| Top End - Page 2 |
| Our next stop in Kakadu was the Yellow Water Billabong. It was gorgeous and full of birdlife of all types. (My family will understand why there are very few photos of the birds...) However, I have included a couple of shots below. The first was one of the crocs I eluded to on the first page. The second is a set of trees. They are noteworthy because they give a good idea of how high the water levels can get during the wet. See |
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| From the billabong we were off to Katherine for a cruise up the Katherine Gorge. It is a set of several gorges carved out by flooding rivers over millions of years. Our cruise took us |
| up the first two of the gorges. Unfortunately, Frank forgot to charge the battery for the camera, so we had to be very selective in the photos wecould take by the time we reached the second gorge, but who knew the views could kep getting better and better? We did get a rather classic shot at the end of the second gorge (pic left). |
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| the vines hanging from the tree tops? They are waterlilies from the season before! Those trees are totally covered in water in the wet season and this photo is taken from the water level at the end of the dry. |
| Then it was back to Darwin. We had a busy time there, but again not too many pictures. We went to the Mindl Beach Markets (pic below left) on our first night (their last one of the year until the dry). Not so impressive in terms of market stall numbers, but it seems to be more about eating than anything else. The markets are on the beach with the locals coming down with their lawn chairs and eskies to eat at the food stalls and watch the sunset (which was a lovely change for us east coast types)! |
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| Cyclone Tracy pretty much destroyed the entire city of Darwin in 1974. The museum had great coverage of the event as well as some aboriginal art from the area (notably different to that found in the Red Center). This picture of the Old Town Hall (above right) gives an idea of the power of Cyclone Tracy. This solid stone building was intact before the cyclone. Unfortunately, not all of the post-war Queenslander style houses in the area were as well built... At the museum they had a room that you could go into - pitch black with no chairs or anything - that played a recording of the winds on the night of the cyclone. Frank opened the door to go in (which is more than I would even consider doing) and slammed it immediately because of how powerful it was! |
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| on to Hunter Valley ...or |
| Our last stop was at Aquascene where people gather at high tide to feed the local fish. You have no idea just how many fish this is until you see it for yourself (pic below left)! The workers even feed the carnivorous fish and the rays for we tourists to be amazed at! Frank seemed to like getting his fingers chewed by the fish more than I did (pic below right). I was more of the throw and watch feeder, myself. |
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| Frank & Lisa's Amazing Cross-Australia Adventures |
| Northern Territory: Red Centre , 2 / Top End , 2 NSW & ACT: Hunter Valley / Sydney / Canberra , 2 Queensland Coast: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 South Australia: Barossa Valley / Kangaroo Island / McLaren Vale & Coonawarra Victoria: Great Ocean Road , 2 , 3 / Melbourne New Zealand (North Island): Aukland / Rotorua / Tongariro / Wellington (South Island): Nelson / Westland / Queenstown / Milford / Dunedin / Mt Cook / Christchurch |