The Holiday Stories Continue

Well we have had a wonderful week in Darwin. It really is a lovely city, very similar to Canberra in the way it’s laid out. We saw lots of tourist things; Ray was very keen to check out all the WW11 history that was in the museums, so we did the rounds of them. It really is quite frightening to really learn just how close we came to being owned by the Japanese. I don’t think our history books tell the full story, as to how many times Darwin and the top end were attacked. We had a walk through the Oil tunnels that were built towards the end of WW11, they are huge, but would you believe... they were never used. The Navy said at the end of the war – “We don’t need them now, you can do with them what you want.” We also had a sunset harbour cruise, nice but another ripe off for the tourists. We also met some lovely people that were camped near us in the Park.

Thursday 17th July 2008
Left Lee Point Caravan Park early this morning and headed towards Kakadu. Went to the Spectacular Jumping Crocodiles at Middle Point on the Adelaide River, not a bad show... The croc really is a mean looking creator though, especially the BIG ones. Had some lunch at Corroboree Park Inn, then went on to Aurora Resort – Kakadu and stayed for 2 nights.

Friday 18th July 2008
I must say, since being on this trip I have experienced a few new things, but the scariest one would have been this morning when I went to the shower block for a shower and came face to feet with a snake. I’m not sure who was the most frightened though. He just slithered past me and down the drain hole in the next shower cubicle, consequently I returned to the camper and had a 3F (some of you will know what that is) I wasn’t staying in the shower block for anything... Ray went to find someone that looked like they worked there, to report it. They just said “Yeah, it was probably a water python; we usually pull them out of the toilets... We went for a drive up to Jabiru, just to have a look about... not much there, Supermarket, Centre link, Medical Centre, heat and flies etc... Lovely bakery though, so we bought some nice fresh bread to keep us going. Went back to our camp and had a swim in the pool at the resort. Lovely!!!! Not having a shower tonight either...

Saturday 19th July 2008
On our way to our next port of call in Kakadu, which was a bush camp near “Yellow Waters”, we drove up to a beautiful spot called Ubirr (Oo-beer). We walked right up to the top of the Escarpment to check out the view... It was spectacular absolute breath-taking. One can only imagine what it would be like in the wet season. Had a burger at the Boarder Store, and then off to Calais Crossing. This is a crossing over the East Alligator River, and if you get there at the right time, when the tide is changing, there are lots of Barramundi, that get caught in the over flow. This is where the crocs get a real good feed. Lots of big crocs came sliding down from the muddy banks to start feasting. It was here we witnessed the stupidest act from a tourist I’ve even seen. This, I can only call him a twit, man walked out into the water that was running over the crossing, up to his knees. While he was doing this, we were watching a big croc swim up to about 4 metres from where he was standing. We set up another great bush camp... except for the MOZZIES!!! Boy!!! They just about picked us up and carried us out of there. We just had to cover ourselves with the good old RID and had lots of mossies coils burning around the camper.

Sunday 20th July 2008
Up very early this morning to catch the Sunrise Cruise on the Yellow Water River. This was really very nice, a bit cool and fresh at that time of the morning, but we soon warmed up when the sun came up. It was a lovely cruise with lots and lots of bird life, all different kinds. We also saw wild horses, dingos and more crocs. Back to Cooinda Resort for some brekkie or brunch, then we had a walk up to a look-out that was such a rough and steep walk, but I guess it was worth it, a 360 degree view of Kakadu. Then back to our mozzie filled camp for an early dinner so that we could get inside the camper before we needed to turn on the light. An early pack up in the morning to get out of this place...

Monday 21st July 2008
Down to Katherine today, booked into the Knots Crossing Resort/Caravan Park. We have booked on the Gorge Cruise for the morning trip. Hope this one is worth it...

Tuesday 22nd July 2008

Well, we have been out to the “Katherine Gorges” this morning. Three flat bottom boats lined up, each holding up to 60 people. We were doing the 3 Gorge Cruise, there were also other ones going at the same time. They do at least 3 of these cruises during the day, so that’s 9 x 60.... We paid $69 for our 3 Gorge cruise; this was a middle of the range cruise. Now, do the math... 9 x 60 x 69 x 365days = ???? And all this is owned by our native brothers that have been here for 50,000 years... Hmmmmm!!!! Don’t tell me they’re hard done by!!!!! But we did enjoy seeing the gorges and the amazing formation of the walls of the gorge.