From: "Pete" <[email protected]>
To: thegang
Subject: Well, I'm still in Darwin.
Date: 11 August 2001 05:15
Greetings once again to my esteemed group of friends. I'm actually still in Darwin believe it or not, but I have kept really busy.
We took a trip to Kakadu, and another to Lichfield and, in the spirit of the city with the highest per capita beer consumption in Oz, have been enjoying the odd VB too.
After a hard goodbye to the mob who accompanied us to the Beer Can Regatta, we drove to Kakadu. Kakadu National Park was actually slightly disapointing believe it or not. The gum forests and wetlands which make up most of it are, in spite of holding one of the most diverse ranges of life in the world and having a world heritage listing for that reason, not all that great to look at. It obviously takes someone with better eyes than me to spot most of the species that exist there.
That said the two really great spots were Nourlangie and Ubirr, both large rocks on the very Eastern edge of the park. Both have outstanding aboriginal art work, and Ubirr especially had great views. One painting, of a Tasmanian Tiger, had to be more than 4000 years old since that was when the creature died out on the mainland, owing to the introduction of the dingo from South East Asia. Pretty impressive really.
The view from the top of Ubirr, where I watched a sunset was absolutly incredible. To the West it looked over rich grassy floodplane with Kangaroos grazing and a variety of birds flying over (well under us because we were so high up - if you get my meaning). To the East it looked onto the Arnhem Plateau. This incredible and totally forbidding place all incredible rock formations and gum forest, is a huge piece of Aboriginal Land, forbidden to all us invaders except by permit, and mostly accessible only by the air in any case. The 360 degree view was so amazing that in a group of 40 people sitting at the top waiting for the ranger to come and give a talk there was not a single whisper, save for the occasional camera click. Perhaps the rest of the park wasn't as ordinary as it seemed. This place could make anything that followed it seem dull (we visited on the first night we were there).
The other sight we saw in Kakadu was the Ranger Uranium Mine. No that wasn't a mistype. In the middle of a World Heritage area sits the Western World's largest open cast uranium mine. We drove up, took a photo of a slag heap with an 1800 million year old rock formation in the background and decided that there was not a chance in Hell of us paying for a tour. It sickens you doesn't it. There are at least three more mineral leases within the park boundaries, as yet unmined. Unless the government buys them back, I can't see the World Heritage status lasting much longer.
After Kakadu it was back to Darwin for a day at the races. The Darwin Cup is no royal Ascot but it was great fun. McJoey won. My money was on Donnie Brasco. Oh well. Actually the atmosphere was great and the party afterwards was pretty good. One most memorable sight, which could only happen in Darwin, was a bloke in his best suit, sitting at a table surrounded by ladies in all their finery and drinking from a short stemmed champaigne flute, which he kept in his stubby cooler.
We were accompanied to the races by an English-Indian girl named Ravi and an English-Kenyan girl named Sandy, who also elected to come with us to Lichfield National Park. Now Lichfield was everything I expected Kakadu to be. It is a raised plateau with waterfalls dropping off the side in four places. They are all absolutly incredible places. They mostly have accessible plunge pools where you can swim safely, and we did, in all of them. Watching one guy in the water drop his beer in owing to wet hands, I resolved to patent the idea of a floating stubby cooler (with optional anchor for use in streams) just as soon as I get home. I could make my fortune on that one.
Lichfield also has some impressive magnetic termite mounds. They are fin shaped and run East to West to enable the termites make the most of the sun. The sense of direction is programmed genetically into every termite. Well impressive. I got my picture taken next to an 18 foot high mound in the carpark. Paul and Sandy were getting on very well indeed by the time we left Lichfield and now us and the girls are camping at the edge of town with Baz, the only person left in Darwin from the Beer Can Regatta Crew. Paul has decided that he doesn't want to leave, so I have just booked my trip down south to Uluru and Adelaide. I will certainly miss him, as a constant feature of my life since March and a great friend and benefactor to me it will be a great shame to vacate my seat on the passenger side of the 1990 Ford Laser we nicknamed 'the Red Devil'.
So Next time 'the great interior'.
No Worries
Pete