We come from a land down under
Trip Start
May 03, 2008
1
24
47
Trip End
May 02, 2009
Darwin,
Northern Territory,
Australia
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Checked into the hostel and went in search of food, bought my first jar of vegemite which has caused me to be the scourge of the country seemingly. Later that day we had a sausage sizzle in our hostel and after went to a local bar for a drink. Whilst there we decided to do a pub quiz and joined two locals who were utterly crazy
Ubirr, Kakadu
. Had a good laugh with them and they introduced us to Toohey's new which become our drink of choice for the country. The next day we booked a three day last minute discounted trip to Kakadu national park which is not so much of a park but rather a small country in size. We were picked up early the next morning and set off on a four hour journey to get to the park.
After much sleeping in the back of the jeep we arrived at our first stop at the Mary River where we were taken out in a shallow boat by a crusty old guy who was in love with crocodiles. This guy would have preferred to live crocs than humans it seems but he was actually very interesting and informative. Saw lots of wildlife, birds, wallabies, ducks, and pelicans and of course numerous crocs. Some of them were very large as you can see from the photos and luckily none of them decided we were their lunch.
Next up we drove to Ubirr to view Aboringial artwork on the sides of boulders they have there. These are supposedly some of oldest and best examples of artwork in the whole country and we saw a variety of drawing mostly of animals such as fish and kangaroos and also anatomical elongated sticklike figures which look a little strange
hard work
. There is also one more modern painting (200 years old) of what looks like a man with pipe and this has been attributed to the represent the early European settlers. These paintings are Aboriginal traditional methods of teaching various things and paintings were regularly painted over with newer paintings as well. We climbed the gorge behind the boulders and from there you could see the plains below as far the eye could see which was beautiful as the sun was beginning it's slow decent and its shadow had fallen on the cliffs in the distance.
After that we drove to our campsite at Maguk for the night which already had our tents waiting for us which was handy. Cooked dinner before it got dark and then the mossies started to feast on us afterwards as dusk drew in. No surprise in Australia but like everything the mosquitoes are quite large here and in the darkness you can't see them but you can hear them flying near with "zoom" here and there buzzing all around you.
We were up before sunrise the next day which is way too early and of course we were eaten alive again by the mosquitoes. We travelled to the bottom of Jim Jim falls which we climbed, literally in places. Most of the trek/ climb was on the bed of a dried river so we hopped from one loose boulder to another while our guide sped on ahead. Unfortunately as we were at the back of the group when caught up the front where they had been resting the guide would go straight away so we didn't get rest at all. We eventually got to the top (the trip up and down would take about five hours altogether). The view up there was amazing again and you could see straight down the waterfall into the valley below with not a road or a building in sight
hard work
. Also there was a small pool up there which we took a dip in and apart from being freezing it was quite refreshing. On the way down we were being rushed again and unfortunately Marie Therese took a tumble as she stepping on a rock that moved under her weight. Not much damage was done except for a cut knee and broken sunglasses. Made it down to the bottom and savaged our lunches.
Later on we visited Twin Falls which was a more leisurely ten minute scramble which was much more acceptable to everyone as they were knackered after the morning. There was a nice rainbow affect off the falls but unfortunately we weren't able to swim in the area as crocs like to swim there too.
Went back to the campsite that evening and was much like the previous one of eating dinner and being eaten. Our guide had brought along her didgeridoo and we all had a go without much success I might add.
The next morning we joined an aboriginal culture thing provided by the campsite where we learned about how they use the plants for various uses and later on we threw spears in a sling shot method using another piece of wood. It's not as easy as it looks. After we travelled to a swimming hole in the rocks and had a dip and lunch. After the long journey back to Darwin we met our group that night as we all got a free dinner in a pub.
Our next and last day in Darwin was spent relaxing as walked along the promenade and later we went to the sunset market at Mindil Beach where we sat on the beach and watched the sun go down.
