August 4th, Australia Day 164

These are the photos I took on my last touring day of the Northern Territory.

Our first stop that mrning was Maguk-Barramundi Gorge where most f us took a dip in this pool. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that the water was significantly warmer than the air around it. I swam under the waterfall and back again. 

This is the creek which leads out of the pool where I swam that morning. 

Ubirr Rock contains a myriad of these wal paintings, some of them in very awkard-to-reach places. These ones show various animals that at ne time lived in the area or possibly stil do. 

This wall painting is a depiction of a hunter but I believe it was used to tell a story as well. In this case, it was something like an illustration. 

These wall paintings show one of the staples of aborigine diet --- fish. 

This is a stylized depiction of either a kangaroo or a wallaby. 

This is a representation of a Tasmanian Tiger indicating that the creatures nce lived up in this area. This species of rodent, I think, is now thought to be extinct and when discovered by Europeans, it lived only on Tasmania, and island state in the extreme south of Australia. 

Beside the Ubirr Rock artworks, there was a hill which we climbed to get a perspective of the surrounding area. Ubirr lies in a place where rocky and green lands meet and so below us, facing west, there was this vast wetland. 

This is the first of 3 photos which shows a panorama of the low-lying Kakadu Wetlands. You must imagine it, but in the wet season, all of that green stuff is under several meters of water. 

Photo 2 

Photo 3 

East of Kakadu National Park is the rocky region of Arnhem Land. Arnhem Land is under the jurisdiction of the local aborigines and was the first such land to be granted to them. The name Arnhem Land was taken from the name of a Dutch vessel, the "Arnhem", which once visited the Top End. The vessel shares its name with a Dutch city, which I visited in 1999 on a school band and orchestra trip to the Netherlands. If it sunds familiar, it is the city where the World War 2 Operation Market-Garden, a joint U.S.-U.K. mission, was stalled in 1944. Arnhem contained the untaken bridge which formed the basis for the movie "A Bridge Too Far". 

From the top of the escarpment, I could see these hills in the distant which form part of the lush Kakadu region. 

Leaving Kakadu National Park, we were told that there were some salties in a nearby river. We went to investigate and saw these beautiful specimens. I estimated their lengths to be between 4 and 4.5 meters. 

Being unable to control their body temperatures on their own (cold-blooded), crocs are in danger of overheating. When a croc feels that its head is getting too hot, it will lie like this, with its mouth open, in order to cool down. 

This is the other saltie lying by the river. 

My first stop in Darwin that evening was Cullen Bay, which is home to many fine eating establishments as well as some shops. 

This is the famous Mindil Beach Markets whcih are open every Sunday and Thursday in the winter. Not only is it a place to buy things, it's also a carnival with buskers, magicians and others. Here I bought my didjeridu which I sent back to Canada.