Crocodile Darwin

Leading up to my time in Darwin, everyone made it sound like there was nothing to do in the actual city other than signing up for tours in the surrounding National Parks. Having already been to Kakadu and Litchfield with Adventure Tours, I thought this may result in a bit of a struggle. Though it was rather small, I loved Darwin! I can see how it could be boring after awhile, but I wish I had stayed longer than a week. Everything you needed in Darwin could be found on Mitchell Street, but there were about 5 square blocks worth wandering through.

Side note: I would advise all backpackers to stay at Youth Shack because it’s right in the center of everything, and from what I hear, everyone preferred it over the other hostels on that strip. The YHA is apparently horrible, which comes as a surprise to me because it’s usually a safe bet (albeit more expensive). I stayed at the Cavenagh (aka The Cav) and quite liked it! There was a nice pool in the center, which was always very social, and a bar and bistro that stayed open until 10pm every night. Perfect if you’re traveling alone!

Most of my time in Darwin was spent wandering around and relaxing, but I have 3 events in particular that I find worthy of sharing…

Deckchair Cinema

“Where stars light the screen.” This outdoors cinema was unlike any other because of its dinner buffet, decently stocked bar of beer and wines, movie munchies, and of course the lawn chairs! I was accompanied by my Italian friend, Marco, whom I met on the Groovy Grapes tour up to Alice Springs. The flick of the night was Once Upon a Time in the West, a classic Western movie which I’ve actually never seen before. And Marco hadn’t seen it since his childhood, so he was happy to revisit the cinematography and soundtrack. The stairway leading down to the cinema was blocked off for some unknown reason, so it took us about half an hour to actually find our way to the Deckchair Cinema. We arrived just as the movie was starting, so I didn’t get a chance to snap a picture, but I found it enchanting enough that a Google search seemed necessary for sharing.

I would have really preferred to have seen Griff the Invisible or Red Hill, both of which are Australian films starring Ryan Kwanten, the hottie from True Blood! But the old Western added a little extra to the whole idea of the classic outdoors cinema.

Mindil Beach Sunset Markets

These markets take place year round on Sundays and Thursdays. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to go to one of them! I caught a bus just down the street from the Cav for $2, which dropped me off 3km later right in front of the markets. Immediately you see the hoards of people flooding in for this special attraction.

Mindil Beach Sunset Markets

Live music was around every corner, my favorite of course being Em Dee, “high-tech didgeridoo meets drum n’ bass.” Not only did it look difficult with how much he was taking on at a single time, but the music was actually pretty good! I almost wish I had stuck around to purchase one of his CDs. Dance partayyy!

Em Dee

The booths consisted of pretty much everything you would expect: t-shirts, mugs and coozies, crocodile and kangaroo skins, jewelry made of coconuts and shells, south sea pearls, opals, didgeridoos, boomerangs, southeast Asian dresses and fisherman pants, etc. I found a cute little hand-made bracelet for myself!

pressed flowers sealed over mother of pearl

Of course an entire lane was also dedicated to an eclectic mix of grab-and-go foods as well. I tried some goat and wallaby-on-a-stick but settled with a delicious crocodile burger. It’s surprisingly better when it’s not fried – in which case, yes of course it tastes like fried chicken!

I was so mesmerized by all the booths’ offerings that I hardly noticed the sun setting until everyone flooded the beach.

Mindil Beach Sunset Markets

Mindil Beach sunset

The sign leading to the beach was rather heartwarming: WARNING! No swimming due to crocodiles, sharks and box jellyfish… Noted! Thank you! (I will not be swimming this evening.)

sipping on some fresh coconut milk

When the sun finally went down, many of the people went home. However the markets stayed open until 10pm. And the night performers took over!

juggling fire from a pole held up by 4 volunteers

Overall, it was a fabulous night of shopping, food, beach and entertainment all jumbled into one!

Crocosaurus Cove

Alas, my final adventure takes place right in the heart of Darwin! Croc Cove is home to the biggest tourest trap of all: The Cage of Death. Essentially what they do is place you inside a glass cage that is lowered right into the tank with a massive saltwater crocodile. Initially these salties would go mental at the sight of a person in their cage and would swim right up to them, banging, trying to find a way in to eat them… supposedly. Now they have gotten so used to all these tourists that they hardly even pay attention to them. I actually witnessed this poor guy get lowered into a tank all fired up with his underwater camera, and the crocodile was just chilling on the bank of the water. The guy submerged a couple times to try and take a picture, but I don’t think he could even get one. Lame! But good in theory. I probably would have done it myself if some Darwinians hadn’t warned me about it first.

The Cage of Death

That being said, one girl was lucky enough for her “near death experience” to take place during the croc feeding, which takes place twice a day. I’m not sure how much different it would have been from her side of the glass, but I guess it was pretty cool to watch!

croc feeding over The Cage of Death

You hear a lot about the jumping crocs in Darwin. In order to catch prey such as bats or birds that fly and perch in trees, the crocs will actually swim upward with such great force that their tail can propel them out of the water. Whereas larger crocs can get about half of their body out of the water (still a few meters!), the little crocs can clear the water by several feet! I was unable to catch the peak of its jump on camera, but I was able to witness one croc make a bold attempt to jump for his flesh-on-a-stick.

jumping croc

Perhaps my favorite part of the day was getting to play with all the baby crocs. And by play, I mean fish for them. Following both of the croc feedings, guests are given the opportunity to enter a platform above the baby crocs where they can feed them from a fishing pole.

fishing for crocs

The strategy is to splash the meat in the water where there are no crocs. This gets their attention so that they will swim for it. Once their eye is on the prize, you hold the meat up above the water so that the little guys will jump for it. So cute!

croc fishing... tap, tap!

champion fisherman, right there!

After the fishing/feeding session, I wandered into the World of Crocs exhibit, where I was allowed to hold a baby croc!

baby croc

I felt a little guilty holding it because the poor thing had been kept in a teeny tiny little locker for his “shift” this afternoon. It kept peeing on the caretaker, who did not seem enthused about working there. When I asked “does this hurt him?” he shrugged it off with a “BAH’DUNNO!” I’m gonna guess it couldn’t have been comfortable for him, considering how much he weighed and that I was holding him by the neck. The underside of their body is quite soft and vulnerable in comparison to their backside. Poor thing! But I did get to hold a baby croc…

Darwin was a blast! Wish I could have stayed longer, but now I’m off to Cairns 🙂

Out of the Outback

Luke saved the best of Kakadu for our final day. We hit the road by 6:30am this morning toward the Mary River region in the south entrance of the park. We started at Gunlom (Goon-lom) which is a 2km return hike, rated as a difficult climb. Climbing this in the morning was definitely the best way to go. I was certainly winded and a bit sweaty, but had it been the heat of the day, it would have been another story entirely. The top of the climb had gorgeous views of various different plunge pools and waterfalls. Even though it was still early, many other tourists had already found their way to this spot.

top pool of Gunlom

Gunlom upper pools

lookout over Gunlom Falls

We probably only stayed at the top for half an hour before heading back to the base of the largest waterfall for a better view.

Gunlom Falls

I was a little curious as to why there was still a baited crocodile trap here. Hopefully just a precaution? Usually they’re only located where they know to be salties and are waiting to catch them.

crocodile trap

Forging onward, we drove to the Yurmikmik walk sites. This was Luke’s favorite spot, so he definitely built up the hype in the days preceding this. We had a 7.5km return hike to Motor Car Falls. It was a wonderfully curious spot with a nice flat boulder in the shade of the pool’s entrance.

Motor Car Falls

our entry to the plunge pool

The water itself was emerald green! Definitely unique from all the other waterfalls we had been to. Upon further examination, we realized the green hue was due to a ridiculous amount of algae growing all along the rocks at the bottom of the plunge pool.

Motor Car

drifting algae

Rather than deterring us from wandering into the shallow side, we saw this as a source of great amusement. Wigs were made and sludge balls were thrown everywhere. All the while I was thinking how nice a spot this would be to bring some floats and a cooler of beer! This definitely ranked as the groups favorite place in Kakadu!

Michel's inspecting his medium for the next slime ball

Unfortunately this was our last stop on the Kakadu tour. We had a good 4 hour drive back to Darwin, where we were able to clean up and have a nice farewell dinner at Monsoons.

Rock Paintings and Swimming Holes in Kakadu

Today we began our tour of Kakadu National Park. The aboriginals actually called it Gagudju, but when they tried to tell this to the white man, they miss-heard it as Kakadu and the name stuck! Kakadu is listed as a World Heritage Area in recognition of its unique mixture of culture, biodiversity, and natural values. The park covers nearly 20,000 sq km and is home to numerous plants and animals that are not found anywhere else in the world, many of which are threatened or endangered. Many of the locations in the park are only open to the public for a few weeks out of the year due to harsh weather conditions (especially during times of flash flooding and forest fires), so it’s really special how much of the park we were/are able to see. Basically the main views we missed are in the Jim Jim Falls and Twin Falls Gorge Region. Those are probably the most highly marketed areas of Kakadu, so guides usually feel obligated to bring their groups there. However our guide feels confident that we are seeing the best and most underrated (non-ventured) regions of the park. Exciting! Apparently the best times of the year to come are at the very beginning of the dry season (right now), and smack dab in the middle of it when all the flowers are in full bloom for a short period of time.

The East Alligator region was our first experience of the day – home to rainforest, stone country, floodplains, and centuries worth of Aboriginal rock art. (No, there are no alligators in Australia; the name is very misleading.) We had a leisurely 1km hike around Ubirr (Oo-beerr) with our furthest destination being a 250m climb for a lookout over the Nadab floodplain.

Nadab floodplains

I need to review the movie another time, but apparently there’s a scene with Crocodile Dundee standing on this same rock, calling for help from the Aboriginal people. My apologies if I captured a different angle from the movie, but this was a great view of the floodplains.

Ubirr is best know for its rock paintings that cover the area and dating as far back as 20,000 years old.

20,000 year old Aboriginal rock art

Because there is no carbon in these paintings, fluorescent lights are used to determine the age, the theory being that the brighter the colors appear under the lights, the newer the paintings are. These particular paintings reflect little to no light at all.

Other paintings are clearly more recent even without proof from the fluorescent lights because of their higher attention to detail. As their hunting methods became more efficient, the people were able to spend more time on their art. The Aboriginal people chose to paint because they either had important stories to tell or they were thanking the land by recognizing the lives they had to take in order to feed themselves. Therefore many of the pictures that you find show kangaroos, wallabies, barramundi and other types of fish found in this area.

200 year old Aboriginal rock art - turtle

The pictures relating stories were typically set up in an area resembling a natural classroom setup.

Ubirr "classroom"

The stories are rather harsh, but I suppose they found it necessary to get their point across. One story involved two sisters (ancient ancestors of the Aboriginals) who always used to prank each other by turning themselves into crocodiles and scaring the other sister. Finally the sisters agreed to make the change permanent, so they remained as crocodiles, and their bodies were made into constellations in the stars. Now when little Aboriginal children get too close to the waters edge, the sisters will drop down from the sky and snatch them up. (So long as the message provides the same results, I guess that’s better than being attacked by a crocodile.)

Another story told of an Aboriginal man who had been out fishing all day and then fell asleep on the bank before returning home to his family. One of the men in his tribe saw the pile of fish and stole them for his family. When the sleeping man woke up, he returned to the village to find this other man laughing and bragging about how he stole the fish. When the thief fell asleep, the other man blocked the entrance to his cave with stones so that the fire inside eventually ate up all the oxygen and suffocated his entire family. Brutal, but it shows that your actions have an effect on all those around you as well.

fisherman

Following our Ubirr visit, we hopped in the car to make our way to the Noulangie region. We hiked 3-4km to the Gubara (Goo-bar-rar) Pools with about an hour-long detour via an unmarked path up to The Castle, a cave that overlooks the monsoon forest and sandstone cliffs through which we had just walked. It was significantly cooler in the cave’s shade, so we caught our breath, polished off the remainder of our water, and enjoyed the amazing views in the distance and the forgotten Aboriginal paintings around us.

The Castle

view from inside The Castle

We were thrilled to reach the Gubara pools themselves for a quick dip, and a refill for our water bottles in the crystal clear waterfall in The Garden of Eden. Of course, right behind the fall was a mighty silver-skinned python glaring at us for sharing his water. Was the snake in the biblical Garden of Eden by chance a python? In retrospect, that seems a little ominous. I forgot to take any pictures here… so I guess I didn’t really go there!

After our hike back, we grabbed a few biscuits (cookies) for a short transit to the Nawurlandja Lookout trail. It was a moderately steep climb of 600m with very rewarding views of the Nourlangie mountain range and Anbangbang Billabong. Of course, the billabong was home to yet another scene in Crocodile Dundee in which the woman is almost eaten by a crocodile before Mr. Dundee rescues her. I’m beginning to love the little Crocodile Dundee anecdotes provided by this tour! It’s just perfectly cliché!

Nawurlandja Lookout

looks like the Sydney opera house!

mysterious sinkhole overlooking the Anbangbang Billabong

We caught a gorgeous sunset on the ride to our new campsite in Cooinda, part of the Yellow Water region. This sets us up nicely for tomorrow when we will head to the Mary River region in the most south part of Kakadu National Park.

Kakadu sunset

Litchfield National Park

The Adventure Tours group was divided in order to fit us onto 2 separate trucks for some off-roading through the National Parks, as well as to accommodate some new passengers. The older Canadian couples were put on the other bus, and we gained a girl from London. Other than that, we remained the same but with our new guide, Luke. Except for our camp spot tonight, we pretty much had the same schedule as the other bus today.

We started our tour in Litchfield National Park with our first stop being the termite mounds. Britt and I passed what seemed like billions of these in Western Australia and were always laughing at the people who stopped to take pictures of them. Now I’ve fallen into the tourist trap as well! Termite mounds can stay active for dozens of years until the queen dies, just building the mounds higher and higher with grass, spit and feces, in such a way that there is minimal surface area exposed when the sun is directly overhead (the hottest part of the day). This keeps the temperature consistently around 30 degrees Celsius. The magnet termites we saw build their mounds high and flat facing within 15 degrees North to South, which gives off an eerie resemblance to gravestones.

magnet termite mounds

From there (and after catching and tasting some ants with green behinds) we drove to Florence Falls. The walk there via the Florence Falls path was 1km, and the walk back via the Shady Creek path was 3km – none too difficult in sandals. The Florence Falls water hole was a popular spot for families this morning with children splashing around some of the lower pools with calm water. Florence held 2 average-sized waterfalls, but combined they made a fairly decent current so that some of the weaker swimmers were unable to swim to the rocks between them. Some of us attempted to climb these rocks for some fun jumps and pictures, and some of us (ahem, just myself) slipped while jumping. If ever I was to slip, this was the perfect place as there were no rocks underneath… but it was still slightly embarrassing!

Florence Falls

We swam around here for the better half of an hour, warming up (or really, waking up) for our day.

Florence Falls plunge pool

The Buley Rock Falls was our next destination, only a few short minutes drive away. Again, this was a popular spot for families and backpackers alike. The stream dropped from one pool to another in a continuous winding path. I worked my way down to one of the lower pools where some people from the other bus were cannon-balling in and confirmed that it was fairly deep. Our group spent another half hour swimming around here, testing all the various levels of freshwater pools, drifting in their currents, and diving to their depths.

Buley Rocks Falls

This completed our tour of Litchfield National Park, and we headed on toward the Window of the Wetlands in Humpty Do. Here, we received an informational from the leader of the aboriginal country, Jawoyn, in the southern region of Kakadu. He showed us the different types of woods used for making didgeridoos, as well as how to look for the hollowed center by that of a termite (rather than a forced drill) for a better sound. I was rather pathetic at playing it, but I managed to squeeze out an elephant-like sound from the instrument so I wasn’t a total failure. After this demonstration, the leader’s daughter showed us the hobbies taken on by the women in the tribe. Whereas her father spoke very quickly and was often difficult to understand, she was surprisingly very well spoken, especially at her age! You could tell her parents took great care in teaching her all the history and culture of their aboriginal ways as well as focusing on the importance of effectively communicating it to people outside their community. I was very impressed! She showed us the methodology of dilly bag (purse) and basket weaving, as well as extracting dyes from the earth. Such tedious work! Most of the pieces she showed us took over 6 months to create.

Aboriginal dilly bags and place mats

Following these demonstrations, we took the more outdoors-y route to Corroboree Billabong for a crocodile cruise! Apparently they used to have these cruises in the Yellow Water region, home to the “world-famous” wetlands, but this one was so much better that they scratched that one entirely. Crocodiles are the world’s largest living reptiles, and also one of the oldest, having existed unchanged for about 200 million years. Though the billabong is freshwater, most of the crocs we saw were estuarine (saltwater) crocs, or “salties.” Freshwater crocs, or “freshies,” have long, thin faces with a sort of bulb on the tip of their snout, and can only found in Australia. They only grow to be up to 3m and are not considered dangerous to humans unless you approach them. They prey on smaller birds, fish and frogs, but their bite would still be very painful for a human – just not life-threatening. Salties on the other hand can grow to be 9m long and their short, wide, rounded snouts can exert a great amount of pressure. These are aggressive creatures and considered extremely dangerous to humans, as they will grab you and drag you underwater as their prey if given the opportunity. Yikes! We’re safe inside the boat though.

crocodile in the water!

Allen and the salty

Other areas of the park are designated as “crocodile management zones” in which park rangers trap and remove any salties that moved inward during the wet season. Only until they have been safely removed will these park zones open for visitors at the beginning of the dry season. Even then, traps remain just in case other salties find their way into the area throughout the length of the dry season.

In addition to crocs, we also saw heaps of unusual birds including sea eagles, storks, cranes and ducks. In particular, we were lucky to see the jabiru, which is the largest and only stork in Australia, as well as the night herron, which usually shy away from people and are more active at night.

white-breasted sea eagle

wild jabiru

Gorgeous cruise! Afterwards we parted ways with the other bus and headed toward our own campsite at Bark Hut, where we dined on Kangaroo steaks before building our fire and then heading to bed.