We landed in Darwin at almost midnight on Sunday night/ Monday morning, so I'm not sure whether to call this "Day 1"or "Day 2" of our trip. Although we had spent many, many hours travelling by plane to get here, we still weren't at our final destination. Jabiru (where my parents live) is a good 250km from Darwin, around a 3 hour drive (which I am sure took a little longer because of all the pit stops we made along the way.
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| My mom and I at Darwin Harbour |
I'll skip the boring stuff - except to say that we had a quick walk around Darwin Harbour, had brunch in a little Irish-themed pub* and did some quick shopping for food and booze (where I got the cutest pair of flip flops for $3).
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| My dad and I at the Humpty Doo town sign |
According to wikipedia, the Humpty Doo Hotel is well known and features in several bush ballads, including ‘The Man from Humpty Doo’ by Ted Egan and Slim Dusty's ‘Humpty Doo Waltz’. *** Apparently they are quite well-known Northern Territory folk/ country singers,**** but I think that "Slim Dusty" sounds like a rapper name.
Amoung the 3 attractions of Humpty Doo is the boxing Crocodile.
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| Anton and me at the Boxing Croc |
Also in Humpty Doo is The Window on The Wetlands. which is a visitor centre and viewing platform of the Adeleaide River floodplain.
The Window on The Wetlands is a Turtle Dreaming site - which in a nutshell means that is a sacred site to the Aboriginal people as it is part of the journey that the gods took during the Creation. *****
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| The wetlands |
It is hard to believe that most of this land is under water during the rainy-season. All along the roads in Nothern Territory there are signs for the various lakes and rivers, most of which were non-existent when we drove over them.
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| At Corroboree |
Our next stop stop was Corroboree, where they have a few resident animals, including 2 crocodiles (not as friendly looking as the ones above.
A quick word about crocodiles in Australia: You get two types: Fresh Water crocs are a little more timid and found, as the name suggests, in fresh water. They generally don't attack people and are pretty chilled. Here we have Fred the Freshie chilling in his little pond.
Then you get Salt Water crocs. These are the ones to look out for. They can be found in both fresh and salt water. And they are crazy vicious. And the largest reptile in the world (cos everything is bigger and more deadly in Australia.
Hard to believe that they are so vicious when they are lying out in the sun like this - I don't think that Brutus the Salty moved an inch the whole time we were there except to open his huge jaw a bit.
But in case you don't believe me about how crazy they are, this is a picture I found of Brutus who ATE A CHAINSAW cos it was disturbing his sleep. You can read more about the incident here.
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| Brutus the Salty eating a chain saw for breakfast |
We also got to see an Albino Water Buffalo - also chilling in his pond. He was actually quite cute splashing in his pond.
Just as we were leaving we saw some wallabies in the distance.
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| Yes, those are wallabies - my camera doesn't zoom so well |
Speaking of Australia town names, a Corroboree is an event where Aboriginals interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume.
The landscape of the Northern Territory is littered with termite mounds - some incredibly small, some built against trees, and some are very, very large. Inside the mounds are complicated systems of tunnels and shafts, rooms and galleries. The mounds themselves are built north-south, which has something to do with magnetic fields, as termites are very sensitive to magnetic fields.
Did I mention that can get very big. I mean, I know that I am short but even my dad looks small in comparison,
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| My dad and I - for scale |
The Bark Hut was our next stop, kind of a half-way point between Darwin and Jabiru, and used as a pit-stop by many people making the Darwin-Jabiru journey as a pit-stop.
It is actually an incredibly charming establishment, filled with "authentic" Australian treasures. Like a resident emu, the "outback" toilets, the "fullashit" corner and, of course, a buffalo head. I remember from my last trip that there used to be a crocodile up on the wall as well, but it seems that he has found a home elsewhere.
From here to Kakadu National Park, there was not much to see but landscape, landscape and more landscape. A game of "eye spy with my little eye" would be incredible boring here - what with "tree" being pretty much the only thing you will be spying. Even other vehicles on the road are a rare occurrence.
Finally we did make it to the entrance of the Kakadu National Park. The national park is roughly the size of Slovenia, and the size of it would put the Kruger National Park to shame. Although because of the large size, animal sightings are not as common as one would see at Kruger. The speed limit in the national park is 130km/h - and they want to do away with speed limits at all inside the park. National parks in South Africa are treated with much more reverence and a speed limit that high would put conservationists here on edge.
The town of Jabiru is inside the Kakadu National Park, so we were almost home.
Seeing as I have been explaining town names along the way, Kakadu is named from the language spoken by the people here (Gagudju). A Jabiru is a large stork.
Well, it had taken us 2 days of travel to get there, but we made it one piece to enjoy a favourite Australian (and South African) pass time - a nice cold beer!
* Yes, we went all the way to Darwin to eat breakfast in an Irish Pub
** Don't Australian towns have the funniest names. Yes, yes they do. They sound like they were made up by a drunk person half the time.
*** Yes, I did have to look up Humdty Doo's claim to fame on wikipedia
**** Yes, I also had to look that up on wikipedia
***** Aboriginal culture and religion is not simple to explain, but super interesting. I'll try explain some stuff as I go.
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