March 29, 30 & 31

We went to the Indo Pacific Marine today down at the wharf in Darwin.  What an interesting experience that was.  We saw a film on the coral reefs and the plant and animal life living there.  The woman who designed the facility was Malay and her husband was an Australian diver.  He dispelled the idea that you can't dive in the Darwin harbour, because of Crocs, as he has been diving there for years and the specimen in the display were provided by him.  He also explained how the coral reef is being killed in Queensland by the fact that they kill all the mangroves around the harbour and along the coast, upsetting the ecology in the area.  I guess politicians everywhere leave a lot to be desired.  No one uses common sense anymore and the Greenies have overplayed their hand so much that they are not listened to so the Eco system just goes by the wayside. 

They have built a completely sustainable Eco system consisting of coral reef, fish, plant life and the only thing that is added is rainwater to replace water that has evaporated.  This has been in existence for the past 40 years.  It is absolutely fascinating and unfortunate that we were not allowed to take pictures.   We both came away with a different attitude towards the coral reefs and their existence.

After our learning experience, we wanted to have some fun so we wandered around downtown, checking everything out.  We had a lovely lunch and decided to watch the sunset down by the water.  Where better than on the steps of the Casino.  We missed the sunset by minutes as Dalton was on a roll, we went in with $40.00 and came out with $155.00.

We checked out the Aviation Museum and saw some of the big planes, they have a B52 Bomber, what a huge plane.  Dalton was totally amused by it all, I was just hot, so sat by a fan and read about our next destination.

We decided to leave town that day and not stay another night.  We are having trouble with the humidity.  Dalton's feet and ankles are swelling and I am constantly dripping.  Neither of us are comfortable so thought we have had enough and ready to try someplace else.

We left for Kakadu where we were booked on a Yellow River Cruise.   On the way we saw Water Buffalo, a strange sight in this area.  We didn't know they had them here, thought they were in Asia. 

There are lots of Cockatoos in this area, lots of Galahs as well, and they keep dive bombing the van, we think they want the bugs off the grill.  It is pretty scary, Dalton keeps ducking like they are going to come through the windshield.

Got to Cooinda where we were staying for the night, it is in the Kakadu National Park and a very nice place.  The cruise was leaving from there at 8:30 in the morning, we were looking forward to it.

There were loads of people going on the cruise.  They had 3 boats, we figure each boat holds 60 people and two were filled to capacity, ours had a few vacant seats.  At $60.00 per person, they take in big bucks and this is not even the best time to go, as a matter of fact, our tour guide told us we should come back in September.

Such a beautiful, peaceful, place.  Our tour guide said it was like a 7/11 to the Aborigines.  Everything they need to survive, they could find here.  The waters are so full of fish that even though it is a national park, you can fish here.  If the fishermen don't catch them, they will die in the dry season.

One of the numerous types of birds you will find in the area.

This is the king of the river, no one argues with him, we know it's a male because it just lays around and does nothing!!!!   Just Joking!!!

This fellow swims underwater to catch his dinner

These ones you see just standing around in the water

Beautiful water daisy

The area was filled with these, apparently the pods taste like nuts

These are the king of the air, they are called Jabiru and they can kill small crocodiles.  Unfortunately, these are the only ones we saw.  Apparently they are very large, this was taken from quite a distance.  They are also called black storks.

This was like the boat we were on.