Day 18 –Litchfield National Park to Darwin

Only a short drive today, of about an hour, before we reached the outskirts of Darwin, and we turned off the Stuart Highway to go to Berry Springs to visit the Territory Wildlife Park (run by the NT Government). It is a absolutely huge park, so big you need to keep catching a ‘train’ (open bus) around the park to the different sections.

First up we enjoyed the Birds of Prey show which was a fascinating closeup display of the NT’s raptors and owls. We enjoyed watching the black buzzard break open the emu egg using a stone to crack the outer layer, and the barn owl was my favourite with his beautiful feather markings. The water (fish catching) dive bombing kestrel was also marvellous to see in action. The wedgetail eagle had a damaged wing today, so we didn’t see him fly, but we did get up close for a look at him with the keeper after – a beautiful creature.

 

Another section of the park we enjoyed was the wetland billabong. One of my favourite NT birds, the rainbow bee eater was flying around happily, flitting from tree branch to tree branch.  Such stunning colors on his plumage.

 

We also watched the keeper stand in the river and hand feed the huge 1.5m barramundi, the archer fish (if you hold a piece of food, or even a leaf, above them, they will shoot a jet of water up to try and knock it down towards them to eat), and the native freshwater whip ray which were huge and very interesting to watch float around waiting their turn to be fed.

 

One of the other things we did was have some photos taken of Lily. She badly wanted to hold the crocodile and the snakes. No fear there! She had a ball posing, obeying every instruction from the handler/photographer, and acting scared on cue. So here they are....  Don't you love the middle one? Funny, huh?

We spent many hours at the park, and although it was very hot (35 deg today), it was such a wonderful place to visit. We all greatly enjoyed seeing all the animals and birdlife in such a stunning natural habitat.

Next it was only 2km down the road to visit the huge natural thermal pools of Berry Springs. The water was so warm and clear, and there were lots of fish swimming around. Swimming around in the palm fringes river, was an amazing experience. Incredible how warm the water is in so many of these NT places.

 

After a refreshing swim, we headed the 20 mins further in to Darwin to our Big 4 Caravan park at Howard Springs. This one, although probably the most expensive in town has such great facilities for kids. There are three pools, squash courts, water splash park, lovely shady sites, and all sorts of activities going on. So, while the kids played in the splash park, I did lots of washing!

Tonight at 7pm we attended a didgeridoo making show. A nice guy showed us how he collected a piece of eucalyptus gum which had been hollowed out by termites, then he stripped the bark off, and made a beeswax mouthpiece for it. His aboriginal friends paint them for him with traditional designs. Sam was fascinated by the whole talk, and decided he would like to buy a small one for himself.