Gone troppo in the Top End

Wow! Thanks guys for all your texts, facebook messages and ecards for my birthday - I'm quite overwhelmed... I feel as if I've been at a party with you all! I will get around to thanking y'all, but it may take a few days! I had wondered how it would be, so far away from home; as anyone who knows me will testify, I'm a kid where birthdays are concerned, they are SO EXCITING! So after having great chats with first my father and then (number one son) Alex I treated myself to an American-style breakfast of pancakes with bacon, berries, cream and maple syrup. Yum! Then after reading some of your messages I had a very steamy walk to Darwin museum. It was hot and humid and I ran out of water halfway - not good; but eventually I found a 'Ski Club' by the beach??? I guess water-skiing - and was allowed in as a visitor. As a private club, the drinks were cheap, hoorah! The museum was QI - quite interesting; lots of info on cyclone Tracy which destroyed Darwin on Christmas Day 1974 - I don't remember that? Was it too far away to be considered newsworthy, or was I too busy having a good time to watch the news? Also stuff about the city's bombing by the Japanese in WW2. I didn't know about that either. I felt humbled by my ignorance... But hey, not going to beat myself up about it - I hopped on a bus with a cheery driver and made my way to the nearest Baskin Robbins for an ice cream sundae. I cunningly 'let slip' that it was my birthday and the very friendly assistant piled extra ice cream (3 scoops - cookies n cream, hokey pokey and 'passion' - berries and white chocolate) on my bananas, under a mound of cream and chocolate sauce. First picture is of me halfway through it!! I rounded off my day by chatting with (number one daughter) Katye, then meeting up with some of the gang from my outback tours, and going to the 'deckchair cinema' with them. This was a unique experience - rows of deckchairs attached in rows before a huge screen in the open air. We sat in the front row with a stretch of grass between us and the screen. Halfway through the film we saw a creature running across in front of us - a possum or maybe a desert rat - we weren't sure. He came back a couple of times, and once I felt something brush over my feet... after this my attention was divided between George Clooney on the screen, and the ground in front of me - those slithery things were on my mind yet again. So a great day.
But when I last 'blogged' I was in Alice Springs, and I've had some great adventures since then. I rejoined my 14-day tour, with some of the same people and some new ones, and we progressed North to Darwin (the Top End), taking three days. This tour was mainly transit - we covered 1500kms in three days, stopping off in a few spots for sightseeing, stretching of legs and swimming. We crossed into the Tropic of Capricorn with great ceremony - there's a line drawn across the road that everyone had to photograph. We stopped one day at a lovely reservoir where some people swam, but I got chatting to some aboriginal 'Warramundi' ladies who told me they were on a "girls' day out". I was very pleased to have a conversation with them, as I must admit I'd felt a bit wary of approaching them in Alice, as they tended to group together, and I wasn't sure how welcoming they would be to tourists. We had a laugh together about them leaving their husbands in town working for the day while they had a fun-filled picnic. The last place before Darwin was Katherine Gorge, known in Aboriginal as Nitmiluk. Occurs to me that if we were in Oz we'd have to call Katye 'Nit' for short. Hmmmm.
After an overnight stop in Darwin (less than 12 hours there) we set off for the last 3 days of the tour. This took us to Litchfield National Park, where we went on a cruise to see the 'jumping crocodiles' - picture 2. I wasn't sure about this - it was great to see the crocs - they are salt-water ones, big and dangerous normally, but these ones appeared sleepy and over-fed - it seemed as though the crew were teasing them, as they didn't always let them have the meat, making them jump several times then withdrawing the meat. In the wet season which has just ended, the crocs get into all the waterholes, so it isn't safe to swim. Once the water subsides, rangers check the pools for safety. Fresh water crocs are ok, though - they don't attack humans, apparently. Not sure I want to meet one while bathing, though. As you can see, I got my bikini wet a couple of times - we went on to Kakadu (du du) National Park, which is vast - twice the size of the Netherlands. Here we saw examples of aboriginal rock art from different eras up to fairly recent times; scrambled up steep rocky cliffs to watch a magnificent sunset; bathed in pools between a series of waterfalls, ending in a sheer drop. It was a wonderful experience, so beautiful. Some of the wimpy youngsters thought the water was cold - they haven't swum off Herm in the Channel Islands!!
I'm very glad I did the tours - we saw places you certainly wouldn't get to on an expensive coach trip. But I'm also quite happy to be back in hostels. The trips were fun, but we did rough it a little - the camping was surprisingly chilly at times; the food was tasty, (we all helped prepare it, I've picked up some tips on mass-catering!), but it was advisable not to look too closely at the washing-up for 20+ people in one bowl of cold dirty greasy water and drying up with wet dirty cloths! Also most of the time (apart from the last day, thanks to our great driver/tour leader Kate) when on the bus our ears were assaulted by VERY loud music blasting over the sound system. I like loud music; I go to pubs expressly to listen to it at home - but this was excessive. No chance of hearing your own ipod. The amazing thing is that the people for whom it was played usually managed to sleep through it all! But that's a small gripe, and I met some lovely people and saw some wonderful sights.
This morning my alarm went off at 2am and I jumped on the airport shuttle for my flight to Cairns. When I got here - shock, horror, it's raining and only 26 degrees.. I want to go back to Darwin!! The forecast improves on Sunday, so I guess I'll stick around a bit, spend the next couple of days relaxing and catching up with emails, and maybe go snorkeling on Sunday. Or on a train to the rainforest. Ah, decisions! It's a tough life.
G'bye f'now!

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