15th November 2007 - Darwin, Australia
Arrived Darwin around 10.00 am, a smallish but expanding town miles from anywhere in Northern Territory, but our gateway to Oz as we decided to jump ship here for a few extra days in Cairns.
First, though, we took a tour to Lichfield Park which, at about 100kms south, was significantly closer than the larger and better known Kakadu. It wasn't to be disappointing although the drive to the edge of the park took over an hour and a half. We saw the Uranium mining town of Rum Jungle on the way and a few wallabies before arriving at a bush station for lunch - Barra for D steak for M with wine!
We then started our tour proper. Lichfield is in scrub bush territory with much eucalyptus growth on a sandstone table land which absorbs trillions of gallons of water in the wet season which is then slowly released. Hence, there is always water in Lichfield and its tourism attraction lies with a number of spectacular waterfalls and billabongs where this is flushed out from the plateau. At the first of these we were given a half hour to swim and D managed to reach the falls (photo attached). The second was more impressive in some ways as it lay Niagra like in a deep gorge so was better for spectacular pics. We finished the tour with a visit to enormous termite mounds which come in two varieties: tombstone and cathedral. Check their size with the pic of M.
Back to Darwin where this town of 40k gave us a two mile rush hour traffic jam (opposite direction thankfully) as the thundery winds brought down an overhead power cable on the southbound Stewart Highway. Totally paradoxical and, we were assured, an exceptional happening.
We jumped ship and had an excellent buffet meal at the Jetty restaurant before heading to the airport for our flight to Brisbane and Cairns.
