Kakadu part 3

A night's sleep in my own tent meant I could spread my stuff out and not worry about kicking things or my tent partner. Was quite nice, considering I'm not really a camper. Coping with lenses without water, a mirror, or safety harness is always 'fun' but I managed. The remaining buffalo sausages were consumed at breakfast.....

We did some more walking, pool dipping and finally made our way back to Darwin, which by this time had managed to find itself over three hours drive away. Careless. We arrived back a little after 5, a bit tired but very happy.

All this walking about might sound a bit well, unexciting but that couldn't be further from the truth. There was always a new plant, tree, bug, lizard, spider, bird, frog to see and hear about. How the aboriginal people might use something. Which plants are edible or have medicinal properties. How to tell the seasons by the stages of flowering of various plants. The rock paintings - over 5000 rock art sites in the Park, dating back at least 40.000 years. And how do we know that? By the animals depicted which have since become extinct. And why doesn't Homebase stock that paint - so much redecorating time would be saved.

Our guide was always on the lookout for things to show us. This did include a live cane toad. These have only reached Northern Territory fairly recently but they are a real pest. After showing us the poisonous bits and pieces he took it away and disposed of it, kindly saying that he wouldn't kill it in front of us!

We learned quite a bit about aboriginal people. How they live, rituals, kinship, languages, dream stories and much more. Again, our guide was excellent at politely disabusing us of common misconceptions. 

I learned so much on this trip. I expected to hear new things but possibly not so much on such a wide range of topics. I could possibly even explain how setting fire to the jungle on purpose actually helps control the spread of fires at other times. We found out about termite mounds, tried to get our heads around the vast scale of this glorious place and how so much of it could be underwater for part of the year. As you know, I could go on and on so I'd best stop.

I haven't even done Anzac Day yet :-)