a week in the top end

A few days ago I returned from my first extensive trip since arriving in Australia. I went to the Northern Territory for 2 weeks and saw a lot of amazing things. For those of you unfamiliar, here is a little geography lesson to get started.

This post will be focusing on the portion of the NT known as the "Top End":

My trip began in Darwin. My friend AJ from the states flew out to do this trip with me, and met me in Darwin. We booked ourselves in for a weekend to explore the city. It turns out this was almost too much time, as there isn't a lot to do in Darwin; luckily the hostel we stayed at had a really nice pool and patio area, so I whiled away my days poolside!

We did visit the Mindil Beach Sunset Market on our first evening in Darwin:

The market was about on par with most I've been to in Australia, mostly featuring cheap stalls of fried food and touristy knick knacks not worth the money or the effort to carry around. But the atmosphere was nice, and it was a good little exploration on our first night!

The next day was the last real day of touristing in the city we attempted, visiting the World War II Oil Storage Tunnels

These were, unfortunately, finished at the same time as the war, and so were never used. Some smart entrepreneur has set them up as one of the only tourist attractions in Darwin. For $6 you can walk around and look at a bunch of empty pipes and tunnels!

The town is small, but set on a lovely peninsula, and apparently offers lots of good fishing. Also, it is a backpacker hotspot, with most of the bars in town catering to this crowd. We did go out a couple of nights, but jet lag got the best of AJ, and so we always ended up having an early night!

The real adventure started Monday morning, when we were picked up at 6:15 am for a 3 day tour of Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. We had apparently arrived just at the right time of year for our activities, as the seasonal rains had lasted about a month longer than usual, and the Top End was only on it's second week of "The Dry" - usually May-November and offering cooler temperatures and much lower humidity than during "The Wet" the rest of the year.

We started the morning out by visiting a local Aboriginal cultural centre, where we learned about how the local tribes (used to) live. We received a traditional welcome, which involved Steve, our Aboriginal guide, basically spitting water onto our heads as a blessing. Pretty cool! We got to see the different colors of paint they used:

We learned that the didgeridoo, the classic bush instrument, was not hollowed out by extensive manual labor, but rather by the termites that infect the area. So musical men just had to find a tree whose branches were already hollow!

some examples

We ventured on to the floodplains of the Mary River. Because the Top End gets monsoons and rain for so much of the year, all of the rivers overflow their banks to an enormous degree, creating an entirely different ecosystem for 6 months of the year. When the rains end and the waters begin to recede, the window to explore these wetlands while they are still wet is pretty small! These floodplains are also among some of the newest land forms on Earth - only about 2,000 years old. The higher elevation features in this area are some of the oldest land forms on Earth, and it has something to do with when the oceans finally receded enough to expose more of the continent. Clearly my geology and earth science skills are lacking, but this is what the tour guide said!

Anyways, we took a boat cruise of these wetlands, and saw some amazing wildlife. Lots of birds, and even a croc or two!

a chicana bird sitting on her eggs

After lunch, we finally arrived in Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is nearly 20,000 square kilometers, and twice World Heritage Listed - once for it's natural features and once for it's cultural significance. The Aboriginal people who originally lived in Kakadu left an amazing record of rock art and other cultural histories behind. Scientists estimate the Aboriginals have been living in the area for about 50,000 years. Once Europeans arrived and settled in Darwin, of course the land was taken over, but the Land Rights Act of the 1970s allowed indigenous tribes to petition to have their native land given back to them. The 12 language groups who had native title to Kakadu managed to succeed in reclaiming the land, but then leased it back to the government as a national park so they could share their history and heritage with others.

Anyway, we stopped first to visit Ubirr, a wonderful rock art site followed by a climb up to the top of the lookout:

a sea turtle

some barramundi and other fresh water fish

This painting tells the story of Mabuyu, and is a lesson in good behavior. Aboriginal culture is very secretive, and only the "initiated" can know certain things. So often the stories "whitefellas" get to hear are very simple, stories told to children and the un-initiated:

"Mabuyu was dragging his catch on a string after a

fishing expedition when a greedy person cut the

string and stole his fish.

That night, Mabuyu waited until the thieves had

eaten his fish and were camped inside their cave

near the East Alligator River. Then he blocked the

cave with a huge rock.

'Next morning they never came out. Because they

pinched it they got punished. Kids, ladies, and

men all dead - finsihed.' - Bill Neidjie"

the view from the top of the lookout

another view

Pretty cool stuff! The next day we rose bright and early to visit Gunlom, a beautiful waterfall about 2 hours drive away from our campsite (still in the park!). First we stopped at the plunge pool for photos:

Then we did the walk up to the lookout, which was more of a climb up the side of this beast! The brochure from the visitors centre says the walk is 1 km round trip, and our tour guide said we climbed about 200 m up, elevation wise. Needless to say, it was rigorous, but rewarding! Not only were the views at the top beautiful, there were some really lovely rock pools to cool off in:

Of course, what nobody ever tells you is how hard the climb back DOWN is going to be! I did a lot of it on my butt, in order to not fall down and die. I saw a lot of people going up who seemed to not be in peak physical condition (like using a walking stick or wearing orthopedic shoes) and I hope they made it down okay!

We visited another waterfall/rock pool that afternoon, called The Rock Hole:

It was beautiful, but a snake in the water spooked me so I didn't swim. One of my few regrets!

We stopped at the visitor centre on our way out of the park, and said a sad farewell to Kakadu. I feel I cannot do it justice here, but if you ever get a chance to go. It really is amazing! We headed to a different campsite that night just outside the park, at an Outback pub and campsite called the Bark Hut.

just an idea of the "tents" we slept in on this trip ;-)

cooking buffalo sausages for dinner

The morning brought another early rise to drive to Litchfield National Park where our first stop was to see the termite mounds (oooh, fascinating).

Cathedral termite mound

These are actually composed of termite waste, wings, dead termites, etc. It is completely sealed and all designed to protect the queen, who is the sole female breeder. These mounds can grow about 1 meter every 10 years, which means the queen in this particular mound is probably about 40 years old! That's a lot of baby-making!

magnetic termite mound

The magnetic termite mounds are aligned north-south, so that the wide sides of the mound face east-west, to get the most sunlight.
Termite mounds are all over the Northern Territory, although none are as big or as complex as in the Litchfield area.

Then it was on to more waterfalls - we saw 4 on the same day! The first, and best, was Buley Rockhole, which was a rock pool formed by several small waterfalls. Slippery rocks at the entrance, but really fun and nice to swim and splash around.

Next stop: Wangi Falls, where the plunge pool was closed due to possible crocodile activity. But we stopped for a photo:

By the third waterfall of the day, the sun was out and about, and we were all wishing for a swim, but this waterfall is always closed for swimming, as it's set aside for wildlife. Beautiful to look at, anyway!