The Big Lap - minus Qld!

  We have had a fantastic time in Darwin. The weather has been the same every day – sunny and 32-35 degrees during the day dropping to 18-20 at night. The smoke from fires in the National Parks has been an issue at times but they can only burn at this time of the year as it is too wet at other times. We visited the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory which was a great museum. There was an exhibition about Cyclone Tracy which smashed Darwin on Christmas day in 1974. Basically, Darwin was almost wiped out. The photos and information about this was scary, it wouldn’t have been fun being here and living through it. Darwin has been rebuilt since. The waterfront area of Darwin is built around one of the largest harbours in Australia, nearly 12 times the size of Sydney Harbour. Of course we had to go to the Mindil Markets on Thursday. These markets are famous Australia wide with market stalls but most of them focussing on food. All types of food. Seafood, Asian fo...

We left the Mary River Roadhouse and drove through Kakadu National Park to Jabiru. Jabiru is the main town. It is the only town. It has a supermarket, post office, a few shops and a caravan park. However, there are lots of business buildings in Jabiru as the town came to be because of the Ranger Uranium Mine which is nearby. In fact, the airport there is due to the mine also. We arrived and set up in a lovely park with lots of shade. The park was organised around a central swimming pool and bar/restaurant. We chose our spot then set up before lunch. After lunch we drove to Nourlangie, an Aboriginal sacred site about 25km away. We had a walk through the bush to a site under a huge cliff where ancient Aboriginal art is still visible. We climbed up to the lookout and had a great view across the Kakadu wetlands. We drove a down short track to the Sandy Billabong. There were signs everywhere in Kakadu warning tourists to beware of crocs. They are everywhere and there have bee...