Around Darwin

After we returned to Darwin from Kakadu we moved to the Palms City Resort, which is right in the city but looks as though it on some Pacific island, with little bungalows squeezed in amongst palm trees, and a nice little pool in the middle.

The Palms City swimming pool, and Sue.

Sue whips up some bbq sausages for dinner on our deck.

We had our own little deck where we could eat or sit and read.  It was very nice.

On our last day we took advantage of having a car to drive out to East Point to visit the popular military museum there.  On the way we stumbled upon a great coffee place on the beach, the Salty Plum cafe.  We could have stayed there for hours...

The Salty Plum cafe - bean chairs under the palm trees, and the Timor Sea.

The military museum has a modern pavilion and multimedia displays, and a garden area displaying a large number of WW II military vehicles and equipment.  We watched a dramatic cinematic display of the bombing of Darwin by the Japanese in 1942.  They sent hundreds of warplanes over Darwin and destroyed a lot of the city and port infrastructure, surprising the world.  This was just two months after they had attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii, and the attack was led by the same commander.

Inside the military museum, a.k.a. the "Defence of Darwin Experience".

The biggest gun.  Never really used!

A searchlight which could spot planes 30 miles away.

On Saturday we left Darwin and flew to Alice Springs, the flight taking just over two hours.  We arrived just after 9 am, and were meet with brilliant sunshine and a brisk temperature somewhere about 5 degrees.  A shocking change from Darwin - we had not expected that Alice would be cold!  I had to pull out my fleece top for the first time.

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Litchfield National Park

Today we completed our tour of the north with a visit to Litchfield National Park, the smaller cousin to Kakadu.  It is about 150 km from Darwin so can be visited as a reasonable day trip.  Our first stop was the "magnetic" termite hills, so-named because the termites here build their hills as flat slabs which are aligned north-south.  This is believed to result in comfortable temperatures inside the hill as the sun crosses the sky.  Scientists have conducted tests and found that they do indeed use the magnetic field of the earth to determine north.

The area looks a bit like a large cemetery.  All the hills are aligned to north.

A specific family of termites builds this shape of termite hill.

Our first stop was at Florence Falls where we hoped for a swim.  We had read that some areas are still closed to swimming, but this one had opened.  We took the steep way down from the car park to the pool via the steps, and later returned via the more gradual Shady Creek walking track.

The steps down to Florence Falls

Florence Falls and pool, where there was quite a crowd of swimmers.

 We both took the plunge here, and the water was very nice.  When I tried swimming over to the foot of the falls I found it was quite hard work against the current.  The pool was full of fish, which didn't seem too disturbed by the swimmers.  They appeared to be "sooty grunters" as far as we could tell.

The stream which flows out of the Florence Falls pool.

On the same road we visited the Buley Rockholes, where we ate our peanut butter sandwiches beside the stream.  The stream descends through a series of various sized pools, each forming a nice swimming hole.

Buley Rockholes - our lunch spot.

Buley Rockholes were quite popular.

One of the main stops in Litchfield park is Wangi Falls, but the pool there has has not opened yet following the end of the "wet" because they have not cleared it of crocodiles.  It is a large deep pool fed by a couple of waterfalls.  Wangi Falls is also the site of the only coffee we found for some distance.

Some geezers at Wangi Falls.

Crocodile trap at Wangi Falls.

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Darwin Waterfront

Darwin has constructed an extensive waterfront area, with a lagoon and beach, an artificial wave beach, and many apartment blocks, shops and restaurants.  There is a large grassed area by the beach popular with families and sunbathers.  The little beach fronts onto the man-made lagoon which is separated and raised from the ocean but connected by pumps with filters to keep the sharks, crocodiles and stinging jellyfish out.  Some little jellyfish do get in, so they also maintain a population of big fish to eat them and keep them under control.

Sue heading down to the beach.

There is a second "beach" near this one which is supplied with waves by some hidden machine.  You have to pay to get into that area, but it was filled with people when we saw it.

The artificial wave lagoon.

 

Frolicking in the waves

An ibis

Looking down on the lawn and beach, with the harbour beyond.

It is a very nice area to sit and eat your lunch, or your fish and chips in the evening.  There is also a large convention centre, and a long pier with restaurants out on the end.  A small driverless bus is operating to take people out along the pier and back.

The driverless bus undergoing trials along the waterfront.

In evening it was still calm and warm, so very pleasant sitting by the beach.

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Nourlangie Rock Art

On our drive back from Cooinda to Darwin we detoured onto the Nourlangie road in the hope of seeing some the aboriginal rock art this area is famous for.  We were not disappointed, with the escarpment towering overhead and the walking track winding between huge slabs of stone standing at various angles which provided shelter for the aborigines who lived here.  Their drawings decorate the rock walls which they sheltered beside or under.

Instructions for various dance moves.

It was very hot when we parked the car and set out up the track, but as we got up into the stone landscape where the indigenous people lived it was noticeably cooler.  The huge stones provide shade and shelter, and gentle breezes are created around them making for a much more comfortable environment.

The Kakadu escarpment above us.

The escarpment towering overhead resembled a monkey's head.

A small skink on the hot rocks.

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Yellow Water

We rose before dawn in Cooinda, Kakadu to start our Yellow Water Cruise this morning.  A couple of hundred people had booked the same cruise so it was rather different to our two-person tour yesterday.

We were bussed a few hundred metres to the jetty for the cruise boats.

Setting out, about four boats carrying 50 people each.

The Yellow Water is a billabong adjoining the South Alligator River, which means it is a sidewater rather than part of the main river.  The South Alligator river is 160 km long and lies completely within Kakadu.  It was given its name by the original surveyor who had experience of alligators in America and did not realise that this river is full of crocodiles, not alligators.  Once it was mis-named the name stuck.

It was a beautiful morning, warm and clear like just about every morning so far.  Insect repellent kept the mozzies at bay, so they did not trouble us.  The water was flat and calm and there was no wind, so it was very pleasant being out in the boat in the early morning.

Pre-dawn over the Yellow Water.

A sea-eagle in the tree on the right, watching the sun rise.

Our guide explained the remarkable annual cycle of this area.  During the wet season the whole area floods, over thousands of square kilometers, and the waterfalls off the escarpment turn into huge torrents as the plateau drains onto the lowlands.  The huge areas of Buffalo Grass we saw around us actually float on top of the water, so they rise and fall with the floods which means the whole area looks very similar through all seasons, except that in the wet the trees look shorter!  However many roads and tracks become impassable for that part of the year.  It must take a staggering amount of water to flood such a large area, sometimes to three meters above this level.

Our guide told us a lot about the flora and fauna as we cruised up the Yellow Water, and out into the South Alligator River.  Everyone wants to see crocodiles, so he was very pleased when a large fellow (below) came cruising down the river.  This would be the dominant male crocodile for this stretch of water, and at about 4.5 metres long he is the largest in the area.  Our guide quietly motored backwards to keep us close to the croc, who did not seem perturbed by our presence.  The guide said that crocodiles were almost wiped out before they became protected in 1971, so it will be a few more decades before there are any super-large (seven metre) crocodiles to be seen.

Our big male crocodile eyeing us from close to the boat.

We were warned to keep ourselves inside the boat, to stay out of reach of jumping crocodiles.

A sea eagle landing on her favourite branch.

Lotus lily leaves growing in the buffalo grass turn to follow the sun.

Possibly a magpie goose...

A crocodile lurks patiently (centre) while the birds wander nearer.

The photo above shows little Jacana birds which everyone enjoyed watching.  The shape in the water behind them is a female crocodile sitting motionless, waiting for something edible to come near.  These birds seem to run around on the surface of the water, earning the nickname "Jesus birds", while actually walking on floating weeds and lilies.  Those above are large chicks but we also saw very small ones running around under the watchful eye of their father.  If any threat is detected he quickly calls them together, tucks two under each wing, picks them up and runs off with them with legs dangling!

We found the cruise very interesting and enjoyable, and saw a lot more wildlife than during our travels further south the day before.  To top it off breakfast at Cooinda Lodge was included, so we left very happy with our morning outing.

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Kakadu Adventure

Our Kia long-distance touring SUV

Yesterday we drove from Darwin to Jabiru in the Kakadu National Park, a distance of about 250 km mostly eastward across flat open country, on a good two lane highway.  Kakadu covers 20,000 square kilometers so is a huge area.  The view from the road is mainly of fairly open land populated with long grass, gum trees and termite mounds.  It is frequently blackened by fires, most of which are deliberately lit early in the dry season to prevent huge natural fires taking hold and doing more damage.  This area has one of the highest rates of lightning strikes in the world, so fires are not uncommon.  The aboriginal people have been burning the land like this for thousands of years.

Gum trees, and termite hills three or four metres high.

Smoke from fires smouldering along the side of the road.

The roads was generally straight and flat, and there was hardly any traffic, so with no radio station or cell phone coverage for long distances we found ourselves napping ("resting our eyes") when not doing the driving.  We saw our first "road train" during this drive; a truck with four trailers which provides a bit of challenge if you want to overtake!

A four-trailer road train thundering by

Most of the road trains we saw had four trailers.

There are long stretches of nothing out here, as we found when we started hankering for our next coffee.  It is just the start of the tourist season, so the information centre by the Kakadu sign (below) was not open.  We realised it is still quiet at this time of year, as for example when we met our guide for our "Spirit of Kakadu Adventure" day tour we were the only two there.

Welcome to Kakadu!

The Crocodile Mercure Hotel, Jabiru, Kakadu.

Kakadu undergoes a drastic change from the wet season to the dry.  In the wet season huge areas are flooded and many roads are closed.  Now most are open, but a few are still out of bounds, so our guide Harim drove us fairly large distances to show us the sights, because some of the more convenient areas are still closed.  The outstanding geological feature of this area is the 300 metre high escarpment which separates the lowlands from the higher plateau, and runs for about 500 kilometres roughly north / south.  Millions of years ago it was a cliff at the edge of the ocean.  Many of the tourism sites are points along the escarpment where waterfalls flow over the edge and into gorges and pools below.

Harim took us first to Maguk or "Barramundi Gorge Falls".  This included a pleasant walk up the creek to the head of the valley where a waterfall drops into a large pool.

If you are eaten, you can't say they didn't warn you.  These signs are everywhere.

We had to wade through this bit.

Sandy stretches, eroded from the sandstone cliffs.

At Maguk we had a swim in the pool.  Very nice, but I couldn't quite forget about the crocodiles...

After Maguk we drove further south to reach Gunlom, which has an even larger pool and a much higher waterfall.  Here there is a camping ground and extensive picnic areas, and there were many more people out for the day.  The 300 metre cliffs are awe inspiring.

Gunlom

Gunlom again, with Sue in the distance.

Here we climbed the steep track to the top of the escarpment, and were rewarded by a coolish breeze and a view out across the land.

It doesn't look very far up...?

The view from the top of the escarpment.  Kakadu as far as the eye can see..

The pools above the waterfall at Gunlom.

Harim stopped to show us a termite hill up close, beside the road.  We passed thousands of these, so there must be billions of termites out there.  I learned that termites are NOT ants, not even like ants - more like a cousin of the cockroach.  You never see them because they cannot stand the heat of the sun so do most of their foraging at night.  They eat grass and leaves and wood, a bit like the role filled by large animals in other ecosystems.

Termite hill.

I worked out that Harim drove us about 270 km today, so there was a lot of driving per place visited.  It's an important thing to remember if you travelling in Australia.

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