Helloooo!

I was in Litchfield National Park yesterday, which was quite amazing. I went on a little tour in a small bus (there were only 7 other people, including our driver - David) and we saw Fogg Dam which is a protected wetland area. Lots of birds and snakes and all sorts of wildlife. Apparently they grow mangoes and apples there as well!

Also saw about 3 different waterfalls and even swam in a couple, which was lovely! We saw Florence Falls (no swimming in the wet season), Wangi Falls, and a little one called Buley Rockhole. All the waterfalls were gorgeous, and was so nice to swim beneath them. Of course I forgot to wear contact lenses, so was swimming rather blindly....doh!

Even went on a little cruise along a river to see jumping crocodiles, which was quite scary. The tour guides basically take you out on a boat, with a cool box full of pork chops, and then tempt the crocs with them on a long pole! It's mating season at the moment though, so there weren't that many crocs out as lots of the females are laying eggs and looking after them. We did see about 4 though, 2 females, and 2 males - one quite large one as well! All perfectly safe as long as you don't dangle your arms out over the side and so on!

Even saw some raptor birds, which were very cool. They're related to hawks and eagles, and are scavenger birds. They also call them fire birds because when they do controlled burning out in the bush, the birds are clever enough to pick up still smouldering sticks, drop them into new clearings, and then wait for all the little creatures to come scuttling out so they can eat them up. Clever, eh?

It also absolutely tipped it down yesterday, but that didn't matter so much as we were swimming by that time. I was hoping to see a fabulous storm but apparently the electricity isn't as active at the moment, shame. By the time we were on our way home in the bus, you almost couldn't see out of the windows for the amount of rain that was coming down!! I don't think I'll complain about rain at home for a while! Though rain at home is quite different :)

Also felt quite car sick on the way home, so good thing I had a bit of a nap. Thought I'd got over travel sickness, but the roads were rather bumpy....blurgh.

I was hoping to go to Kakadu Park as well, on another day trip but all the trips have been booked out and the only available one was $190!!! No way Jose!

Instead, today I've been to the George Charles Botanical Gardens - very nice but just way too hot to wander around for too long! I was hoping it would be a bit like Kew, but it's basically just a protected area for trees and flowers and so on. There are nice walks to go on, but it's just way too humid!

I've also been to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, which was quite lovely. They have the legendary 'Sweetheart' crocodile there, that terrorised people for several years before kicking the bucket. It's actually a male croc, and a massive one at that!

They also had some aboriginal art, which was cool and lots of information about Cyclone Tracy which basically flattened Darwin in the 1970s. Looking at the pictures of before and after just really made me glad that I don't live somewhere that is prone to massive weather shifts or anything like that. Most of the houses were flattened and I think there's only one building that actually survived. There's a heritage walk around the town, which I'm probably going to do tomorrow before my flight to Alice Springs.

I think I'm going to make the most of my last night in the resort and have a bit of a swim this afternoon, and then crash out early so I can get up early to do the heritage walk and have a wander on the beach. I think I'm getting a bit of a cold - booooooo - so I don't want to be sick for my 4-day tour to Uluru :D