Darwin has been largely rebuilt following the cyclone of 1972. Today it is a
thriving city, clean, wide tree lined walkways. It has an expat feel about
it.

K8 crew were not going to miss out, a reception at HMAS Coonawara, pig roast
and beer at 2 dollars a pint. A trip to watch Australia playing Bangladesh
in a one day match, outdoor concert from the Darwin Symphony orchestra,
sitting on the lawns of the casino.

The highlight was a 3 day trip into Kakadu national park. The park covers
20,000 sq kilometres. The park is home to varieties of 68 mamals,120
reptiles,26 frogs, 300 fishes, 2000 plants,10000 insects, 290 bird types, .

The tour we took was called Hawk dreaming and involved in staying on
Aboriginal land, in tents, snakes and all. We took two boat trips and saw
numerous crocks of all sizes and some wonderful country side.

The camp was great, so quite, and just the 5 of us on the trip there, and
the hosts.

The highlight was climbing up the rocky outcrops and seeing the Aborigines
paintings which are between 5,000 and 20,000 years old. Listening to our
Aborigine guide telling us about the stories which the pictures represent.

The time went all too quickly, but seeing wallabies in the wild is special
as is the birds we saw, for instance, white bellied sea eagles, great,
intermediate, cattle egret, red tailed cookerborrow,herons,auger
kingfishers, ducks, geese, black kites, hawks, rainbow bee catchers, white
ibis, black bellied stork, great cormorant.

We also saw the world’s largest uranium mine, lots of local press mostly
negative about the scar it leaves on the landscape.

The trip was soon over; just three and a half hours drive back to Darwin on
deserted roads.