The Kirks

We flew from Singapore to Darwin on a horrible overnight flight. When we got to Darwin at 4 o;clock in the morning we went to sleep and then explored Darwin during the day. There’s not much to do in Darwin but we did go to a marine centre which was billed as the “The Most Interesting Attraction in Darwin”. And, to be honest, it was. But it’s a nice sunny place and we had a good day wandering around. I bought a hat.



Bright and early the following morning we headed off to Kakadu National Park in a funny little van.



The park is outstanding. About the size of Switzerland and totally unspoilt. We drove through amazing bush scenery. We went to various sites of Aboriginal Art. The “original owners” have been living in Australia for 50,000 years and much of the art is more than 2000 years old.



After the rock art, we went on a river safari in the Yellow Water Wetlands. It’s absolutely beautiful.



but there are a lot of very very dangerous crocodiles



These “salties” (as the Saltwater Crocodiles are known) are incredibly dangerous and very very scary. Then again, almost everything in Australia is dangerous. If it’s not going to poison you to death, it’ll rip your arm off. Crocodile Dundee is pretty close to the truth. (Actually, we saw and swam in the rock pool that was called “Echo Pool” in the film and saw the famous buffallo “Charlie” who is standing stuffed in road side bar).
We were camping in some rather up-market tents



These tents were really nice but the mosquitoes were a problem. At the first campsite there were literally clouds of them. The food was cooked over an open fire and after dinner, Isabelle and I ate Green Ants for pudding. They taste lemony and as long as you bite down hard enough, they don’t bite your mouth.

The following morning it was off to some fantastic rock pools.



Despite the danger signs



we were assured that there weren’t any salties in the rock pools and we all went in for a very refreshing swim.



Apart from getting about a trillion mozzie and sand fly bites, we had a good time. Fantastic alien scenery, great wildlife, eating local Barramundi grilled on an open fire and experiencing the bush for a few days was a great introduction to Australia. Off to Alice Springs today and then we drive down the Stuart Highway to Ayers Rock from where the next blog entry will come.