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Published: November 9th 2007
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Hello again! I can't imagine anything I'd rather be spending my day in the office doing than reading about how much fun others are having whilst I'm at work! (Not that most of the people who read this blog work very hard anyway-you know who you are Gerald Atkins, Aunty Sue, Uncle Chris, Sam Bridge, Rob Lindfield, Shelley Mohindra etc!!!!!)
As you all know we were very excited to be leaving S.E Asia for Australia if only so that we didn't have to speak 'pigeon' English anymore! We took a short flight from Bali to Darwin and checked into a nice self catering hostel which made a pleasant change, no noodles for a while! Yippee!
We had decided to head out of the city quickly as there are several large and rather beautiful national parks not far away. We met an Austrian fellow called Reini (pronounced 'Ry-nee') who is rather crazy and has hobbies including night skiing, cross country skiing, climbing, tight rope walking (which we caught him practising in the park one night) and other equally insane activities that a good English gentleman of sound mind and a gentle upbringing would never find himself indulging in. Anyway, he
was also keen to see the parks without paying the astronomical fees charged by tour companies so we hired a little car and headed out ourselves.
First stop was to be Kakadu National Park which contains around 7000 sites with ancient and particularly important Aboriginal art as well as being an area of outstanding natural beauty. We hadn't been on the road too long on our first day when we stopped at an area which was home to Magnetic Termite Mounds. They get their names from the fact that the mounds are built with a North-South orientation and a very thin top so that exposure to the heat of the sun during the day time is minimised and doesn't adversely affect the termite's day-to-day functions. The whole area looked spookely like a large graveyard! We also spotted a Frilled Lizard sunning itself in the early morning sun so we gave chase and got a few photos, they have evolved a large frill around the neck (hence the name) used to gain heat quickly from the sun to warm their cool bodies and presumably also to impress or scare one another at appropriate times so they really are quite impressive
to look at.
Onward and we reached the first of a few sites that we were to visit that have some interesting aboriginal art work. We arrived in time for some talks held by a park ranger about the origins of the artwork and some of the stories behind them. We learnt how animals are nearly always painted with diagrams of the useful parts of the animals highlighted as well as ways of killing/skinning them and occasionally where to find them. We also learnt about the Rainbow Serpent-an ancient story first told 20-40000 years ago by some of the first aboriginal inhabitants of Australia. In short the moral of this story is that noisy children get eaten and endanger their families as well. Quickly we realised that nearly all of the aboriginal stories that are passed on through art have functional purposes, not in a wishy washy way, but in a real way that allowed future generations to continue to survive and pass on the stories to their children whilst also respecting nature and the balance that humans need to form with it, unfortunately many of these stories are being forgotten as young aboriginal children are becoming more and
more integrated with modern Australian society. After 2/3 ranger talks we watched the sunset from the top of a large rocky outcrop over the bushlands of the park whilst little Rock Wallabies and Kangaroos were feeding just 50 metres below us-a lovely end to a lovely day.
We spent one more day in Kakadu, visiting information centres and other areas of cultural and historical importance before setting off on our third day to visit Litchfield National Park just a few hours to the west of Kakadu. Litchfield has less of the culture but still some great natural beauty and the three of us spent that day bathing in fresh water pools beneath waterfalls and in rivers. The first we visited was also home to some large (ish) monitor lizards who shared the pools with us whilst hunting for a fish or two and the last we visited (which is also the busiest and largest) had a Saltwater Crocodile warning sign at it's entrance. Knowing that these creatures regularly get up to 3.5 metres plus and have a penchant for anything that is smaller than themselves the want to be refreshed was negated and instead we walked around in the
forest where some large and endangered species of bats live.
We spent that last night out in the parks in a nice and quiet campsite after some Buffalo sausage sandwiches off the BBQ (and a few cold XXXX Golds-why not?).
We then headed back to Darwin and Janice and I went down to a local beach for a food and cultural market that was really nice and visited the Charles Darwin museum briefly that focuses on local wildlife and Aboriginal culture. The next day we parted ways with our new friend Reini and headed down to Alice Springs to visit a big rock in the desert somewhere-yawn.
Speak again soon,
Love Adam and Janice xxxxx
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