Crocodile country
Trip Start
Sep 2005
1
43
52
Trip End
Sep 2006
Darwin,
Australia
Tuesday, May 9, 2006
Darwin. Austalias tropical corner, and my last week in Oz. It's the thunder and lightning capital of the world, (during the wet season.) There's plenty to do here but not much time. My first stop was Kakadu National Park - the home of Crocodile Dundee. I booked a 3 day tour where we did all the usual things. First we stopped off on the Adelaide river to feed the jumping crocodiles. These are crocodiles that are so hungry they'll jump out of water to get their meat. The smallest one was 3m and the biggest was about 5m - what a beooooty. They put up a good fight if you accidentally fall into the water. I also got the chance top play with Monty, the python. After that we headed off into the bush to some of the locations where Crocodile Dundee was filmed. You camp out in the sticks on the banks of the South Aligator river where there is no shortage of hungry mosquitos. The heat and humidity is stifling after about 10am, so we spent the next day swimming in lagoons and waterfalls
01 Meet Monty
. The guides assured us that all the lagoons were 90% safe. After trudging through the bush in 35 degree heat, theres nothing like plunging into a lagoon and drinking the water. We also got a chance to eat termites. There's not much meat on them but they have a very distinctice peppery aftertaste. Perfect complement to a crisp Sauv Blanc.Sunday in Darwin is famous for the Mindil Beach market. It's a cross between a new age market, a food fair, and a didgeredoo competition. When I first came to Australia the "didge" didn't rate too highly in my favorite list of instruments. I thought the worst 3-piece band in the world would be bagpipes, lambeg drum, and a didgeredoo. But once you hear it played properly it can be pretty amazing. Especially when there's an amazing sunset and all sorts of wonderful food smells. The sunset at Mindil beach is probably the best I've seen in Australia. For some reason here the whole sky lights up red just after the sun goes down. Everybody comes out to watch it, and just sit and soak up the atmos.
The tropical rains finished here about 6 weeks ago, and the rivers are now starting to drop in whats called the "run-off". This is the best time to do the Baramundi fishing, made famous by Rex Hunt, or Rexy as he's affectionately known by the poms
02 A jumping Croc
. (Rexy isn't so popular over here, he also does sports commentary and I think he's developed "Dunphy-syndrome". He got beaten up in a pub Byron Bay a couple of weeks back by the locals!) I booked a trip on the Adelaide river for a day. Yes, the same Adelaide river which has jumping crocodiles up to 5m long. We did see a few, but the boat was made of metal and fairly hefty, so it wasn't really that dodgy. The fishing was good, and we caught a fair few decent barramundi. They are very hard fighters who love jumping out of the water shaking their heads, so we lost as many as we landed. The biggest one got away. This is my last night here, and though I've done alot in Oz I'll be glad to be moving on. It's just a little bit too expensive for my liking. Especially the beer. But tonight I've got a ticket for a free dinner at the Vic hotel. It's painted breast night too which is a good reason to get there early. I think it's important to as much support as possible to the up-and-coming young artists.
