August 2nd, Australia Day 162

Starting from Darwin, with a new guide named Darryl, I set off on the last leg of my excursion in the Northern Territory. Form here, the journey would be a round trip to the east into the famous Litchfield and Kakadu (KAH-kah-doo) National Parks. These areas have some spectacular scenery and are home to some unique wildlife, so if you one day awake in the Top End, I suggest you turn your attentions to the east.

Our first stops for the day consisted of 2 separate waterfalls, known as Buley and Robin (I'm not sure if this is the actual name) Falls. Buley Falls was a series of small waterfalls tumbling into pools where you could wade, and I did. Robin Falls, on the other hand, is a proper waterfall which descends into a small lake. Here I did not go swimming but I saw, and took some pictures of, some cute wallabies.

The next stop was to some massive termite mounds, and I do mean massive. As you travel further north, the termite mounds grow taller. There was one in particular that I was photographed beside and it was about 6 or 7 meters tall. Termites are plentiful in the Top End but they are under constant threat from their natural enemies, the ants. Termites try to defend their mounds as best they can against ant attack by making them solid as concrete with as few holes as possible for entry. Their natural defences include the ability to shoot formic acid from their foreheads but the concentration is not enough to harm a human. When wars erupt between ants and termites it's supposed to be quite a spectacle. Almost always though, the ants win, not so much by brute strength but by force of numbers. Interestingly, termites cannot by themselves digest the cellulose in wood and would under normal circumstances be unable to eat the wood. What aids them are tiny protozoa that live in their intestines and digest the wood for them.

From the termite mounds, we continued to the east and stopped in a pub that had a small wildlife preserve with some interesting animals, which included the famous crocodiles. There are 2 species of crocodile that live in tropical Australia, the freshwater and the saltwater, or estuarine, crocodiles. They are known locally as "freshies" and "salties", respectively, and the salties can actually live in both fresh and salt water. The freshies are the smaller and less aggressive of the 2 types, growing up to 4 meters; they are not dangerous to humans. The salties on the other hand can grow up to 7 meters and are quite aggressive and dangerous; these are the ones you see taking down fully grown buffaloes.

Form here we were taken on a cruise through the Mary River Wetlands where we saw several wild birds, and even a few crocs. The day was spectacular but our guide could not understand why there were so few crocs on the river. In the wet season, which runs from about November to April, the whole area is under several meters of water. In that time, the Top End receives endless days of rain and whole areas are flooded under several meters of water, in some places up to 17 meters from their dry season levels.

At our permanent campsite that night, there was a presentation local aborigine culture known as a corroborree (koh-ROH-bohr-ree). There was didjeridu playing as well as some dancing around the camp fire, not to mention a python. I tried my hand at the didjeridu and even made a respectable sound. For the next part, I was painted up a bit to represent the lightning God Namarrgan (NAH-mahr-gahn). Who knows, I may now have special protection against lightning. After I washed off the black paint made of ash and water, I went to sleep after a quick coke at the nearby pub.

Photos now available at: http://australiaday162.blogspot.com/