Australia Week 4 Darwin,Kakadu,Katherine,Litchfield NP

The final sunset over Darwin Harbour as we get ready to fly on to New Zealand.












Litchfield National Park just south of Darwin. Possibly the nicest of the parks we have visited with a nice range of wildlife, walks and waterfalls. This is Wangi Falls.












This is a Golden Orb spider which is about the size of an adults hand. It is non venomous and only harmful to the much smaller male. The males are red and can just be seen top right of the main body just before he becomes a tasty snack for the female after mating.













The area is also famed for these magnetic turmite mounds which are different from the cathedral turmite mounds seen previously in the blog. The magnetic turmite mounds appear like a graveyard aligned North South in order to provide the minimum face to the sun and provide temperature control. They provide shared homes for snakes, lizards and rats.

Emus are a threatened species but we managed to see this female with her 6 chicks which unfortunately were too quick to get a good photograph of.

Katherine Gorge is part of the Nitmiluk National Park. It comprises 13 seperate gorges along the Katherine River. This is gorge 3 midway round a 12 km bush walk called Butterfly gorge.

Due to the extreme heat at this time of year (today was cool at 33C in the shade) 40C plus in the open and very high humidity 93% bush walking can be extremely hazardous requiring a litre of water per hours walking. On this particular walk, as Katherine is a popular area there were additional water butts on route.

Having not seen many Wallabies and Kangaroos Katherine area has many. This Agile Wallaby was sharing the picnic area with us and the joey was having his own picnic!!

It was so hot the majority were lying under the picnic benches to keep cool.

This is Edith Falls near Katherine. This is a popular bathing and swimming spot for the locals of the area. We think they are very brave as the signs say that the Freshwater Crocodiles that inhabit this pool only feed between 19:00 and 07:00. I hope the crocodiles wear a watch!!
We later found out the reason the local people are not so bothered is that Freshwater crocodiles pull their teeth out when they bite you. Another comforting thought!!

After very heavy rains saltwater crocodiles can also move into freshwater areas.

Up here in the Northern Territory distances are so large for transport that they make road trains like this where a lorry can be 4 trailers long. Only a problem when overtaking is required, but as there is not much traffic you don't have to wait long for the recommended 1 km straight passing place required.

Mr Lockwood taking over the controls of the boat as Robbie our Aboriginal guide bailed the boat out due to a torrential thunderstorm filling it with water. Wouldn't have been a problem apart from we are on the East Alligator River so named because the Englishman who came in the 1800's spotted the reptile below and thought it was an Alligator and so named the river. He never came back to correct the name !!

Robbie taught us a lot about Aboriginal ways of survival using the materials around them and hunting including demonstrating his spear throwing skills.

This is an Estuarine Crocodile (Saltwater). It is one of many where we were on our tour. They grow up to 6metres in length and are very aggressive. People should not walk within 6 feet of the waters edge. Many of the billabongs as well as the rivers have crocodiles in them. Saltwater crocodiles can move into freshwater areas.

This is Aboriginal rock art at Nourlangie in Kakadu National Park. The art varies in age and is often over painted by subsequent generations. It often signifies spiritual ancestors, animals, fish and people. Some of the art can only be seen by senior men or women as it is considered sacred and dangerous. The rock art represents one of the longest historical records of any group of people in the world.

This little chap is a green tree frog and was attached to our room door one morning. Thankfully he is much smaller than the toad below.










This is a Cane Toad which was introduced to Australia to eat insects. It is now a major pest as it is poisonous to all predators. During the evening they come out in their thousands. They are about the size of an adults clenched fist. In one of the local towns they have childrens competitions to collect as many toads as possible in a bucket. Then they get rid of them. The children have great fun but mums don't as the official way to kill them as recommended by the authorities is to put them in a plastic bag and then into your freezer!! Yuck!!!



Kakadu National Park is a world heritage site and is known for its wetland areas and is co-managed by the Aboriginal tribes of the area.
The area has much wildlife and in particular has more than a third of the native bird species of Australia within this area. It covers 20,000 sq m
and provides habitat for 68 mammal species , 120 reptiles and 26 frogs and 300 fish species.





Radjah Shellducks by Anabangbang billabong. We couldn't walk round the billabong as planned due to the path being flooded and the danger of crocodiles. Notice the spiders webs.

Mrs Lockwood walking by Mamakula wetland where there were many birds and Wallabies. There were also many many flies!! Mrs Lockwood couldn't waft her paper fan fast enough!!! It was also 38C and very humid!!!

Finally seen lots of Wallabies and Kangaroos in the Kakadu area bounding around as you imagine them to be. Great big leaps and very fast as they move along.

This Termite mound is over 2 metres high. There are hundreds of mounds by the side of the road. Some a couple of cm and some as big as this.

Arrived in Darwin capital of the Northern Territories only to find President Obama had come to see us. All the streets were lined and cordoned off for his visit which was big news in Australia and in particular this area as quote"Nothing ever happens here". We joined in and stood and watched as he shot past with full escort. Very impressive. He waved at us.

Mrs Lockwood standing by the war memorial outside Government House. Darwin played a big part during the second world war but suffered heavy bombing by the Japanese in 1942.Darwin subsequently was rebuilt but was again destroyed in 1974 by cyclone Tracy. As Darwin is north of the Tropic of Capricorn not only does the sun appear to the North for 6 months of the year but it also appears in the South at midday for the remaining 6 months of the year. Its position also means it has wet and dry seasons. The dry season is in their winter months hence it is very hot now and they are starting to get very heavy thunderstorms each day. The humidity is also very high.