbourne, but will do a few different updates to get us all on track.

Photos:
1. waterfall in the park.. there were a few, but getting into dry season many did not flow much more water than this.
2. me and a termite mound. (none to be seen thank god) these are known to get 15 feet high and much like an iceberg 2/3 is below the surface!
3. Old Town Hall in Darwin.. hit with bombs during the war, rebuilt and hit by Cyclone Tracy, town hall never recovered
4. crocodile jumping.. they make the crocs work for their food and entertain us by getting them to jump out of the water! and they would still have 1/3 to 2/3 of their body in the water.. very big fellas!
5. Rock art paintings dating back 20,000 odd years.. pretty basic ways of communicating... though you have to have the inside scoop as to its entire meanings.. there are three types of rock art... lessons, information and x-ray??? not too sure at this moment..
6. Me atop the Ubirr mountain (?) this was a spectacular site for looking out over miles and miles.. it was one major highlight from Kakadu.
7 . and a spider pic.. up here they are big and plenty.. yuck....

So, upon arrival in Darwin I was melting. Even at 1:00 in the morning it was hot and muggy. So when I hit the path the following day I truly was sweating off the pounds, literally. Dripping sweat in places you never want to feel it.. but I pursued and went for a walk of the town. Darwin was hit pretty hard by the Japanese at the beginning of the war and you can still see some of it. The government wasted millions of dollars building underground oil storage tunnels (which were never used) after theirs were bombed. After walking around the town core for 3 hours I headed to an old jail, which was interesting as it still had the gallows where they hung people ( a very big thing in Australia at it hay day). I enjoy touring jails to see how things were then.

And to get out of the heat I swam in the hostel pool while I did laundry. A nice luxury.

The Trip to Kakadu National Park was a thrill. It was a spectacularly green place and had some pretty interesting sites. The Australians screwed up in trying to grow their own rice (to avoid importing it) in that where they built the Humpty Doo Rice Project there were over 400 species of birds and plants. etc.. and after the first planting the birds ate all the seeds, so the rive would never grow. The area has now been turned into a conservation site.

We went on the Spectacular Crocodile Jumping Cruise, in which the drivers tease the crocs by dangling meat on a rope and having them jump out of the water for our pleasure.. it was pretty neat to see how quickly they can get out of the water and how high they can jump! After that we hiked into the Ubirr area and saw ancient Aboriginal Rock art paintings. Pretty cool. and then a climb to the top had amazingly spectacular views! We hiked into a couple of different fresh water water falls and had crocodile free swims... though at on time there may have been crocs in there!

I had a great group to travel with on this trip, which always makes it fun. Justin, our guide does not own a TV and is passionate about books regarding the history of the Aboriginal people and the Darwin area. So he was an enthusiastic guide full of all the info you ever wanted to know.... AND he was a keen didgeridoo player as well!!!

I hope this makes sense.. on to the next trek!