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Published: April 6th 2006
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Brekkie time
Just glad that wasnt me leg thank you very much!! Hello all
I'm here to tell you a little story about a place called Darwin. The thing you have to remember about Darwin is that it is in the tropics so that means really high humidity (80% phew!) and that they have a wet season. Now it appears that i have arrived at the end of the wet season and at a time the aborigines call the "knock-em-down" storm season. Now boy do they mean it! Its still like 35 degrees but at about 4 o'clock most days you are pretty much guaranteed a spectacular storm! Its really weird walking round in your shorts and thongs (sorry flip flops cant help but pick up the lingo) while being soaked through to your skin yet the second the rain stops you dry off! why cant the rain in England be like that. They don't ever get cold in Darwin the lucky buggers.
Anyway the point of telling you guys this was that i have just got back from a two day trip to Kakadu National Park and it pretty much rained the entire time! But good rain if you get my meaning.
I was picked up from Gemmas by a guy called
Kakadu
The view in the rain - still pretty good Ben and 8 other travellers in his trusty 4x4 and we drove out of Darwin for about an hour until we came to the Adelaide River for the Jumping crocodile cruise. Yes thats right jumping crocodiles. You basically get on this big boat and they hang great chunks of meat off the side and the crocs jump out of the water and eat it! Its really cool to see them up close.
This is probably a good time to tell you about the croc problem they have in Darwin. Apparently in the past people have come across crocs walking down the main street. Now i think this is probably something they tell the tourists but there are bigger problems than crocs out for a stroll. You see there are two types of croc. The Freshwater croc that live in freshwater, and the saltwater croc that lives in saltwater. and freshwater. Confused? me too. The thing is the Freshie wont eat you unless provoked so you are okay to swim with those guys, but the salties will eat you just for looking at them, and as they can live in any water there are very few places in Darwin that you
Croc sign
Nuff said can actually swim safely! In fact i was told that when i swam in Litchfield last week chances are i swam with a croc - but must have been a freshie luckily. So Swimming in Darwin is pretty few and far between so i think ill just stick on the boat!!
Once the crocs had had enough meat we drove onto to Kakadu. It was around this time that the heavens decided to open up on us! I'm not kidding i have never seen so much rain in my entire life! we asked the guide what we would do since it was raining and he said "get wet". And thats what we did. Kakadu is pretty spectacular even in the rain and we walked for about 6 kms to this incredible lookout where we had lunch under some welcome shelter and attempted to fry off before going out in it again. The kag-in-a-bag came in very useful although i could have done with something to keep my shoes dry - i think they soaked up most of the water.
We camped in little tents inside this one big tent so we kept out of the rain for the evening and
Abbo Art
An example of some aboriginal art in Kakadu had a delicious BBQ. Tuna Steaks, salad, Stir fry - yum yum - before a little digeridoo music (damn i forgot my earplugs). I slept pretty well even with the rain lashing down on the tents!!
Next morning and the rain was still going but so were we. More walking and climbing for even more amazing views. We scrambled over some rocks to climb up to this overhang where we sat and had lunch. Has to win hands down for the place for a picnic ever! And it was at this time that it finally stopped raining!! But of course climbing down proved to be another Uluru - harder getting down than up. but we were promised the reward of some swimming in gentle rockpools when we were down. Of course gentle rockpools dont exist after that amount of rain, its more like a rushing torrent. Too dangerous for us to swim firstly for the current and secondly cause the flooding could carry some crocs with it! Eeekk! so we decided just to head back to Darwin. Simple. NO.
The flooding also had blocked most of the roads off so instead of a 4 hour drive back to Darwin we
Picnic at Kakadu
View from the overhang - not bad eh! were looking at an 8 hour drive back!! Absolutely knackering but at least i wasnt the one who had to drive!!
So anyway here i am now, its Thursday afternoon and its my last day in Darwin. I'm pretty sad to be leaving Gemma and her mates as they have all been so good to me but it wouldn't be called travelling if i stayed in one place. My coach is picking me up at 5.45 tomorrow morning (ouch) and it will take us about 4 days to get to Cairns stopping of at various places along the way so that should be fun and i will tell you all about it when i am in Cairns.
See ya!! xx
P.s - oh and i licked a green ants bum - lemony - nice!!
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amy
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darn those tasty ants.
hey lisa. good to see you're having a great time.. kinda depressing to see what I missed out through only traveling the east coast!! Thankfully though, I DID get to lick a green ants bottom. mmmm tasty.. Tip for Cairns.. makesure you eat at the woodshed (if its open after those storms!!) -but yep... most hostels in cairns do you a little voucher that you take to this travelers pub in town and you get either a free dinner (usually kinda basic) or choose something else for like five bucks. Can save you a fortune. Oh ..and DEFINITELY catch the Peter Lik gallery. one awesome photographer. stay safe, oh and cairns... 90% humidity... at least ;) enjoy.