01 September 2007

Northern Territory Escape, Days 6 and 7

Well, here it is, the last couple of days...I hope you enjoyed the trip.

Day 6:

The last full day of our trip and we were on our way to the Northern Territory Wildlife Park and then to Litchfield National Park.

The Wildlife Park was absolutely wonderful, unfortunately we only had two hours there and I think two days wouldn’t have been enough time to see everything. There were 6 km of road within the park and little trains that picked people up and dropped them off at stations throughout the park. We only had time to see the aquarium and aviary. But that was a great experience.

We would have liked to have seen the nocturnal animals and I wanted to see the snakes. But in the aviary I was able to see birds I had only heard about through work I was doing at that time...striated pardalote, bar-shouldered dove, hooded parrot, varied lorikeet, emerald dove, spangled drongos, crakes, rails, curlews and a female black cockatoo to name but a few.

We had lunch at a place called Wongi Falls which we travelled to via a back road – a corrugated and winding red dust road that had me feeling rather queasy by the time we got there. So we went for a walk to the falls and once I’d been in the fresh air for a little, I felt heaps better and was able to face lunch. The falls were beautiful and people were swimming and sharing the pool below the falls with black bream and archer fish. We had lunch under the trees and while we were eating, a blue kookaburra flew down and posed on a branch for us.

We headed for Florence falls after lunch were people were also swimming. I’m afraid it was not warm enough for me!

The next stop was to have a look at some magnetic termite mounds (built north-south), but by this time I’d had enough and was not getting off that coach. I was ready to go home. This was the last full day of our trip and I couldn’t wait to sleep in my own bed.

So we arrived back in Darwin about 4.30 pm, showered and changed and went down to the Jabiru Bar for happy hour and crab races. Unfortunately, no-one told the crabs what they were supposed to be doing and it was a bit of a fizzer. Happy hour was good though, several of the tour group met up and we all got a bit happy and noisy before dinner.

I was keen to go for a walk after dinner as Mum and Harold had overindulged just a trifle and I thought a walk in the balmy tropical night air would do them good. There was a mini market around the corner from the hotel so we wandered up there. Got some pretty gold and amethyst earrings for Suzie. Apart from that, the market was very mini! Mum was tired so Harold took her back to the hotel, I followed about 15 minutes later. Home tomorrow!

320 km

Day 7:

Didn’t wake up until 7.00 am – sleep in! We didn’t have to be out of the hotel until 10.00 am so we wondered down for a leisurely breakfast then packed our bags and ambled down to the Mall. I found a nice shorts and top set for $30, had an orange and mango juice and could really taste the mango. Food was expensive in the Northern Territory because it all had to be freighted up from the south by road train. Not a hell of a lot grows in the Northern Territory apart from the ubiquitous palm trees of various types, cycads, frangipani, bougainvillea and bloody big mango trees! Of course, there were all the eucalypts as well.

It was time for us to head out to the airport for the four hour flight back to Brisbane. I was looking forward to seeing the inflight movie, ‘The Mummy” but the video had packed up.

Total km travelled in 6 days 1,651.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

What a wonderful trip! Thank you for allowing me to tag along.

Tammy said...

I've never heard of all the birds you mentioned! I bet they were an awesome sight!
:)

Gattina said...

Even without pictures your description is so nice I almost can see the landscapes ! It really was a wonderful trip and I got an idea how it looks like there.
My next wish is to see a kookaburra a real one ! I heard the laughter on internet, but this bird really intrigues me ! Would be so nice to have it here in our garden ! I wake up early anyway !
Rosie is a very careful cat, she doesn't jump there where she could brake something. It's really unbelievable but this little cat is special. When I remember Arthur as a baby !! Nothing was sure of him in our household ! He digged in the plants, felt behind a book shelf, broke X little ceramic cats of my collection, fell in the toilet, and jumped once in a salad bowel !

Anonymous said...

You know I've been to Australia once and reading your reports in every details took me down the memory lane. I wish I could go there once more!

Wishing you a great weekend too!

Jeanette said...

Hi Robyn, great commenty of your Holiday, We got to Wildlife park at opening and left at closing.and revisited another day, and that back road to Wangi fall, oh boy!
I thought Litchfield was nicer than Kakadu. see my N.T photo's June/ July 2006..
im pleased my jokes gave u a smile. Who's post made you so sad.. (((Hugs)))

Peter said...

Hi Robyn, while I've never been a "tour" person you made that sound like fun, thanks for the free ride.

Carole Burant said...

All in all, it sounded like a perfect trip and I so enjoyed it!! You enjoy doing and seeing the same kinds of things I do:-) How I would love to visit Australia one day...if only I could get over my fear of flying!!! xoxo

Merle said...

Hi Robyn ~~ Sounds like you all had a wonderful time. Thanks for sharing
your trip and photos with us.
Thanks for your comments, glad you got a laugh and thanks for the wishes for John to get well soon.
Take care, my friend, Love, Merle.

Walker said...

Wow that was a trip through paradise.
I love traveling with people when they describe what they see and you did a great job of it.
Thank You

Karen said...

You are a tour guide in the making Robyn. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole trip, your lovely pics and your commentary. Well done and thanks for sharing.

Andree said...

that was great, i loved it. Do you know that I have never had a mango? I'm not big on trying exotic things, and that is pretty exotic! (yup, i'm a food coward!).

I don't blame you for wanting to be back. that was one looooong trip!