We seem to have packed a lot of things into today, since being picked up at 6.30. It is quite confusing that we have joined a group that have come up from Sydney together and are at the end of their tour. They are having the final 3 days of their tour, and we are having the first 3 days of ours. We have not yet met anybody who is on our tour.
We all go back to Darwin on Tuesday, so I hope to be able to post to the blog then, as there is not likely to be any signal of any sort before that.
We first visited Litchfield National Park. Our first stop was at the magnetic termite mounds. They look like a big field of giant tombstones, because they are wide and flat and aligned north-south. There are also two huge ones in a field nearby.
Our next stop was Florence Falls, where we had a pretty walk through the forest beside a small creek and arrived at the falls.
Here, you can swim, and we all got in because it was so hot we were glad to cool down.
The rocks were slippery and it was hard to get in, but worth it. The water was wonderful, and there were some big black fish who swam up and muzzled against us to see what we were. Paul put on goggles to look at the fish, and make up for no snorkelling on the Barrier Reef. I would happily have stayed all day, but after some time, we needed to get out and leave. We didn't bother taking off the swimsuits because another swimming place was coming
The next stop was not far, at a place called Buley Rockholes. Here, the water originates from freshwater springs and flows towards Florence Falls. The holes were smaller and most of us just sat in the water.
There were a few small fish in my pool which nibbled me gently, and something like a crayfish which I sat on by mistake and it bit my backside! Paul jumped into a much deeper hole, but said it had no fish.
After a brief half hour, we were back in the vehicle and off for lunch, then it was a long drive for our next stop. Unfortunately, the 4WD vehicle we are using has a number of problems, the engine runs very hot indeed and the air-conditioning doesn't work. The floor where I was sitting got so hot I couldn't bear to leave my feet on the floor. It was a really uncomfortable and exhaustingly hot journey.
Our next stop was at a place where we were to get some instruction in Aboriginal life. We had to be welcomed with 'head water' - we were in danger because we were strangers in the land. So those to whom the land belonged had to spit water from their land over our heads. The girl who explained this to us took water from the billabong, and spat it on each of our heads in turn. It was quite cooling! We had a dreamtime story, a demonstration of didgeridoo making and playing, and a demonstration of making the baskets and dilly bags.
Then it was back into the stupidly hot bus for another long drive.
I was extremely glad when we reached our last stop, which was near the Mary River, where we were to have a sunset cruise on Rockhole Billabong, on a fairly flat-bottomed boat.
We were really looking for crocodiles, but we saw a lot of other wildlife as well. We saw a lot of birds; there were two White-chested Sea Eagles sitting in a tree.
We saw a lot of heron and egrets, and things which looked like cormorants but were actually called snake-necked birds. We saw a wild cat, but were too slow to photograph it. We saw brolgas in the distance, too far away to photograph, and we saw two weird stork-like birds called jabaru.
And we did see lots of crocodiles; most were freshwater ones and fairly small. But we finally saw a big 5 metre long salt-water one, though he was so intimidated by our boat that he slid into the water and disappeared quickly. We were intrigued by the lilies which grew everywhere, with huge round leaves shaped like a coolie hat.
The leaves could in fact be used as a hat, and as they repelled water, they could also be used for carrying water. They could also be used to wrap food for cooking. The seeds were also edible, so we tried them, they were quite nice.
We watched the beautiful sunset over the billabong, then we got back into the hot vehicle again and drove to our camp site, where we are sleeping in a proper bed, but in a tent. There were lots of wallabies hopping around the camp site.
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