Locals don't wear fly nets

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We drove from Broome to Darwin in two days. It was a very long, long road. We listened to our tapes a million times and told our life stories to each other again. In the desert, there is alot of time to think.

The wildlife was amazing; exotic birds, emus (giant birds that look like the road runner), kangaroos and lizards. The boab tree exist only in Northern WA and Northern Territory. It is a cousin to the African bush tree. The trunk looks like a jug. Other trees have a shiny white trunk to deflect the intense sun.

I thought about how life will always adapt to it's environment to survive. True in the plant and animal (and human) world. I also thought how building a wooden house in the desert would be crazy. There are billions of termite mounds! Really.

The style of mound changes with the terrain. On the northwestern coast they looked more like huge dirt balls about the size of a washing machine. Closer to Darwin, they were tall 5-7 foot pillars. As we drove in the Northern Territory, all we could see were termite mounds spaced about one yard apart. In Litchfield park, we passed a field of magnetic termite mounds. The dirt has a grayish color and the termites have built their mounds in a flat north-south direction to catch the heat of the morning and afternoon sun. It makes the field look like a cemetary.

Darwin, named after Charles Darwin, is a backpackers town. A fun place to hangout. We stayed in a hotel. It was too bloody hot to sleep without airconditioning. The hottest day was 42*C (that's about 106*F) with 90% humidity. It was like a sauna.

The benefit of being somewhere 'off season' is that everything is cheaper, people are more laid back and there is plenty of space everywhere.

The problem with being a tourist on Christmas is that everything is closed. With little choices in town, we decided to spend the day at Litchfield National Park. Beautiful waterfalls. Alot of local people were having a Christmas day picnic in the park. There were many people swimming in the waterfalls.

All over the park were crocodile warning signs. That was enough to scare us. We were satisfied with our picture next to the sign and far away from the waterfall.

Here is one interesting detail about Australia you might not have known: the flies!

Shooing flies from your face is called the Australian wave. The flies love hot, muggy weather. They also love flying into your ears, nose and mouth. The flies have short term shoo memory so they are persistantly in your face. They were so irritating. Marty couldn't take it anymore and bought us fly nets to wear around our head. I thought it was a great idea.

Locals don't wear fly nets! So there we were...fitting the stereotype of the American tourist...taking a picture of the croc warning sign with a fly net on our heads...people laughed at us...loudly. It was really embarassing. After that, I took the fly net off when other people were around. Marty didn't care, he just wanted the flies off his face.

Leaving Darwin, we stayed at the Holiday Inn in Kakadu National Park, the only hotel in the park. It is shaped like a crocodile, best seen from a plane flight. We took a tourist flight over the park. We flew over several waterfalls. Jim Jim falls are beautiful. In the dry season, you can four wheel drive to them. I think that would be fun. We also saw Dreamtime, an important Aboriginal rock sight.

The last thing we did before leaving Northern Territory was a boat ride down the river to see the crocs. Unless you are swimming around the rivers, which wouldn't be long, you really don't see the crocs. Those buggers will jump for their food. I have some great pictures. It was neat to see these prehistoric looking creatures.

Like Charles Darwin said: Survival of the fittest.