Nick’s world tour

That was a mission, half the height of the country in one go. Now back in the tropics, Darwin is a tiny little city, and the capital of the Northern Territory. Destroyed with varying degrees of success over the years by wars and cyclones, it’s a modern place next to some nice beaches. There’s not much to do in the town, as most attractions have ended due to the impending wet season. The Wet hasn’t started yet, and it’s not too humid either. Though the flies are very persistent, taking a liking for eyeballs, nostrils and flying in your mouth when you’re eating.The main attraction is the nearby Kakadu National Park. A bunch of six of us head out in a 4WD with our driver for two days exploring the park. On the way we stop off for a Jumpin’ Croc Cruise. Here we have very close encounters with the evil salties. Saltwater crocodiles actually can live in freshwater too, and are more properly called estuarine crocodiles. Beside the fact that the temperature that the eggs are kept at in the nest determines the sex of the baby, the only other thing you need to know is that these grow to about 6m long and their jaws exert a force of 2.5-3 tonnes per square inch.

Much of the park seems to be smouldering away, it’s spooky at night driving through a glowing landscape. In a few weeks much of this will be metres underwater. Hard to imagine. We spend most of our time hiking out to waterholes where we go for a nice refreshing dip.

“Freshies” crocs live here, but aren’t too vicious unless provoked, and their bite is just like a dog bite… so safe to swim then?

After stopping off for the obligatory photo next to a 70year old cathedral termite mound we finish the first day off at Yellow Water Billabong for sunset snacks and drinks.

Avoiding wildlife on our nocturnal drive, we camp out under the stars next to the escarpment near Jim Jim falls. Kanagaroo, veggies, a bit of wine and some marshmallows over the fire.

Nice way to end the day. We wake early to the sound of a didgeridoo and spend the day much the same as yesterday, a few scenic drives down sandy tracks, only getting stuck once. Some more walking, a bit of caving and then a look at some aboriginal rock paintings at Nourlangie (much more intricate than African ones). My favourite is the one of Nabulwinjbulwinj: a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.

Throughout the trip we’ve been learning about bush tucker- most “memorable” is being handed a lime green coloured ant, and being told to lick it’s tail. It tastes of lemon.

We spend the evening back in Darwin at the Vic for our free dinner, lose in the pub quiz despite out great name, and after a day of doing nothing much apart from wandering out of town to the beach and the NT museum I leave on another epic journey.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 12:28 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.