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Kakadu National Park - NT

Thursday, January 26th, 2006

We spent the last 2 days on a tour of the World Heritage listed Kakadu National Park about 150km west of Darwin, in the Northern Territory. with more that 22.000 Km sq is one one the biggest National Parks in Australia. This national Park belongs to an aborigen community where they take care of the land, the ancient rock paintings and also they perform their rituals..despite this we havent seen any aborigen community yet..

Español: Nos fuimos de tour al Parque nacional Kakadu declarado Patrimonio de la Humanidad por la Unesco.. tiene mas de 22.000Kms cuadrados y es uno de los Parque Nacionales mas grandes de Australia … este Parque nacional pertenece a una comunidad aborigen , ellos cuidan la tierra , y las pinturas prehistoricas en la rocas asi como realizan sus rituales.. todavia no hemos tenido la suerte de estar en con aborigenes ..

Here’s the tour group as we entered the park:
From left to right: James, Miho (Japan), Paolo (Italy), Peter (the guide, from Australia), Daniel (just under Peter’s armpit!!! Austria), Quene, Paolo (Italy, Simone (Italy).
Esp: Este es el grupo en la entrada del parque.

[read on]

Darwin- North Territory

Monday, January 23rd, 2006

Hi again from Darwin,

We are closer to Singapore than Sydney, this country is as big as the whole Europe, is like traveling from Turkey to Sweden . and is as different as those two countries.
The climate here is tropical , it has two seasons the dry season from May to September and the wet season from December to March.. , also this is the pathway of many cyclones .. Darwin has been destroyed several times , by the japanese WWII and few cyclones , the biggest one was Tracy in 1974 , you can see photos and even listen old recordings of her power with winds up to 300 Km/h destroying everything in her path in the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory ….
Also in the Museum there is an introduction to aboriginal culture , they have been around Australia more than 40.000 years , at that time there was land between south Asia and Australia , so few thousand crossed and settle in this land.
The main and most important aspect of their culture is “The Dreaming ” where explains the ascentral creation of the earth and everything that is on it. .. All this knowledge was tranfer from generation to generation until the Europeans arrived and declared ” Terra Nullius ” this land … and killed millions of aborigens (by European diseases like flu ..etc or by force) and ocupied their land , the worst chapter in their history since they saw the europeans is what is called ” the lost generation ” , a policy that separated aborigen kids from their families so they could assimilate the european culture destroying their own believes being abused or working as slaves.. most of those that were part of the lost generation policy now have problems with alcoholism or mental problems…

Hopefully the future will be brighter for them as some of the land is being recover and thanks to their art their culture is being recognize now.

Tours to the aborigen comunities is extremely expensive ( not sure why as they are not materialistic at all , also permits are necesary so there is a lot of burocracy to get to them) around 600 euros for two days.. so it is cheaper to fly to Fiji that visit them , we will try our best to show you some more things about them but is out of out budget.

The best way to get around Darwin is by bicycle
La mejor forma de conocer Darwin es en bicicleta

This is East Point National Park interesting landscapes ..
Paisajes increibles ..East Point National Park

Español
Buenas desde Darwin,

Estamos mas cerca de Singapur que de Sydney , este pais es tan grande como Europa , is como viajar desde Turquia a Suecia, y es tan diferente como estos dos
paises
El clima aqui es tropical, hay dos estaciones , la estacion seca de Mayo a Septiembre y la estacion humeda de Diciembre a Marzo.
tambien muchos ciclones visitan esta zona de vez en cuando, Darwin ha sido destruida varias veces, por los japoneses en la WWII y por unos cuantos ciclones
El mas grande fue tracy en la Nochebuena de 1974, se pueden ver fotos e incluso escuchar el sonido feroz de Tracy con vientos de hasta 300Km/h
destruyendo todo en el Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory .
Tambien en este Museo te dan una introduccion sobre la cultura aborige, han estado por aqui mas durante mas de 40.000 años, cuando desde el sur de Asia y
Australia habia tierra cruzaron y se asentaron.
El termino mas importante en su cultura es “the dreaming” o “El Sueño” donde se explicaba el principio de la creaccion de la tierra y todo lo que lo habita
y esta sabiduria a pasado de generacion en generacion hasta que llegaron los Europeos y declararon Australia ” Terra Nullius ” o Tierra vacia .. matando
a millones de ellos ( muchas veces por enfermedades que llevaron como la gripe o por la fuerza) y ocuparon sus tierras, el peor capitulo de su historia
desde que llegaron los Europeos es el llamado ” lost generation ” - “la generacion perdida”.. miles de niños aborigenes fueron separados de su familia para
que asimilasen la nueva cultura ,muchos de ellos no volvieron a ver a su familia, fueron abusados y trabajaban como exclavos ,y todo esto hasta 1970
muchos de ellos ahora tienen problemas mentales y de alcoholismo.

Todavia no han recibido la palabra perdon , pero el futuro que les espera es un poco mejor que lo que han vivido hasta ahora ya que les estan devolviendo
tierras y gracias a su arte estan siendo reconocidos y aceptados.
hacer un tour es demasiado caro y hay que hacer mucha burocracia, 600 para dos dias ..asi que tendremos que buscar otra solucion para poder mostraros
fotos de comunidades aborigenes..

So around the city you can find a cyclone shelter just in case … mmmm!!

The size of those Mushrooms!!

Please be careful they aree too cute

Tomorrow we go to the Kakadu National Park.. promise to bring more stories and cool photos .

See ya!

Back to Sydney and “misty” Blue Mountains

Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
Back from Queensland and we did the walk from Bondi Beach to Bronte Beach, nice walk along the coast but we were dying to get out of the city, we hadn't seen much nature, so it was time to put ... [Continue reading this entry]

Surfers Paradise - Gold Coast and Janis farewell

Thursday, January 12th, 2006
Welcome to Surfers Paradise This place is massive....! It is in the heart of Gold Coast - Queensland --Quene'sland ;) . Huge beaches with big waves, skyscrapers , great night life and lots of mad people ready to ... [Continue reading this entry]

Koalas and kangaroos

Friday, January 6th, 2006
Ahhhhhh isn't he soooooo cute!!!!!!!! I wanna take one home! Que boniiiiiiiiiiito!!!!!!!! Quiero llevarme uno! We visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on the outskirts of Brisbane. Home to some 130 or so Koala ... [Continue reading this entry]

Sydney New Years Eve special- Especial Fin de Año

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006
G'day from us all down under!!! Buenasss desde los antipodes!!! How do you celebrate New Year's Eve in Sydney?? You make some sandwiches and something to drink, ... [Continue reading this entry]