Aquascene, Litchfield and Territory Wildlife Park
Trip Start
Jul 10, 2008
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10
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Trip End
Jul 10, 2011
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Litchfield National Park,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Monday, August 25, 2008
Unfortunately I had to work that week so Sue did a bit of exploring herself, including the Northern Territory Museum and Art Gallery that is free and got rave reviews.
We did a trip out to the Aquascene again for the fish feeding; this time there were a lot of catfish swarming around. We were also in downtown at the time of the Darwin Festival and we went to see what were some really cool sculptures, one in particular that we really enjoyed, where we got talking to the South African guy who created it was made from remains from what I think was the old Darwin-Adelaide railway track. Also on our trip into Darwin we were looking for a plate for my Uncle John. Apparently he's started collecting plates from around the world, so Darwin would be an idea chance to get him a new one. One of the stores we went into was fully of aboriginal art - plenty of the paintings we saw were over the $10K mark, it was a very nice shop, but we knew we wouldn't be buying a plate here! Did he know I was from the north of England and he would be lucky if he got me to spend $10 on a painting! To give him his dues the owner was pretty quick to catch on and pointed us to the store next door for our plate.
Black Breasted Buzzard
He did kindly tell us a little about some of the art. Apparently each area of Australia has different aboriginal styles. He did speak very quickly and seemed to think we knew a lot already and it was hard to take in all the information, but we did pick up that a lot of the stuff from around this area, Katherine across to Kakadu I believe use a style called 'Thatched'. This is quite distinctive as you have vertical and horizontal lines crossing each other. It made me want to learn a little more about different aboriginal art. Interestingly the owner, who was aboriginal, also told me in a frustrated way how a lot of the aboriginals plagiarised much of the art and styles from the NT. The store also had some very nice didgeridoos. These are made from old branches that have been hollowed out by termites. I actually own one that I had bought when I was last in Darwin in 1995. I remember I had just wrapped it in bubble wrap and sent it surface mail and it had, surprisingly, arrived undamaged in England 3 months later. Still I could not muster a note from the damn thing. The shop owner was insistent we would not leave the store until I produced a note! Well much to our surprise I managed one. Did he know I was musically challenged and our neighbours had been the nail in the coffin to my trumpet playing days, or that my piano lessons had been stopped after about lesson three, at a young age, as it was decided I didn't have any musical talents! It took a few attempts and I'm not sure if the owner knew what he got himself into before he started, but as soon as I managed that first note he certainly didn't make an effort to continue with the lessons.
1-Black Breasted Buzzard
Of course people who play these things properly have the infinitely harder task of having to breath in through their nose and out through their mouth constantly as they play.The Darwin Festival is an excellent event, it's goes on for two weeks and they have shows and exhibitions on for the whole two weeks. We didn't get to see as much as we wanted this year, but besides the sculptures we went to two other shows. The Cirque Du Funk and Blue King Brown. The Cirque Du Funk was a free show that was on at the Darwin Entertainment Centre on Mitchell Street. We went for some din dins at the Noodle House across the road first. The dishes we got ranged from some decent stuff to some crappy, the price was reasonable though. Now we weren't too sure what to expect with Cirque Du Funk, we were really going off the pictures and the description on the flier that warned of lasers. I started voicing my concern when I pointed out that most of the people going in were families with young children and then when they started with some, I can't remember exactly what, but I seem to remember a sort of Coco the Clown routine we were looking at each other on the verge of walking out. It really was a bit like a watered down version of Cirque Du Soliel. But we weren't in Vegas and the show turned out to be funny and entertaining even for us adults and we were glad we stuck it out in the end.
The other show we went to was a pay show, a band called Blue King Brown, they had just been touring in the USA and were made up of quite a few indigenous members.
Brolga
They where not afraid to speak out about issues that concerned them, mainly water and the environment. Their lyrics and song titles were along the same lines. They played a set for just over and hour and we did like their music and the show.We did go down for pre-concert drinks and sunset at the Ski Club that night with Sue, which reminds me of Hermi. Hermi had been living in our house for the last week. I'm a bit of a collector when I go outdoors, shells, pine cones all sorts of stuff I find outdoors seems to find it back into our house and makes it on to out shelves, tables, bookcases etc. Erica hasn't put a stop to it yet so I just keep doing it. About a week ago I'd been down to the beach for a little wander and as you do I put a few shells in my top pocket. As I got home one of them fell out. I found this a bit strange as they were quite deep and I was stood upright. I looked down and saw the shell moving off across the floor - you guessed it, I'd managed to pick up a hermit crab. We ended up giving him a home in our oven grill tray for a week and after reading up found they need salt and fresh water and most pet stores will sell special food for them - seems like they were popular with kids. We gave ours cornflakes and fruit that he seemed to like. What amazed me most though was I read they can live up to 50 years! Despite my pleas Erica insisted we took him back to the sea. So back to the start of my story, tonight was the night I had to say goodbye to Hermi and return him to the sea just out from the Ski Club.
Having Sue around gave us the perfect excuse to go and do some exploring in the Top End that weekend.
Buley Hole
The Top End and The Territory are phrases people use a lot to describe the area where we live. The Top End is used to describe mostly the top part of the Northern Territory, where as The Territory described the whole territory. Although before we came I didn't realise it the Northern Territory was different to the other states such as New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. I guess it's so big, someone mentioned the size of Western Europe, with a population of about 220,000. As mentioned in earlier entries the central government ends up funding The Territory quite a bit and until it can fund itself, I guess, it will stay a territory.We had been renting cars a bit on weekends since we'd arrived in Darwin. I've noticed not having a car all the time seems to reduce my stress level (or maybe it's just not driving around Rt. 128 every day!). I think it stops you rushing around all the time; you really have to plan your day a bit more around the buses and not having the convenience to be rushing here there and everywhere means you don't. It also means when you do have the car for that one or two days on a weekend you use it a bit more efficiently to do all the chores where you need the car in one trip. Instead I'd find myself walking down to the library or taking the time to walk to the sea and go and watch the sunset or taking the bus places that forces you to slow down a little. That's not saying we won't get a car though - at the end of the day the convenience it just too enticing.
Cathedral Termite Mound
We are actually hoping to get a big gas guzzling 4WD. The Landcruiser and SUVs are a bit pricey for what we want to pay so we're fairly set on getting a truck. Probably a Toyota Hilux, diesel, raised up suspension and a canopy for the back. They're a lot cheaper than the SUVs and you get a lot more mileage for your money with diesel. 4WD should give us chance to really explore the outback and give us a bit of additional safely in the remote areas once the Wet comes. Funny thing over here is a lot of the cars are named differently. So the Hilux mentioned above is a Tacoma in the USA. The Nissan Navara is a Frontier in the USA. The rental cars we normally get are the economy size Toyota Yaris. They are pretty much smaller than just about any car we would see in the USA, but they work for us for our small trips in the Top End.
The fuel efficiency on cars over here is measured on how much fuel is used to get you 100km, so our little Yaris had a window sticker saying 6.8 per 100km. At the pump it's also interesting that none of the stations I've seen allow payment at the pump, so you always have to pump and go into the store. I guess they get more spur of the moment store purchases this way, but after coming from somewhere that you can pay at the pump you notice the loss of convenience.
On the Saturday we decided to go to the Territory Wildlife Park in Berry Springs.
http://www.territorywildlifepark.com.au/
This place is a fun day out - probably geared at kids but we had fun.
Florence Falls
The park is built in a circuit and you can wander around or take the shuttle to each of the exhibits. We first went to check out the little pond with turtles, spiders and a great big Jabiru. These really are a magnificent bird from the stork family. Next we went to the aquarium, it was a great aquarium, showing a lot of fresh water species that I think is quite unusual, most aquariums seem to be salt water only. There is a great big tunnel where the big guys are. I mentioned before the Barramundi will live in fresh and salt water. Here they had fresh water swordfish and a huge fresh water stingray! I didn't realise these fish existed in fresh water versions, and certainly not at this size! I do remember a few years earlier in my life at doing a trip into the Amazon basin and being shocked to find they had fresh water dolphins there. I guess moving from salt water to fresh water for fish isn't that difficult.Next we went to see the dingos, the Australian wild dogs. There are lots of stories about these animals stealing babies, but I get the impression a lot of these are those urban myth stories. Anyhow the dingo was taking a nap in the shade and didn't provide a high level of entertainment for us.
Onto the water buffalo where there was something called a Brolga! It turns out a Brolga is a type of crane, and while we have seen them looking majestic in flight since, up close they look related to turkeys, that is to say ugly as hell!
Probably the highlight of the day was the Flight Deck - here is where they have trained the birds of prey.
1-Florence Falls
We got to see a Pacific Basa (Crested Hawk), Black Breasted Buzzard, an Osprey that wasn't on his best behaviour and a Wedge Tailed Eagle. They all came swooping down for food. Afterwards we got to see a Barking Owl and Juvenile Sea Eagle. The Barking Owl had fantastic eyes, as owls do, and he got his name because it sounds a bit like a dog! Well twice since we've been in Darwin we've heard similar stories about people complaining about a neighbours dog, only to find out the dog was really an owl. Mmm I guess for some people this must have happened, but I wonder how many more times we'll hear that story!Before leaving we went to the nocturnal house, what a weird and wonderful collection of small marsupials Australia has! And the petting park, where you could pet a wallaby - I think this became the top attraction for some people in our party that day.
That evening we went home and threw a few kangaroo bangers on the barbie. I would say we find ourselves cooking outside on the BBQ at least 3 days a week now and are loving it. More to come on the weird and wonderful food in later blogs!
Litchfield was our stop on Sunday. This park was one of the places I remember as the highlights when I was up in the Top End in 1995. Lots of waterfalls, lots of swim holes and back then my biggest memory was when the driver brought the minibus to a screeching halt and shot off into the woods and came back with a frill necked lizard by the scruff of it's neck! We have heard that once the Wet comes we'll see these all over the place and at the sides of roads all the time.
Australian Grebe
Although as Erica has been told the movement of the Cane toads into The Territory has been linked to declines of a lot of native reptiles. The main falls in the park were busy and you could see it was a place people would come to escape the heat. It almost seemed like more of a water fun park than a National Park. It was less humid away from the coast also and Litchfield was free to enter. A free national park, I like that concept!We stopped at the magnetic termite mounds on the way in. These are named because their axis all point north/south. Although this is apparently so they can make the use of the sun early in the morning to warm up and switch to the cooler side of the mound once things get too hot, or something along those lines. There are also these huge Cathedral Termite Mounds that must be 20 feet high. Very impressive.
We went to Buley Hole for lunch and our first dip. There were plenty of people chilling here in the many pools available. Close to Buley Hole is Florence Falls. These falls had a 15 minute walk down a few hundred feet drop to get there, but were still packed with people. Some guys were climbing the falls and jumping from the top that was until the ranger showed up and tried unsuccessfully to eject them from the park. He was not a happy ranger! I would say the ranger's biggest worry/job at this park is keeping the muppets in line.
The two other easily accessible falls in the park are Tolmer Falls, probably my favourite with a long unbroken drop. Unfortunately this is where my camera batteries went dead, sorry no photos! Wangi Falls where the last falls we went to, another beautiful swim hole and a tree full of black fruit bats! The best part about this place though was the concession stand - we all thoroughly deserved that ice cream after our hard days sightseeing!
Tune in for our next entry and see if we finally get our furniture!
Comments
good read jon
it's great keeping up with the journal jon. really enjoying it.