We arrived in hot, wet, humid Darwin in the late afternoon and went straight to our Hotel on the Esplanade; from the balcony window we overlooked the Bicentennial Park and the bay. The trees were full of exotic birds creating a cacophony of sqwarks, whistles and twitterings.
After a fantastic meal at the hotel, with a free bottle of wine (which always helps!) we hired a very over priced car and set off next day for Kakadu. We drove for about three hours through glorious countryside with birds a go go and stopped at an information centre. Pete parked the car next to a tree full of green tree ants some of whom decided to jump across onto the car. Green tree ants have a really painful bite followed by a more painful sting; if you kill one, the others gang up on you. We brushed off what we could, but some crawled into the mirror cavity.
The information centre looked over a huge plain giving us a great taster for Kakadu; we saw Water Buffalo, cockatoos and Eagles. As we left the centre, it started to rain, the rain became heavier and heavier until visibility was about a yard at best. We pulled off the road as water was now flowing heavily down the sides (very frightening in a flat area) then the lighting started – it hits the ground, drawn by the iron, vertically and it was absolutely terrifying to watch it crashing down around us. A man stopped and ran over to us to make sure we were okay, which was very sweet of him, but as he talked, lightening struck the ground behind him; it was seriously frightening. We later discovered that the storms terrify the locals, but a film company is hoping to capture some of the blue lightening strikes as they are considered ‘unique’. When the rain eased off a little, we commenced our journey and found that 20 kilometres up the road there had been no rain! The storms are very localised. The rest of the journey was only eventful in that the road was full of Whistling and Wedge Tailed Kites; we have never seen so many!
We had booked in the Aurora, one of only a handful of accommodation in Kakadu – all overpriced, but there really is no choice. However, we were fortunate to have been bumped up to a family suite on the first floor with a great balcony. Another truly amazing item to note was that the green tree ants were still with us when we arrived.
A flock of white cockatoos were camped out in the tree across from us and over the next two days we discovered what an extraordinary and unique location the Aurora occupies.
In the evening, Agile Wallabies appeared on the grassy areas and huge flocks of birds flew overhead to their nightly roosts, too many to list, but included White Pelicans, Brolgas, Cockatoos, Glossy and Sacred Ibis, the endangered Magpie Goose and countless varieties of ducks. Then the fruit bats appeared, silhouetted against the red setting sun. We have never seen such a fabulous aerial display!
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