Northern Territory

Wow....it has been a while!!!! I have missed a whole STATE!!! The Northern Territory, and most specifically Darwin, is FANTASTIC!! Beautiful area, beautiful people, and beautiful VIBE!! I will try my best to recap...

I arrived into Darwin after yet again another delayed flight (the boarding times for me are starting to become just mere suggestions) to find that there was no such thing as "winter" in the NT - there is only a wet and dry season, and it is hot...all the time. This country is MASSIVE and you never really are sure how close to anything you are - side note. So, being as it was the end of the dry season, the humidity was kicking in but the rain had not yet started, thank goodness. Please try to picture myself stepping off the airport shuttle bus into my hostel in full winter gear - jeans, long-sleeved shirt, and hoodie - to be greeted by half-naked masses coming at me from every direction. "Clothes" don't really work here...simply walk around in swimmers or boardies and you are good to go - the only part of the dress code I really appreciated was the whole "no shoes needed anywhere you go" policy. Took full advantage of that one walking around in the grocery store, bank, down the streets, in the shops. Anyways, the very pleasant and extremely helpful girl at the hostel informed me of the Mindl Beach Market that was going on that evening...ummm, did you say market? On a beach? Yes please. THANK YOU to her because it is quite possibly (and I know I say this each time I write about a market) the best market I've EVER been to, simply because there was so much life and such an incredible energy buzzing throughout the stalls, international food row, and during the live music sets!!!!! The first set-up I could make out was a husband-wife team selling didgeridoos, but I decided to stop and pretend like I had some clue how to play them because there was a beautiful man with lower back-length dreads that literally just sent out a very REAL vibe - I do not usually get vibes from people, but he was sending out great ones. So I grabbed a didg and stupidly attempted to play it... first simply blowing into it (NO), then kinda humming into it like you would a kazoo (NO), then some other pathetic attempt to make that amazing noise that the beautiful man next to me was making. Laughing at myself and the ridiculousness of what I was attempting, I literally said out loud, "how do you even play this thing?" He kinda smiled and picked up another didg to test it out. I happened to glance over, no, blatantly looked over to see if I could see how he was doing it and noticed his right hand had claw-like nails, talons if you will - seriously, he could hold his own against a bald eagle. Odd, but ok. Then some man from out of nowhere came up and held out a piece of paper and pen to the guy standing next to me. Huh - maybe it's a Northern Territory thing, maybe I am just ignorant, maybe it is normal to walk up to people and ask them to sign pieces of paper. Literally people, this was my thought process. I was taking it ALL in so I was in my own little cloud, feeding off this guy's fantastic aura. After that, he walked past an Aboriginal man playing his guitar and singing for some cash...it was a few feet away, so at the time I didn't know the beautiful man just started singing to the other man's guitar playing....but the two were soon embracing as if they were friends from years past. Eventually, I decided it would be best and less stalker-ish if I just focused on the didgeridoo and let the two friends catch up. So, I wandered throughout the artisans' stalls taking it all in...and an hour or so later, I stopped to listen to the same Aboriginal man from before play a few songs. Sat down next to him just asking how his night was going and what the meanings of his songs were for him, his tribe, his people, and his history. (His particular tribe language sounded beautiful when sung). He told me some stories and then said his night was going great because he got John Butler's signature and talked to him for a bit. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEECH! SAY WHAT??? The beautiful man I had been admiring the whole night, who literally heard me blow and kazoo into a didg, was none other than JOHN BUTLER!!! Of course it was. Way to go Aud. For those of you who are not familiar with the John Butler Trio, they are a very good band whose politically- and activism-charged lyrics are put together with the A-MAZING and very diverse musicality of a variety of international instruments! Many of his songs touch upon the unjust and unfair treatment the Aboriginal people receive from the white people of Australia, mainly the government. So for that, he is quite popular amongst all people in Australia (except the government probably). What a night!!! It all ended with taking in a concert from a local NT group called Emdee who played upbeat didg + drum music that got all the Aboriginal people dancing all night! Who wouldn't just love to watch people dance all night to some great music?? And in the end, while the artisans were packing up, I asked the original husband + wife artisans how to play the didgeridoo...and I DID IT!!!! The fact that I was able to make a noise put me on cloud 9... listened to John Butler the whole 45 minute-walk home :)

The next day consisted primarily of wandering the streets of Darwin (there aren't a whole lot), sitting, and people-watching. The Aboriginal artwork throughout the area is just phenomenal! Midway through the day, I was talking to someone who asked me if I was going to the John Butler concert that night....ummm WHAT?!?! TOO good to be true! As I rolled on into the bar to pickup my tickets, my excitement must have showed because the girl behind the bar simply said, "you are here for tickets and I have them for you." Fantastic. So basically, I just headed to the amphitheatre in the Darwin Botanical Gardens and enjoyed one of the most energy-charged concerts!! It was a combination of everything - the people, John's love for the NT and its people, and the AMAZING music - he did an 8-minute solo that was SPECTACULAR!! Really, usually people kinda fade during an improv, but NOT THIS TIME!!! High-charged throughout! Thank you to all that steered me to that concert!! Thanks to those that went and had a blast! And thanks to John for spreading the love to ALL people!

With some very (VERY) last-minute planning, I decided to take a 5-day "Top End" Safari through the beautiful Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. Just a few things....#1 - our group was quite diverse, which was awesome (France, Cambodia, Bulgaria, England, Germany, Ireland, Canada, and Australia - 14 people in total, including...) #2 Luke - Please in your head, picture the most typical Aussie bloke in the most typical outback outfit...then make him really really good-looking and really nice and incredibly knowledgeable.....got it? That would be Luke. I feel the man knew EVERYTHING.

Day #1:
In the beginning of the day, we stopped at the amazing Magnetic Termite Mounds in Litchfield Nat'l Park. Okay...termites are amazing little creatures!! They are called Magnetic termites because they build their mounds facing North and South, which allows them to regulate the temperature inside the mound as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The other structure of termite home that we saw had a vertical, cylindrical core with wing-like projections on many sides which does the same thing (regulates temp inside the mound) - the projections store warmer air while the core maintains a relatively cool environment. The structures themselves were quite large (one was more than 15ft tall and about 7ft wide) and very solid, despite the fact that the mounds were only made of dirt and termite saliva and waste. I learned that the cockroach is the closest relative to a termite...not the ant. Speaking of ants, which are the biggest predator to termites, they often will infiltrate and attack a termite mound for food and control over the environment. The termites have an internal structure similar to that of bees - there is a queen (sometimes more than one depending on how many in a colony), there are workers, and attackers. Anyways, the termites' biggest defense mechanism is emitting this spray that paralyzes an attacking ant while also giving the ant a termite smell, so when more attacking ants approach the victim, they then eat it thinking it is a termite. Not bad eh?

We took in some beautiful waterfalls in Litchfield National Park and had the opportunity to swim both at the base of the falls and later in plunge pools further in the park. I realized right off the bat this was going to be a swim-based tour. After a few hours of blazing-hot sun, I became quite okay with this fact. We took a riverboat tour of the Mary River Wetlands, where we saw so much wildlife and incredibly interesting plant/flora as well. Counted quite a few saltwater crocs and a few freshies as well, one of which we got uncomfortably close to...it must have thought so too because it snapped and then contorted its body completely in the opposite direction and swam away! Sat next to a gal from Italy who made me realize that I have completely forgotten all my Italian and have now replaced it only with Spanish - quite a sad realization, but not as sad because at least I could speak in another non-English language (I know you are thinking, is there even such a thing as more than one English language...for those that have been to Aussieland or England know that, yes, there is an entirely different vocabulary and sometimes grammar structure involved in each country). In Australia, they love to abbreviate things... breakfast = brekky, biscuits = bissies, wallabies = wallies, you get the idea. Some people woke up with bites on their bodies, and asked Luke what they were....with all the wildlife we are seeing, imagine how scared these people must have been when he said, "Oh, those look like mozzies." If I were them, having not been educated on this language style (not to mention the basic language barrier), I would have thought I might die from being eaten by one of the many deadly spiders here in the NT. Come to find out...mosquitoes. That is all.

Our campsite was quite nice, as there were stationary tents, we had a great meal for dinner, and there were hundreds of wallabies and wallaroos EVERYWHERE just hopping their way around our campsite. That night Luke really showed his outdoorsmanness/Aussie-maleness/are-you-kidding-me-ness as he would tell us all about the things in nature as we went on a night walk. Firstly, he showed us a poisoness spider that spun a web with a secret trap door, so if any predator tried to attack the spider, it would flip quickly to the other side. Luke then proceeded to TOUCH the poisoness spider to show us this mechanism - granted it was neat to actually see it, but still, why would you do that?!?! It was at that point I realized what a wuss I have become....when we were little, we were curious about everything and had no inhibition - where did that go? We used to eat bugs....or was that just me? Luke continued the walk and would randomly just dip down and come back up with something in his hands - be it toads, skinks, lizards, beetles, termites, cockroaches, or more spiders. There is a toad living in the NT (and throughout Australia really) called the King toad (not indigenous) that is completely devastation the vegetation, forestry, and wildlife of Australia...so there have been measures taken to help eradicate these guys.....and by measures I mean Luke. He held one up and told us all about it, but before doing so, he just picked it up and dangled it in the air, then made it dance, and gave it a little voice....so at the time, before I knew what they were doing to the native species, I was thinking awww, let it go. Little did I know, Luke and all the other Australians were more than happy to take care of the problem themselves. Luke was kind enough to not make us watch...so we would continue our walk a feet more and hear this huge THUD! I turn to ask one of the other Australians on the tour, "Was that just the.." and before I could finish, "Yep, the frog, against a tree....yep." This happened at least 7 more times during our walk. At one point as we walk across a little bridge over a murky-water creek, the following sequence of events happened...Luke shouts "A FRESHIE," propels himself over the side of the bridge into the shallow water below and total darkness, and in after hearing a few distress squeaks from an animal, Luke emerges out of nowhere startling us with his headlight, his crazy-like grin, and oh yea, the CROCODILE he has in his hands. Granted it was a baby, but he was totally stoked, telling us "rub its belly, the skin is incredibly soft." Meanwhile, I'm thinking surely those distress squeaks from the little guy was alerting the attention of a nearby momma.....kinda don't want to stick around for that, so we high-tailed it out of there. Looking back, all those species were REALLY COOL, but at the time, we were thinking "seriously, THIS is our guide..for the next 5 days."

Day #2:
One of the best days...THE ROCK ART!!! We reached Kakadu Nat'l Park and headed to Ubirr, a collection of rock art from Aboriginals that was used to help pass on history and tradition to the younger generation, as the Aboriginal people have no written language. All the drawings tell a story, and though a few stories are known by the guides of the park itself and of course Luke, most are left for interpretation, as only the artists themselves know what the drawings truly show. Many stories depicted lessons that the elders (painters) were hoping to teach to the younger generations, such as the story of Mabuyu - a lesson in stealing. The story is that a hunter named Mabuyu who went out fishing for his tribe/clan...he caught enough fish to fill two bags, both of which he attached to the back and pulled behind the boat...at some point during the journey, another man from a different tribe decided to take one of Mabuyu's bags for his own tribe...Mabuyu didn't realize until he returned to shore what had happened...he became quite upset that someone would steal from him, so he returned to his village to stock up on hunting supplies and set out to find the man that stole from him...he eventually found the man and his tribe in a cave all sitting around a fire eating the fish he had caught...Mabuyu found a big rock and blocked the entrance to the cave, and both the man and every member of his tribe never came out again (story is 2000 yrs old). In the end, the story teaches children not to steal, as not only you may be punished, but you may involve your entire tribe as well - your actions usually affect all those around you. Basically, the stories were quite harsh and somewhat graphic, a tactic the elders used to scare the children into doing the right thing. Also, in a lot of the artwork, they used two distinctive drawing techniques - x-ray descriptive (a way to draw a person or animal that also shows what the Aboriginals thought the internals of the person/animal looked like....so a fish would be drawn showing the outline, its spine, a liver, a stomach, etc..) and x-ray decorative (a technique that utilized shapes and patterns to represent the insides of the drawn figure). After appreciating the artwork, we hiked up the remainder of these AMAZING rocks to get a 360 panorama of Nardab floodplain, which was absolutely breathtaking. During the wet season, it rains so much that the plains aren't visible...it simply looks like a huge lake.

Before we set up camp, there was a hike through the Barramundi Gorge during the day's heat until we reached the plunge pools at the top of the falls. They were definitely deep enough to do some cliff diving into, but we primarily just stuck to the lounging and swimming up through tunnels and narrow passageways. There were quite a few little frogs lining the rocks at the topmost plunge pool that really liked to jump on us, so that was quite fun. I like the mealtimes because it allowed me to get to know my fellow tour mates a bit better, since there usually wasn't much talking on the hikes or in the 4WD. For a vehicle that is ALWAYS bouncing up and down, bobbing side to side, it is IMPOSSIBLE to stay awake in it! It was almost a guarantee within 15 minutes from the start of our car ride, no matter what time of day, you could turn around and see EVERYONE head bobbing or simply plastered either to the window or their neighbor. Quite fun.

Day #3:
Some serious 4WD action today...the kind where you headbutt your neighbor on accident, bite your tongue, and scratch your head on a branch that whips into the car window to come get ya. The road to Jim Jim Falls was wavy, rocky, sandy, and swampy. During the wet season, Jim Jim is supposed to be magnificent, with hundreds of gallons of water flowing over each second. However, being it dry season, there was a small little trickle running down the rock face...you better believe I stuck my head under it, so I can now say, I splashed around in the falls of good ole Jim Jim. There was lots of crocodile-infested water on the road to Twin Falls, another set of waterfalls we were supposed to see but unfortunately couldn't get to. But, the rocks engulfing us around Jim Jim were simply STUNNING. That was definitely a highlight of the entire 5 days. We simply hung out in the pools below Jim Jim, trying to catch the fish swimming around our legs, playing with water monitors, catching a tan, playing footie on the beach, and taking it easy. We set up camp at Gunlom, where we were able to hike up the nearby mountainside in time to hop in the plunge pools that overlooked the beautiful NT before the sun set. "Slept" outside in a swag on the ground...staying up all night pondering how it can be so quiet and so loud at the same time. The bugs that were crawling on me at any given moment were loud, as were the wallabies jumping around. Good fun!

Day #4:
We were able to canoe down the beautiful and striking Katherine Gorge during the morning/afternoon. It was heaps of fun and, though it was lots of upper body work, it was incredibly relaxing. But the thing that stands out was the NIGHT SKY. BEAUTIFUL. Could see Scorpio and of course the Southern Cross. It's hard to explain, but it was the first time in my life I had to debate what the dominant color in the sky was...black or the white glow from the MILLIONS of stars that blanketed themselves over us. I've never been so moved by such overwhelming beauty!

Day #5:
To be completely honest, I have no idea what we did this day, except visit the Katherine Hot Springs, which were clear and quite warm :) We were able to stop at this random bar to see the water buffalo that was in the movie Crocodile Dundee. But the best part of this day was, on the return to Darwin, we stopped at an Aboriginal-owned shop that had hand-crafted didgeridoos made on the premises and a large collection of hand-painted artwork on linens, clothing, and canvas. There were a few artists actually painting some canvases when we were there. Also, there was a 4-month old wallaby bouncing around the store, so we had the opportunity to pet it and play with it, as it was raised around people and completely comfortable in our presence. SOO cute. Fantastic day that ended with a group dinner at a local restaurant. Once the crowd started rolling in the bar games started. One was "Sing Your National Anthem" and the DJ pulled people of different nationalities from the crowd....one of whom was the Bulgarian woman from our tour group. When she started singing, EVERYONE became silent and mouths fell agape.....she said it was the funniest thing she has ever seen. When she came back to the table, she just kept impersonating everyone in the crowd looking like monkeys. Haven't laughed that hard in a while!

My last day in Darwin was spent embracing a little bit more of the culture in the area by checking out the AMAZING Darwin Museum....not usually a museum person, so for me to say that, it really was quite spectacular. And of course, I went to the markets with the Bulgarian woman and a French-turned-Cambodian guy (Gigi and Max)... it was really nice to have company and to watch them experience the markets for themselves. After a week of deliberation, I made an executive decision to make my one big Australian purchase.... A DIDGERIDOO, hand-crafted by an Aborignal who helped sell it to me. The sound is A-MAZING!!!!! So, hopefully with the excessive packaging I did, it will arrive safely to the homestead in Burke. PS Mom and Dad, that would be fantastic if you could sign for that :) LOVE YOU!!! LOVE to all of you and I wish you the best always. I am currently exploring the Great Barrier Reef, so I will no doubt have updates in the near future. Much love.