In Palmerston, Darwin

We are back in Darwin to have our motor home serviced before we go over to Western Australia.

Last night we rode to the Palmerston markets.  At the markets there was lots of yummy food from different countries and I had some octopus on a stick and a fruit smoothie. 

After we had our dinner I had a shaved ice and it was really good! When I finished my shaved ice we all had a look through telescopes. We saw Saturn with its rings and three moons.  Its largest moon is called Titan. Saturn and Uranus were really small because they are so far away from Earth.  We also saw our moon which was shiny white and there were craters all over it.

 

My first catch of Barramundi

Yesterday we went to the Palmerston Water Park.  When we got there the first thing I went on was the big water slide and when you went down the slide you went really fast and it was really fun. You could race other people as there were six other slides.  After racing on the big slide I went under a huge water bucket.  It filled with water then tipped over and fell all over me.  It was awesome fun!   I also made a new friend and we played with each other all around the water park. I had a really fun day!  Hopefully I will be meeting my friend back here tomorrow.

Till next time

Do svidaniya (Russian for goodbye)

 

Kakadu is a really special place!

We are heading south east on our way to Kakadu National Park along the Kakadu Highway.  I have come across some strange crocodile characters on my way.

+This is a model of an actual crocodile that was nearly 8 metres long.  It was caught and killed in the Adelaide River.

First stop was Jumping Crocodiles which I had been looking forward to for weeks!  We went on a long boat that held about 50 people.

We had a lady guide who drove the boat up the Adelaide River and told us all about crocodiles.  I learned that crocodiles have two sensors on top of their head that feel any vibrations in the water.  They can tell from the different vibrations how big or small the object is in the water.  Crocodiles also have two sets of eyelids.  One set is like goggles and clear so they can see under water and the other set is like our eyelids.  Crocodiles also eat ANYTHING! When they jump they use their tail to launch themselves out of the water.  Sometimes when the crocodiles jumped out of the water to get the meat from the end of the pole that the lady had they were only less than a metre away from us.  Kids weren't allowed to sit near the edge of the boat as crocs like to eat kids the most :)  It was the MOST AWESOMEST DAY EVER!

The green on the crocodile is moss growing on him.

Sometimes crocodiles' teeth fall out. I bet no tooth fairy will come to this croc!

Female crocs normally only grow up to about 3 to 3.5 metres long but the males can get really enormous!

This is Bubbles who had both her front legs ripped off by another crocodile

We saw a White Sea Eagle who flew down and took a pork chop that the lady tied to a tree.  He was really majestic.

This is old Charlie who is nearly 5 metres long.  Charlie kept sliding off the bank.

Finally we are at Kakadu National Park.  It is an enormous area of land and all we can see at the moment is trees.

Our first stop in Kakadu is Mamakala which is a wetlands.  Lots of different birds live here.  I saw a Lotus bird stepping on the water lily leaves.  It looked like it was walking on the water.  The bird was too far away to take a good photo.

Part of the mural on the wall at the bird hide at the wetlands.  The Lotus bird is at the bottom of the mural.

We are staying at Jabiru.  It is really cool because there are lots of kids here and there is a pool.  I spent the rest of the day swimming and playing with new friends.

The next day we rode about 40km up to Ubirr and went on a guided tour of the amazing rock art there.  It was really interesting how they created the art using different coloured ochres and animal blood.  The rock art was thousands of years old and there were layers of paintings under the newer paintings.  There are more than 5 000 rock art sites in Kakadu.  Each painting tells a story and some have lessons to learn in life.

Painting of Mabuyu

Some paintings show food the Aboriginals eat

The view from the lookout at Ubirr was really nice and we could see the wetlands where someone saw through their binoculars a crocodile with its mouth open.  We could also see the rocky mountains.

After we had been to Ubirr we went to the Merl campground for a traditional painting demonstration with two Aboriginal artists.  They were excellent at painting and they used thick and thin lines on their art.  They didn't use dots like some other Aboriginal artists from other desert areas.  I got to have a go at painting an Aboriginal style painting.  I painted a snake.

The next day we went to Nourlangie for a guided tour.  We learned all about Aboriginal life and what they believe in.  The ranger explained all about the rock art and told us the stories attached to some of the paintings.

 

The ranger telling us the story about this rock art.

We also saw a huge rock shelter that was still being used by the Aboriginal people till about 1960.  The ranger showed us lots of things that were dug up by archeologists that were thousands of years old.

Rock shelter

Things dug up - wallaby skull, smooth stick for putting through nose piercing, axe and spear heads and grinding stone.

View of mountain outside shelter

That is about all the news for now.  Having a great time!

Boh Boh (pronounced bor bor which is the Bininj/Mungguy Aboriginal word for goodbye)

Loving Darwin!

While we were at Darwin we went to the Botanical Gardens to have a walk and look around.  We saw lots of interesting plants, trees and flowers of all different colours.

 

In the playground there was a tree house that you could climb right up into around a huge tree.  The tree house looked like a big bird cage.  I climbed up ladders to the top and I could see views of Darwin city and views all over the gardens.  I felt a bit weird like I was going to fall down because it was that high up! 

Afterwards we went on the rainforest walk and saw a little waterfall.

On a rock we saw a crocodile sculpture made of metal.

In amongst the trees I saw a couple of Orange-footed Scrubfowl scratching around.  I tried to catch one but he was too quick. 

Orange-footed Scrubfowl

I also saw a really unusual lizard about 12cm long and he had funny little beady eyes that moved around and had green around the outside.  Our most exciting find was when we looked up at a big tree and on one of the branches was a massive python that was about 5 metres long and was coloured creamy white with rusty brown markings.  I know my Aunty Del and Uncle Michael are going to love this snake!

One of the best times I had in Darwin was going to the Aviation Heritage Centre.

I saw heaps of military jets and helicopters, but my favourite plane was the B52 Bomber!  It was so massive!  Pop and I also looked at an old helicopter that had a mower engine. 

The B52 took up all the shed and planes were parked underneath it

Under the B52 cockpit

Spitfire

When we were in Darwin city we went to the Wave Pool and had a look around Darwin Harbour.  The Wave Pool was really fun especially when I rode the waves on the boogie board. 

View of Darwin from East Point north of the city

 

The next day we rode our motor scooters to Darwin Museum.  While we were there we saw a display on Cyclone Tracey which destroyed most of Darwin on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 1974.  I went into dark sound room and heard what the cyclone sounded like when it hit Darwin.  It must have been really scary for all the people in Darwin!

At the museum I also saw lots of stuffed native animals, fossils and a crocodile called Sweetheart who was 5 metres long.  Sweetheart died when the men were trying to move her to a place away from people.  It was pretty sad that happened as she would have been really old. 

In the art gallery I saw some cool Aboriginal art and a truck made from straw rope.

While we were in Darwin we went to see some underground oil tunnels that were built when Australia was going to be attacked by Japan.  The tunnels were meant to keep Darwin’s oil safe from being blown up by the Japanese.  Darwin kept the tunnels a secret because they were embarrassed because the tunnels were never used.  This was because the tunnels leaked and oil couldn’t be kept in them.  The tunnels were about 2 km long and they were really dark.

After seeing the tunnels we rode up to Darwin’s Military Museum.  I learnt all about the day that Darwin was bombed by the Japanese on the 19^th February 1942 and 292 people died.  It was really sad.  The Japanese also bombed other places in the north of Australia.

My favourite things in the museum were the huge gun battery built to protect Darwin, a machine gun and a military boat.  There were heaps of tanks and other machines.

Gun Battery

We have left Darwin now and are going to Kakadu.  On the way we are going to the Jumping Crocodiles on Adelaide River.  I can’t wait!  I am really looking forward to that!

I saw this copy of the Northern Territory News about the Jumping Crocodiles and I hope I see Brutus when I go!