Monday, May 25, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Darwin, Northern Territory
I love the headlines in the Northern Territory News. Other headlines included: Man stabs girlfriend over slow cooking; Swerving motorist caught 'in the act' with girlfriend; Teen sex acts at wave pool; Thirsty saltie slams down a stubbie, Mouths water in big burger-off bunfight; Croc poker a hit... its fantastic!
Darwin CBD
You can swim with the crocodiles at Crocasaurus Cove.
This is Chopper - he's a biggie.
Our flight was delayed by almost 5 hours and everyone was sleeping in the Darwin airport...
Darwin CBD
You can swim with the crocodiles at Crocasaurus Cove.
This is Chopper - he's a biggie.
Our flight was delayed by almost 5 hours and everyone was sleeping in the Darwin airport...
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
East Alligator River Cruise
Its our last day in Kakadu and we hit the bakery in Jabiru. The big black stork-like bird is called a Jabiru and we saw lots of them.
Our last trip was an Aboriginal Cultural Cruise down the East Alligator River. A British man named it the alligator river as he mistook the crocodiles for alligators. We saw lots of salties on the river!
On the left is Arnhem Land - owned by the traditional landowners; and on the right is Kakadu National Park.
As we were with a local Aboriginal woman, we were allowed to go into Arnhem Land and got off the boat for a spear and weaving demonstration.
Driving back to Darwin -- you're just out in the open... wonderful open space.
We stopped at The Didgeridoo Hut on the way back and bought some Aboriginal art.
This is what we bought by Reggie Sultan (who is pictured below).
Emus
Water buffalo country
Our last trip was an Aboriginal Cultural Cruise down the East Alligator River. A British man named it the alligator river as he mistook the crocodiles for alligators. We saw lots of salties on the river!
On the left is Arnhem Land - owned by the traditional landowners; and on the right is Kakadu National Park.
As we were with a local Aboriginal woman, we were allowed to go into Arnhem Land and got off the boat for a spear and weaving demonstration.
Driving back to Darwin -- you're just out in the open... wonderful open space.
We stopped at The Didgeridoo Hut on the way back and bought some Aboriginal art.
This is what we bought by Reggie Sultan (who is pictured below).
Emus
Water buffalo country
Aboriginal Rock Art - Kakadu
Today is rock art day - we started with a bush walk around Nourlangie Rock. It was a beautiful hike and there was lots of aboriginal rock art on the caves and overhangs plus rock wallabies.
This is Nabulwinjbulwinj (Nar-bull-win-bull-win). He is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.
The big drawing is Namarndjolg. He and his sister broke the incest laws on the cliff edge above this drawing. Because of this, he later became Ginga the great saltwater crocodile. In Aboriginal culture incest doesn't necessarily mean from the same family, but from the same community.
The one to the right is Namarrgon the Lightning Man (w/the white ring around him and axes that hits against his knees and elbows that make the lightning sound). The one on the lower left is Barrginj and she's Namarrgon's wife. They are parents to Aljurr or Leichart's grasshoppers that appear after the first storm.
A rock wallaby
Now we're driving north of Jabiru towards Ubirr and Arnhemland past billabongs (swamps).
Ubirr is another area of Aboriginal Rock Art that we walked around.
Above the rock art galleries, you have an incredible view of the floodplains, moonsoon forests and the Arnhemland Escarpment on the otherside of the East Alligator River.
While driving back to Jabir, we passed lots and lots of bushfires. The Park Rangers light matches and throw them into the dry grass on the side of the road to start low intensity fires. These burn out naturally, get rid of the dead and dry stuff on the ground and burn slow enough so that all the animals get away. Then loads of new grass grows, which the wallabies eat and new palms, etc. But its weird to see bushfires everyone and no one even managing them.
For our 4th night in Kakadu, we stayed in the Holiday Inn shaped like a crocodile. It was just too hot and buggy at night to camp so we stayed in air conditioning and swam in the hotel pool.
This is Nabulwinjbulwinj (Nar-bull-win-bull-win). He is a dangerous spirit who eats females after striking them with a yam.
The big drawing is Namarndjolg. He and his sister broke the incest laws on the cliff edge above this drawing. Because of this, he later became Ginga the great saltwater crocodile. In Aboriginal culture incest doesn't necessarily mean from the same family, but from the same community.
The one to the right is Namarrgon the Lightning Man (w/the white ring around him and axes that hits against his knees and elbows that make the lightning sound). The one on the lower left is Barrginj and she's Namarrgon's wife. They are parents to Aljurr or Leichart's grasshoppers that appear after the first storm.
A rock wallaby
Now we're driving north of Jabiru towards Ubirr and Arnhemland past billabongs (swamps).
Ubirr is another area of Aboriginal Rock Art that we walked around.
Above the rock art galleries, you have an incredible view of the floodplains, moonsoon forests and the Arnhemland Escarpment on the otherside of the East Alligator River.
While driving back to Jabir, we passed lots and lots of bushfires. The Park Rangers light matches and throw them into the dry grass on the side of the road to start low intensity fires. These burn out naturally, get rid of the dead and dry stuff on the ground and burn slow enough so that all the animals get away. Then loads of new grass grows, which the wallabies eat and new palms, etc. But its weird to see bushfires everyone and no one even managing them.
For our 4th night in Kakadu, we stayed in the Holiday Inn shaped like a crocodile. It was just too hot and buggy at night to camp so we stayed in air conditioning and swam in the hotel pool.
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