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