Territories Wildlife Park

Territories Wildlife Park - Sunday 17th October 2010
On the return journey from Litchfield to Darwin, we stopped off at the Territories Wildlife Park, expecting to take a couple of hours walking round....6 hours later, hot, tired and footsore, we continued to Darwin.


The Park is set in prime and secondary jungle, with natural settings for the animals; it was such a charming place with lovely, friendly staff who took time to talk to us about the animals.  The bird show was lovely - it started with a dreaming tale and doves flew over in front of us.  Then crimson rosellas came out to drink nectar from little dishes, but a sulphur crested cockatoo had other ideas and chased off the Rosellas, then drank their nectar.  The next 'star' up was a falcon but the cockatoo decided the falcon was not staying and chased it off, repeatedly!  A staff member came to take off the cockatoo - 2 minutes later it was back and creating more havoc!  It was one of the funniest shows we have ever seen.

They had a kite which was trained to break into false ostrich eggs, inside which a dead chick had been placed - it took the kite seconds to break in and retrieve the award. 

The Park also had tree kangaroos, dingos and other endangered Australian marsupials. 

 A dingo on the rocks - dingos are interbreeding with local dogs

Pete spent ages with the Archer Fish, trying unsucessfully to get them to spit at him........ahhh boys!

Great Bower Bird nest - made of snail shells

We stopped to speak to a young female and older male keeper.  The conversation veered round to the crocodiles in Kakadu.  The male keeper told us that he is still terrified of the electric storms and the crocodiles. which made us feel much better!

Litchfield

 Friday 15th October to Sunday 17th October 2010

Alas, it was time to leave the beautiful Aurora hotel and head out of the Kakadu  to Batchelor within the Litchfiled National Park.

We were booked in a the Rum Jungle rooms which are chalets situated in a riot of tropical jungle trees and flowers.

Litchfield is famous for its magnetic termite mounds and its waterfalls.  It has a completely different feel to the Kakadu and is more for thrill seekers than nature lovers.  But we did enjoy our dips in the waterfall pools.

We were entertained at the Florence Falls by lads jumping off the top into the pool - an accident waiting to happen.

At the Wangi Falls, we swam over to the waterfall and a snake shot out of the water from under us and up the rock face - and yes, it was venomous!  Wildlife included Antilopine wallabies, frilled lizards, and lovely cockatoos, rosellas and parrots.

On the way back to Perth, we visited the Territories Wildlife Park which has fauna and flora from the area.  It was a great place to walk round, but the highlight of the day was the bird show.  A sulphur crested cockatoo decided it did not want to return to its keeper and saw off all the other birds including a hawk - so funny!

We spent our last three nights in Darwin in chalets connected to a hotel, which came complete with brush tailed possums! We visited the wharf where the Cheeky Bulls were driven onto the ship in the film Australia.

Darwin is a lovely place, but with high humidity and high temperatures, is quite wearing for a long period.

Kakuda (Cont.)

We rose at 4.30am to facilitate an hour long drive to a boat journey at 6.30 am on the Yellow Water.  It was still dark and there were a huge number of frogs or toads on the road, which we painstakingly tried to avoid.  Later we found out that these were cane toads which have decimated the local wildlife in Kakadu – we should have driven straight over them.

The river trip was glorious.  We saw countless esturine crocodiles, but it was the richly varied and plentiful bird life and the tranquillity of the setting that made it so spectacular.  The trip  included a very welcome hot breakfast – the first decent one we have had since leaving England in August!

On the way back to the Aurora, we went on a walk to view some Aboriginal Rock Art.  It was, by this time, unbearably hot, but armed with hats and water, we set off.  The rock art was more a series of tutorial pictures to explain the dreamings and to also to enforce culture, which made them all the more fascinating.

A further walk took us to a sacred area which looks like the rocks used in the finale of Crocodile Dundee 2, when Wally accidentally shoots at Mick; it is the most beautiful location.

Pete, by now, was really suffering in the heat, so after a cool down and an ice lolly at the information centre, we returned to the Aurora and spent the afternoon in the pool.

At about 4.00 pm, we walked down the waterhole trail at the back of the hotel and discovered where the fruit bats roost.  The walk through the forested areas was so interesting and full of parrots and other exotic birds.  The waterhole had eroded sides from water buffalo and horses which is another problem Kakadu is experiencing.  Mosquitoes were also  plentiful and despite using deet, we came back with  numerous bites.

Darwin to Kakadu

Tuesday 12th October to Thursday, 14th October 2010

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!

                                        

Sydney, Australia

Arrived on Friday 8th Oct after losing a whole day due to crossing the international date line. Not a good start as we had to walk for miles with all our luggage because we got off the train at the wrong station.
The hotel was very near to Darling harbour, which was perfect, unfortunately it was very expensive.... In fact EVERYTHING was very expensive....and it rained!

            Good grief! look what those darned colonials have done to Queen Victoria

I think the travelling had got to us because we did not see Sydney in the same light as our previous visit, but after a good nights sleep we felt much better.
We spent the day visiting the aquarium and animal world at Darling harbour .Both were great and anyone new in Aus should visit both before exploring the country further. In the evening we were lucky to see one of the best firework displays ever. We were back 'in love' with Sydney.

                                    Making friends with the wildlife in Victoria park

                                     One of the parks interesting occupants

On Sunday we climbed the 'tower' for some spectacular views, before walking to Victoria park. This is one of the best parks in the world. It has wonderful views of the opera house and bridge, and has lots of wildlife such as fruit bats and sulpher crested cockatoos. We then caught the ferry to Manly which was really not worth the effort as it was a pretty miserable place. This day was also very difficult for Carole as she was still suffering from the after-effects of her food poisonning, which was more serious than we had thought. This meant that we had to fit in a visit to the hospital and a doctors...what a busy day!

Our last day was spent at the zoo, if fact, one of the best zoos we have ever seen. We ran out of time.... OK! we like wildlife and this was the best place to see what Australia had to offer.
The evening was spent at a food market in the park, a real social event, with truly international food and fruit bats flying overhead..

                                                   A zoo with a view!

Goodbye to the USA

As we say goodbye to the USA, I thought it would be worthwhile sharing some impressions..


GOOD
The people:        Friendly, polite, helpfull.....and that includes the young
Driving:               An absolute joy (except the cities). US drivers are much more civilised than UK ones
National parks:   Well organised, cheap and priority given to the environment and wildlife (except Yosemite)
Internet access:  Almost everywhere..and free!
Recycling:           Widespread

BAD
The Food:         Really awful
Hunting:             The hunting lobby is very powerful.
California:          Has the food hygene standards of a third world country.
RV's:                  Recreational Vehicles. These are 'obscene'. They have a living area in excess of many peoples homes, with all possible luxuries. A huge one ran us off the road....

OVERALL.     A great country with great people....but could do more to save energy

Hawaii - More photos