Darwin, Australia

I 

The Aboriginal people inhabited Darwin region well before the European settlement in 1869 and the traditional language, culture, and people still live there today.  Darwin is situated on the Timor Sea in the Northern Territory. This small Australian capital city is about 2,000 miles from Singapore. The climate is very Tropical and I t was named after the well-known evolutionist Charles Darwin.  

Today we met Greg and Joan, lovely people from the  Cruise Critic forum, who will be cruising with us in Papua New Guinea.  They reside in Darwin and invited all of us to spend the day with them touring the area of Darwin.  We all met at the cruise terminal  and then our great adventure of Darwin began as we drove out of the city.  We are so ever grateful to Greg and Joan for the hospitality they provided us the entire day. Never would we have been able to see and learn so much about Darwin without them. 

We drove along the beautiful  waterway with lustrous greenery and beautiful water until we reached a park that reminded us of a tropical forest. As we walked on the pathways the green vegetation was everywhere.  It was so nice to see greenery instead of snow.

Our journey continued on the highway out of town, past their airport that had  only one runway.  We stopped to see at a memorial that had a gun artillery there .  Darwin was the only city that was heavily bombed by the Japanese. We  pasted through several "suburbs of Darwin"before we arrived at the Crocodylus Park.

For the next couple of hours we saw, fed, held and learned about these huge saltwater jumping crocodiles. This was a crocodile farm where crocodiles were brought to, breeded, and  raised.  Wow were they big!  Males could be 18 ft long and the females were around 12 ft. It didn't take us long to realize that the alligators in the USA were wimps compared to Australia's crocs.  First we watched how these crocs could jump. They seemed to more so slowly and at times looked like they were dead because of lack of movement.  Dangle some food high in front of them and the crocs could almost completely jump out of the water to retrieve the food.  

It was mating season for the crocodiles so we saw the breeding areas  of where they were kept.  John had a chance to tease  and feed the two crocs in their breeding area. The  male croc was too quick for John. He snatched the food  from John's pole and quickly devoured it.  

Next we had the chance to hold a yearly, a one year old crocodile. We were astonished at the softness of their skin. The trainer told us that even the older ones had soft skin.  Suzie reluctantly held the croc once she knew their mouth was taped. 

We then took a one kilometer boat ride in a man made lagoon to see were Jack and Eric , two large male crocodiles  had marked their territories and  saw how the females made their nests.  Pink ribbons were used to mark  the nests where the eggs were taken. The trainers had a dangerous job when it came to snatching the eggs. The two hours quickly pasted.  As we left, we saw a refrigerated compartment filled with crocodile meat to buy. We didn't eat crocodile but were told it tastes like chicken. 

We spent about 30 minutes in a weekend market place. We were lucky enough to find some fabric during that time. It wasn't Australian but from Senegal.  The wax used in making the design was still in the fabric so it had a very strange feel. We felt fabric that was washed and it had a very soft feeling. 

One of the highlights of the day was going to the World War II Museum. We knew very little about the Destruction of Darwin by the Japanese fighters. The same navel group that bombed  Pearl Harbor bombed Darwin. Both places were caught off guard when the bombing occurred. 100's of lives were lost and massive deavastation  happened. The museum had a very meaningful video to show life in Darwin  before and after the bombing.  Pictures and artifacts  illustrated the horrors of war. As we walked the paths outside the museum we saw some of the military things that were left behind after the war. 

 

 

As we drove back to the city, we stopped to see how the tides  were different from the tides in most parts of the world. There is a difference of around 8 meters from high to low tide.  It definitely could be noticed along the beach that it was low tide.  

We made a quick stop at the botanical gardens to view a very large tree.  Look closely at the tree.  Do you notice something?

  

The snake isn't real but it was placed there so you could realize how large the snakes are in Australia. We also saw a very unusual tree with large fruit hanging from it. The smell of the fruit is so bad, no one can eat it the fruit. 

As we were approaching the port,  we were told about the total destruction of Darwin by a category 5 cyclone. Very little of two churches could be seen following the cyclone.  Only the front of one church remained and a new church was built around it.  We realized that most of the buildings we pasted were built following the cyclone. Government buildings were all new. 

Thanks to Greg and Joan, we have a better understanding of Darwin.  No Princess excursion or private tour could have given us such an insight to Darwin. Our day in Darwin will always be remembered.