Tales From The Top End
The trip up in the plane was amazing .Flying over this incredible vast wilderness of dry land marked by criss crossing roads that stretch for miles and miles and dried up snaking rivers and salt plains and you just get a sense of the incredible vastness of this country and the emptiness of its dry interior Just flying over the ocean, the incredible blues of the oceans and then down through these amazing fluffy cloud formations so you feel like you are in this incredible enchanted land
I could hear the strains of Icehouses song ‘ Great Southern Land ‘ playing in my head .

Darwin as you might expect is very hot
I had to smile as the taxi driver who picked me up although a sweet guy was hugely obese with a hairy stomach and then as he was loading my stuff into the cab his jeans which he must have had unbuttoned and forgot to do up as he got out of the cab actually fell to the ground and I glimpsed a view of his big hairy butt and couldnt help smiling as I thought to myself ‘Welcome to Darwin’
On Tuesday I went on a tour to Lichefields National Park I gotta say I wasn’t really too fussed on this longwinded commentary the bus driver that went on and on with for 3 hours straight Do we really need to know about how the Plaster Of Paris Dinasaour got into to the Bunnings carpark at Palmerston or the excruciating minutiae of every significant weight and measure with which the founding fathers and the forces which shaped Darwin were preoccupied …yadiya ………Eventually I was able to zone out and just gaze out of the window and drink in the mesmerizing scenery the pandanas and the blackboys and the fascinatingly huge termite mounds

Magnetic termite mounds
These here are the magnetic termite mounds so called because they build their flat towers facing north to south look like tombstones the magnetic termite grounds looking for all the world like wierd cemeteries ……then there are the cathedral termites which build the more conical shaped towers

We swam at two amazing waterholes in Lichfield national Park , Tolma falls and one other The beautiful cool fresh water caressed our skin like smooth velvet ……. once in ,hard to get out

Swimming hole in Lichefields National Park
As we waited at a rail crossing as if on right on cue we were lucky to see the Ghan flying past tooting us as she went

The Ghan goes streaking past
So far one of the highlights have been the lovely local poeple I have met Darwin is really multicultural and I’ve had some lovely chats with some delightful Vietnamese ladies and other locals .The tour guide too ‘Youngy ‘apart form his long winded commentaries was a really personable lovely man
I have yet to catch a spectacular Darwin sunset…..but the Darwin waterfront is just beautiful
off to visit Kakadu tomorrow
