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Wauk
We stopped here for 10 minutes on our way through Arnhem In May, I went to the Northern Territory with my friend Pam for 2 weeks of nature style activities. We started off by going on a private tour of Arnhem land with VentureNorth. A nice bloke called Simon was our guide, cook, driver and general dog's body. He was great! We went from Darwin to Fogg Dam, which was alive with egrets, pied storks, brolgas, and mosquitos!
I'm sure that the creatures were out there in their battalions ready with armour piercing weapons at the ready to attack us in convoy and in vast numbers! There are suppossed to be 30 different speicies of mossies in the NT and I'm sure that everyone of those species sent in the warriors to repeatedly attack us over the following 2 weeks! I won't mention these again, but rest assured that we weren't spared even a moment until we got on the plane for Perth! I guess it's got something to do with the fact that the wet season was barely over, and the dry just beginning. Which also meant that places like Jim Jim falls and Twin Falls were closed to us.
We ventured into Kakadu for a quick look, especially at
Oenpelli
These ladies were busy making these mats from Pandanus palm Nouralangie Rock before overnighting at Jabiru and then heading off to Arnhem land via Oenpelli. Here we visited a Craft Centre and then were given a guided tour of Injalak Rock, which was very special as few people get to go there. A 4 hour drive through to the Coburg Peninsula and hte Marine Park was certainly different as we saw very little sign of human activity.
Our bush camp was interesting - overlooking Port Essington inlet - a magnificent piece of sea that we could only look at - crocodiles!!!
We spent the next few days in driving around to see the coast, beach combing and taking a look at one of our abandoned settlements - Victoria settlement. This is only reachable by boat - no roads. There is a marked walk with some plaques pointing out the main tourist sites - including a vast hospital and cemetary. Victoria was only settled for 6 years from 1838 to 1846 and dysentary and other tropical diseases played havoc with the settlers. Leichardt's expedition reached this neck of the woods!
After our few days here we joined another "tour" at Mary River Caravan Park - the Austarlian Naturalists Network meet. For
Threesome
This lady with her young child were content to sit and linger at the Injalak Craft Centre. the next 10 days we went everywhere from morning until night, and then in the evening we watched videos, listened to speakers talk about very interesting topics such as the magnetic ant mounds, native bamboo, NT birds, animals and plants.
Of course, we won't mention that one old geezer of 93 got lost on our first big outing at 11.30 AM and we not only had to do a big search, but the police and the emergency rescue people were brought in. Andy walked in under his own steam at 5 PM wondering what the big fuss was about - he had walked and walked until he found some track, and a kind passerby picked him up and brought him back to camp!!
It was a great trip, and we saw lots of crocs, birds, walleroos and wallabies, talked to many people (90 in the ANN gorup) and took many photos, some of which you see here.
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Weggs
Judy and Rags
Photos
I am really wowed by your photos Lucy. Your cane toadie photo puts mine to shame but at least both our toads suffered the same fate afterwards! Thanks for sharing. Look forward to seeing you Saturday. Judy