Natural Wonders

Back in Darwin after four days in the glory of the Top End. Who knew about this? I hoped it would knock my socks off, and it did. We stayed in Katherine the first couple of days, swimming in rock holes, under waterfalls. Although saltwater crocodiles have been caught in one or two of them, the authorities keep an eye on the water. (The salties do seem to prefer American tourists, though, so I had a measure of natural protection.)

Let me just digress now, dear readers, to tell you that my web address for this blog was not just a fluke. I don't know whether it's just me, or the rapid fire experiences that have come at me over the past two weeks, but really I could not report on very many of them without my itinerary by my left hand. I cannot remember most of the place names, and sometimes I can't remember the place itself. My itinerary says I went to the Katherine Museum. Seems to have slipped my mind. I search back in my photos (and I've taken about 1,400, which is a pleasing mnemonic device, and may be the only one remaining soon, sadly) hoping to find an image which confirms the itinerary.

Thank goodness! Yes, found the photos of the Katherine Museum and now it all comes flooding back to me. I had a great couple of hours there taking photos of all the rusty machines. Loved it. Just didn't file it in the data bank with the tag "Katherine MUseum". Later, hope to find an Internet cafe so that I can send you the images.

Kakadu National Park was all that I could have hoped, and the cruise on the Yellow Water billabong is one of the highlights of the last two weeks. Crocodiles as far as the eye could see. Jabirus, white bellied sea eagles, wave upon wave of magpie geese, stunning!

One of the lowlights of the 4 day "Natural Wonders of the Top End" tour was the last night, staying in Cooinda bush camp. The crummy tour company (Travel North SUCKS!!!) has a permanent campsite with no amenities block: only enough power to turn on one light, in the "dining room". Nit enough clean water in the "kitchen" to wash the vegetables, or wash the dishes after the meal (the dishes we had to reuse for breakfast the next morning.) One port-a-loo, without a light. The tents leaked (and there was a torrential downpour all night). That night we weren't allowed a shower and had to go to bed covered in a stew of our own sweat, sunscreen and insect repellant. We'd made our beds before we went to dinner, but when we got back to the tents, there were big wet patches in the middle of the bunks of each tent.

But Nourlangie Rock, Ubirr and everything we saw in Kakadu was magnificent: the Aboriginal rock art galleries, the unbelievable vista of rock and tropical vegetation.