So we pulled ourselves together after the
Blues Origin 1 loss and packed ourselves up ready to head up in to the
Kakadu.. The great thing about staying
so close to the thermal springs was that once packed up it was just a short
walk to one last farewell swim at what to date had been perhaps the most
relaxing few days of the trip this far.
So ever onward and northward we went,
stopping to stock up in Katherine before arriving at our campground for the
next 3 nights at Gagidju in Cooinda, Kakadu National Park. Now we had been a smidgeon nervous about the
whole camping with crocs thing. Dan had
advised me just make sure the fire stays burning but we didn’t have a
fire. We checked in and proceeded to the
unpowered tent sites slightly curious given the guy at the desk had answered my
very touristy question of how far away are the crocs with an answer of “it
should be ok now, the water has receded quite a bit in the last few
weeks”. The things we noticed on
arrival were lots of grass (hadn’t seen it since Sydney), lots of sprinklers
(either keeping the grass green or maybe crocs don’t like sprinklers), lots of
mossies and midgies and of course a Crocodile Warning Sign right at the edge of
the camping area. So we camped as close
to the edge as we could and when nightfall came went to sleep with absolutely
no idea how far the river was from our tent.
Anyway, we survived! The closest to a croc we got was on the
Yellow Waters Cruise, which coincidentally left not far from the campground and
did have crocs about. Lachie saw 11
crocs there and back, which really means there were about 6 that we saw twice,
thousands of birds of all sorts and a lot of water acorss the floodplains that
we cruised around. Lookouts at Ubirr
Rock at sunset and the cruise at sunrise and as luck would have it this was the
only day so far the sun has not been shining.
Luckily for us it was naturally spectacular without the lighting of the
sun.
Alex we found out is an information
reader. We went to an Aboriginal
Cultural Centre and he read every single word written in the joint to the point
where the rest of us waited for him for about an hour. The most amazing thing is that now if we have
an aboriginal question, Alex recalls it all from where we went, to who can
marry who and the fact that men are not allowed by Aboriginal custom to talk to
their mother in laws! I shall make no
comment…I love my Mother In Law (especially when she makes little cakes with
icing….we will be home end of August hint hint).
We left Kakadu and drove to Darwin, but not
before spotting a croc on the Alligator River as we drove over the bridge. Now the cruise was good to see the crocs, but
to see one unexpectedly and watch it swim down the middle of the river was
awesome and a nice reminder that they literally can be anywhere.
A few hours later we arrived in Darwin, set
up and then off to Mindil Beach Sunset Markets and a look at the ocean for the
first time in nearly a month. A
beautiful blue spoilt only by the fact that 131 crocs have been pulled out of Darwin
Harbour so far in 2012…oh and it is still stinger season so if the crocs don’t
get you the Box Jelly Fish will.
Nevertheless, it was somehow cleansing (still getting rid of red dust)
to see and breathe in the salt air and sitting for a few hours eating market
food on the grass was a nice welcome to Darwin.
A day
of getting our battery charger in the trailer fixed and taking in the role of
Darwin in WW2 through the Military Museum and an interactive exhibit on the
Defence of Darwin saw the end of day 1 in Darwin. This exhibit was quite brilliant with
touchscreens and messages of people who were there and a big theatre where the
glass cabinets frosted over in to a movie screen and we watched the events of
the bombing of Darwin complete with surround sound and flashing lights in the
ceiling as the bombs dropped….unfortuneatly Lachie at the ripe old age of 4
turned out to be a bit young and after the first bombs landed he spent the rest
of the time crying and scared. Not quite
what we wanted, and had we known we would not have taken the kids, but Alex got
it and Lachie spent the next two days asking why and whether the planes we saw
taking off from the airport had bombs on
them.
Day
2 was spent walking the city to show Lachie that the city was alright again,
swimming in the “wave pool”, a massive pool with a big wave machine to simulate
the ocean (minus the crocs and stingers) so the kids could have some kid time
instead of thinking they were still at war and dinner out at Tim’s Steak,
Seafood and Croc where we all duly sampled some crocodile before eating our
mains.
Next stop Litchfield National Park, a short
hour and a half away….
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