March 18

After a nice breakfast we board the bus for a Bush Village experience.  The road is bumpy with bright orange sand mix soil.  This set up is like a conservation village.  It’s very simple with lean-tos made out of brush with bare soil floors.  We listen to a presenter talk about the local clans and their laws and survival. Then we are served Spotted Dog made in the campfire and bush tea.  We are invited to use the Long Drop toilets.  A presentation on bush tucker, nuts, fruits berries and root, spices all gathered from bush.  We walk among various AB artists who display and sell their works.  Very well done and different from others we have seen, very tempting.  Then given an overview of the various implements for war, punishment and hunting. We are given a chance to throw a local boomerang, different than the triangle one.  We are given another more likely explanation of the AB origins and told by the official guide they are from Sri Lanka and Caucasian at least 40k years ago.  Head to the airport, leave on Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Air Service).  Two hour flight to Darwin, going to the remotest central northern area of the country but still in Northern Territory.  Darwin is the capital of NT, 70k plus population, lots of military and a big port for goods.  The heat is less but the humidity is incredible.  The rainy season is lessening but micro storms are happening.  Incredible lightning show.  Cyclone Tracy destroyed 90% of Darwin in 1987 we’re in the end of the season now.  New homes must follow cyclone building codes.  We are bussed directly out of town heading south east for Kakadu National Park.  It is another World Heritage site that is so large it contains a whole river drainage system.  One and a half hours in, we pass over huge volume rivers and flat flood terrain.  The water is high along the road.  The area is green and lush, everyone says it is incredible that we get to see it like this instead of all dead and brown.  We stop midway at the Bush Hut, an historic watering hole for travelers. Funky interior but the beer is good and cold.  We see hundreds of cockatoos in the trees.  There are three large emus and two big water buffalo in a fenced area. Onward we come upon Brahman cattle in the road.  They are the only breed that can survive these conditions.  Flat green and wetlands.  Enter the park and end at the Kakadu Crocodile Hotel.  A building shaped like a giant croc.  We enter the croc’s mouth in reception, our rooms are in the belly and the restaurant is in the tail! Given a short talk on native art displayed and then to a buffet dinner.  Doing a little laundry.  We have a very interesting but very hot day on for tomorrow. Then off to Melbourne with 70 degrees and half the present humidity.  At the top end of the country then to the bottom!  Time for bed.