Back in Darwin - Day 1

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We had a quiet and lazy morning which I used to go around town to find out a little bit more about what this town has to offer and I stumbled across Government House.

Nice one... Just by one side of it there was a plaque with an inscription explaining a little bit of the history of Darwin.

It seems the same 4 Japanese aircraft carriers that iniciated the attack on Perl Harbour, also attacked Darwin 10 weeks later. 292 people died on the attack and it seems they weren´t prepared for it and the whole harbour and the ships in it got completely demolished after the attack.

You never hear much about Australian involvement on the II World war but they did suffer many casualties and fought on the pacific front.

After the walk, it was library time...remember, free internet! :-)

And then it was dinner time so we went back to the Vic to claim our free dinner once more. :-)

After dinner the games commenced...The first one was to flip a jug and try to get it to fall on eithe the top or the bottom, if it falls on the side you lose.

I got really lucky and I managed to do it. I could tell you it's all in the wrist but the truth is that I have no idea how I did it.

Then there was another one in which they would trim down a 6 pack carton and you would have to pick it up with your teeth without using your hands (your hands couln't touch the ground either)... you can see me on the last stage of this game. :-)

Children! do not try this at home! you can get seriously injured...I had to hop my way to the hotel after that...

Unfortunately, I was competing against Mr Yoga Master so I never had a chance, the guy would just spread his legs as much as needed and pick it up with no effort whatsoever... but it was quite fun, and at least I made it to the final. :-)

Other Photos from the night. The Cocacola gang!

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Litchfield & Kakadu - Day 3

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Last day in Kakadu. We had a good tropical storm last night and when we woke up in the morning we found all the ground flooded (although our tents were still dry). So after our previous experiences, we quickly realised that today it would be a flip-flop day. No trekking boots.

The photos below are from the morning, although it may appear to be from the evening...that's what you see when you get up at 5am in the morning after a tropical storm... pitch dark and all flooded.

The first stop was in Yurmikmik, there we went to see the motorcar falls. The weird name comes from an old car that was left behind and people started using it to give directions, such as...yes walk until you find the motorcar and then turn right and continue for 50 metres...and from using it all the time the name stuck. Motorcar falls.

As always, warnings first...

It seems there maybe salties as well... Although before they open this section of the park they always go with a boat searching for salties and if they find any, they capture it and take it to a crocodile sanctuary.

And of course, the insect photo for today is:

Then we went to yet another waterfall even more impresive than the previous one.

Typical warnings

And the waterfall

Then we went to a local petrol station to have lunch.

and there they had a small shop where they were selling all sort of stuff...like this:

This product is illegal in Europe, the maximun DEET allowed in any product in Europe is 45%. DEET is highly toxic...but here you can find it...and if you are someone like some of the people in our tour, you may appreciate this illegality. Some people had more than 50 new bites every morning...They looked like they went to a mosquito party and they were the desert!

I can't complain. Only one mosquito bite in 3 days. :-) without any repelent nor long sleeves.

I'm telling you, they just don't like my blood, I must be an acquired taste...clearly not for all mosquitos, a bit like vegimite. Don't know what vegimite is?...you're so lucky! if you're british you are probably familiar with Marmite, vegimite is the Aussy response to marmite...but with an extra degree of disgustness... If you see the stuff in a shop near you...RUN!!! and don't look behind...

Anyway, after lunch we were driven again to our accomodation in Darwin. The Cavenagh, where Sharon and Alan were waiting for us. :-)




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Litchfield & Kakadu - Day 2

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Today is going to be our first day at Kakadu National Park.

Apparently all animals that go wild become "Feral" in Australia. I'm guessing that's just an adjective that allows anyone to shot the beast without any legal implications...it was feral after all.

Feral cats, feral dogs, ...

Our first stop for the day were the Gubara falls. I found the walk quite a pain in the ass and the "falls" to be the worst of the lot although apparently there were some other pools not far off that were quite nice but I didn't get to see them because I didn't know about them and nobody bothered to tell me. :-(

Our guide told us several times to wear our trekking shoes (my best trekking shoes are my sandals). :-)

So everyone was wearing their trekking shoes just to discover that the trail was flooded most of the way and they had to take off their shoes, and put them back and take them off again and so on and so forth...

This are is known to have crocs but they are freshies. Usually what happens every year is that after the rains, the water levels go up so some salties and freshies make it up the river. When the rainy season ends, they always send a few boats to extract all the salties from these pools, they leave the freshies though so when you take a dip in these places you should always look around before you get wet.

As you can see below the place isn't very impressive to say the least.

I also found a nice little fella but I'm afraid the picture is not one of my best...

Anyway, on the way back I found a snake. I tried to keep my distance (remember that everything in Australia kills, it's just a matter of how fast it kills you not on whether it kills you or not) so as I said, I was keeping my distance and trying to take the photo while Aida was chasing the bloody thing trying to work out what kind of snake it was.
I am glad it was the shy type and didn't try to bite her because she got really, really close to it...just for a moment I thought I would have to swich my camera to the video mode in order to record the moment of how Aida got striken by a poisonous snake and died in Kakadu...I'm glad I never got to record that though, but I would have made millions selling the video worldwide. :-)

Finally we both made it back to the bus.

The next stop was Anbangbang the place where you can find a lot of aboriginal paintings.

I'm becoming an expert in photographying insects. You can't imagine how difficult it is to get a picture of a spider...go on, try at home, you'll see it's not as easy as it looks.

20 photos later, this is the result of my best shots. :-)

They look nasty don't they?

Next stop Nawurlandja lookout, a place not without its risks

The views from the top were totally impressive

At night we went to another local camping and for the first time in 4 years I got biten by a mosquito...once! in my left ankle. :-) You had to see all the other people...50+ bites each... and I was the only one not using repelent...my blood seems to be disgusting enough to repel them. :-)

A bit disapointed the first day but I'm hoping things will get better tomorrow. The itenerary looks more promising...


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