Day 22 –Darwin

This morning we headed off early to Crocodylus Park and Zoo, about 10 minutes away. We did a short (included) tour watching them feed the crocs and a pair of beautiful white lions. We also enjoyed the cassowaries, emus, ostriches, wolves, dingoes, buffalo, banteng, turtles, meerkats, timor ponies, tigers, and various types of primates. Lily was particularly taken with the playful baboons.

 

The park has bit of a conflict of interest, as it talks conservation and breeding programs, and is also a working croc farm, selling croc meat products (bbq packs), and croc, stingray, and eel fashion products (handbags, wallets, belts, etc).  Once again Lily enjoyed holding a baby croc, while Sam was nowhere to be seen!

They have one pen full of hundreds of freshwater crocs all milling around in and out of the water, trying to find  a nice sunbathing place to warm up their reptilian skins.

 

Next up was a visit to the main wharf area. You can drive right on the wharf, where there are cafes and restaurants touting their wares of croc, buffalo, snake meals,etc. Beautiful views of Darwin harbour from here.

 

Nearby, we visited Indo Pacific Marine, where we were taken on a small tour of a coral reef display, and a video documentary. The kids enjoyed touching the coral and feeding the snapping barramundi. Must admit though, the display is looking a little tired since our last visit here.

With rumbling tummies we headed for a picnic in the botanic gardens in the shade. Into our third week on the road now we are getting pretty good at packing up a picnic for the day, always with ice bricks as it is still so hot up here. The nights are particularly hot, and we are very grateful for our caravan air conditioner.

We did a walk through the rainforest in the gardens, admiring the foliage, and the beautiful frangipani trees of many colored flowers.

 

 

On the way back out to Howard Springs we called in briefly in the Charles Darwin national park, 42 square kilometres of bushland, boasting beautiful views back over Darwin Harbour.

 

During the war it was the secret hiding place of many bunkers that were filled with ammunition, so we were interested to go into one and read about the different types of ammunition held here, and about the different cultural views of why we go to war.

For the allies, we believe in only going to war to defend our way of life, and to keep casualties to a minimum. We also believe strongly in the Geneva Convention. The Japanese apparently didn’t adhere to either policy, and they also believe it is a noble thing to go out and sacrifice their lives for their emperor (who they believed was their god). Two very different ways of looking at things.

Back to the van park for another swim, a game of squash, and gathering up the very dry washing off the line before we head off again tomorrow morning, retracing our steps south for a little while.