Trekking Through the Northern Territory

Aussie term of the day...
“Swag” - It's basically a bundle in which to carry your belongings.  Way back when, swaggman would walk down the roads with their swags in tow, looking for work.

“Waltzing Matilda” - Best know as Australia's most renowned bush ballad, not many know that the song is actually about a swaggman that was killed under... questionable circumstances probably during the time of the sheep shearing strike and the push for unions. The phrase itself is Australian slang for traveling on foot with ones belongings, the "swag" also being called a Matilda.    

“Tucker” - Food basically.  We heard the phrase "bush tucker" used a lot while traveling throughout the parks and learning about the aboriginal way of life and it basically is referring to food that the aboriginals ate out in the bush. 

            After that initial first night and early morning in Darwin, which was a bit… interesting to be sure, we headed out of town with our coffee and maps in hand and off to the adventures we had planned.  Much of the morning consisted of driving and there were probably two things that I learned in that time.  Firstly, apparently it’s illegal to run a horse drawn carriage down the highway.  Darn, there goes my afternoon! And secondly, though it's something I already knew but my parents didn’t, was that they don’t really use yellow lines on the roads here. In the States, a yellow line in the center of the road signifies a two way road while a white line signifies a one way.  Australian’s normally just use the white lines (at least where we have been) and my mom found that one out the hard way…

            Several hours out of Darwin and we found our way to this little family run crocodile jumping business that, though quite some way off the road, probably gave us a much better experience than we would have gotten at either of the two neighboring businesses! Not like the other big tour boats that have glass walls on the sides of the boat, this one just had a simple metal railing that, by golly we kept all our hands and feet inside of!

            Not only did we get to see a couple huge crocs, both a little over 5 meters I think, and a number of smaller females, we also got to witness some other wildlife.

            There was the gigantic flock of Corellas to start and then a couple times our guide would go up to the front of the boat and hold out or throw up a hunk of meat and down would come one of the Whistling Kites that were circling above and grab the provided morsel.  I think he said their names were George and… Oh I can’t remember the other one.  But apparently they are almost always there and they were the only of the kites that would do it.

            A couple stops later at the Fogg Dam reserve and the Window in the Wetlands visitor center and we were on our way towards Kakadu National Park.  

            We got in a little after dark, the remnants of a gloriously red sunset still on the horizon, and we checked in for the night in preparation for an early morning and a full day to come.

            First thing the next morning, we made our way to one of the many hiking trails beside a cliff face and made it just in time for the first talk and tour about the aboriginal art in the area.  

This rock formation was originally called "Burrunggui" by the Aboriginals who painted all the rock art on it.

            Some of the stories that go along with the art are pretty darn cool and after hearing some of the explanations it makes it easier to make out what the art was telling.  It was cool also to hear a bit about what some of the local aboriginal tribes are doing of current and some of the things they have achieved for their culture the past number of years.

            We made it to a number of other sites that day as well, and even took a few stops off at some billabongs for birding opportunities for dad.  

            We ended off the evening with a sunset photography tour for dad and I and man was that lovely! We saw a couple fair sized crocs, one of which we were told had eaten a young foal earlier in the day (it had already been dead). 

            There were lots of cool birds there of course and it was another glorious sunset.  Man I love sunsets!

            It was an early morning the next day as well, Mom and Dad starting it off with an early and rather foggy boat tour before we packed it up and headed out to Katherine Gorge.  It was a rather long drive again, as many trips between places in Australia tend to be.  Man, there are some crazy long roads here! There seem to be an awful lot with long stretches void of civilization it seems which I guess is a worthy excuse for having a speed limit of 130 kph in some places.  Geez that’s fast! I fell asleep at one point and woke up to my mom near pushing 80 mph and about had a heart attack before I realized it was completely legal.

            We got to Katherine in time for sunset and took a rocky hiking trail up with time to spare and find a nice rock and a view from which to see the sun drop. 

            It was cool also to see the bats take off again! I feel like it’s a sight I have really gotten quite used to seeing here but it was still amazing to see anew just how many there were and cool to see them swarming past the orange and red of the setting sun. 

            They are cute critters but man do they smell funny! My mom has since dubbed them the “skunks of Australia” which I would have to admit is actually a pretty accurate name for them.  They are far from the most hygienic of creatures I will admit.

            The next morning we did one of the few activities that allow us to actually see a good portion of the gorge and took a boat cruise up a couple of the gorges. We could have chosen the canoeing option which would have been awesome I will admit, but I don’t think all of us were up to how strenuous that probably would have been by the end. But gosh there were a lot of them!

            We were done with our planned activities there after that and then it was yet another leg of driving to reach our final stopover at Litchfield Park.