We're Not In Kansas Any More

Wednesday

Ro woke up at dawn’s first light, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We relaxed for a while, making tea and hot cocoa with the ubiquitous electric kettle in the room, watching Aussie cartoons, and eventually made our way down Mitchell Street (locally known as “café row”) to find some breakfast. We ended up at Hom Café, which like almost all restaurants in Darwin, featured mostly outdoor seating. Ro and Sherry had French Toast, while Mark continued his tour of different Eggs Benedicts. Sherry enjoyed her usual cappuccino (which Ro scooped the powdered chocolate off of), and Mark had his usual Flat White, which he acquired a taste for in NZ.

A Top End dawn from our hotel window

Ro relaxing with Bear-Bear while watching early-morning cartoons

Brekkie al fresco as Ro tears into his bacon

With our bellies full, we meandered down to The Esplanade, a park that runs along the harbour. Ro “hated” the park because it didn’t have a jungle gym…until we found the jungle gym. As luck would have it, the playground was right in front of the Holiday Inn Esplanade, where Mark’s conference was located, so Mark left Sherry and Ro to enjoy themselves while he checked in to the conference, picking up a nice ACEM backpack. Ro will use it for school, because the zippers have broken on his last two.

Ro hoofing it in the winter heat of Darwin

Ro & Sherry enjoying the vistas from The Esplanade



No seat covers in public toilets. Clean it yourself!

Ro and Sherry were still enjoying the playground when Mark got back. There is a war memorial there to the USS Peary, which was sunk in 1942 in a Japanese air raid. We walked back down The Esplanade towards our hotel, stopping at more war memorials and the very striking Parliament House. The Top End heat was starting to get to Ro, and he was walking slower and slower. After doing a little souvenir shopping and freshening up at the hotel, we set off on a sight-seeing tour.

Ro & Sherry enjoying the playground. A four-inch gun from the USS Peary in background

Ro & Sherry relaxing on a park bench on The Esplanade

Ro resting against the cenotaph

Ro on a memorial commemorating Aussie war campaigns

Mark at the Darwin Parliament House

Mark had booked us on a Jumping Crocodiles tour when he booked our flights, and our tour bus took us out of town to the Adelaide River. Darwin isn’t much bigger than Tauranga, and Alice Springs is the only other city of any notable size in the Northern Territory. Once you get outside the city, there’s just a whole lot of Outback-style scrub vegetation and eucalyptus trees. We did pass some mango orchards (which the region is famous for), but otherwise the terrain looked pretty arid. Sherry found it telling that there was a psychologist's office on the remote outskirts of town, a testament to the isolation some Top Enders must feel. After a brief stop on the side of the motorway to let a carsick fellow tourist puke (which Ro found fascinating), we continued on to Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve. The area looked to have the only wet terrain in the region during this dry season, and there were tons of exotic birds there. We couldn’t get off the bus to look around, though, because a 3.5m crocodile had recently been spotted in the area and it wasn’t safe. The dam was originally built to create an area for rice production. The rice grew well, but the crop was decimated by local Magpie Geese the first two years in a row, so the endeavor was abandoned.

A common sight on rural motorways - a three trailer "Road Train"

Only in Australia...or maybe Texas

Fogg Dam wetlands

After seeing the wetlands up close, we went to Windows on the Wetlands, an observation station with expansive views of the surrounding area. They also had a few exhibits on the local wildlife. Our next stop was the one Ro had been waiting for: a cruise on the Adelaide River Queen to see some crocodiles!

Mark clowning with a stuffed crocodile

Sherry at Windows on the Wetlands

Ro waiting to board the river boat

The boat was staffed by a captain (who did the PA voice-overs) and a croc-feeder, who dangled pork chops on the end of a line, dipping them in and out of the water to attract the croc’s attention. We saw a croc sunning itself on the other side of the river even before we pulled away from the dock. We couldn’t start the feeding until we were a bit downriver, because the crew didn’t want to attract crocs to the area around the dock.

Ro & Sherry on the Adelaide River Queen

It didn’t take long for the big salt-water crocs to be attracted to the boat, the sound of which must be like a dinner bell to them by this point. They would sidle up slowly alongside the boat, stopping just underneath the pork chop, waiting for just the right moment. Then they would launch themselves into the air with a quick flick of their tail, pushing most of their body out of the water. The smaller females could obviously jump higher, but the sight of the big male “Bogart” voraciously grabbing his meal was truly an impressive sight. The croc-feeder would make them jump a few times to make them earn their reward, except one of the older (>80yo) females the feeder took pity on, who got her meal on her second half-hearted jump. All told, we saw about a dozen crocs, not including a recently-hatched nest of babies. Crocs are very territorial, so we’d usually only see one at a time. As soon as we left one croc’s territory, the croc nextdoor would start swimming towards us. Ro was happier than a pig in sunshine, running from one side of the upper deck to the other trying to keep track of the huge reptiles as they stalked the boat. On the return part of the cruise, the feeder started throwing food to a flock of kites which swarmed around the boat. It felt like we were in Hitchcock’s The Birds!

A big croc goes vertical for a meal

Bogart closes in on the pork chop special

Ro manning the PA system

Besieged by hungry kites

The Hills enjoying a beautiful afternoon on the river

The drive home seemed a lot quicker, and Ro was fascinated by the brush fire on the side of the motorway. It was a controlled burn, common around here in the early part of the dry season, to lessen the chance of catastrophic fires later in the season. Hungry when we got back to the hotel, and too pooped to do much exploring looking for a restaurant, we went nextdoor to Outback Jack’s. A bit tourist-oriented, with an oversized croc hanging upside down from the ceiling, we lucked out when Ro noticed the game room (basically a half-dozen Playstation 2s). They even had a grocery-store style meat counter where you could look over the steaks available before you ordered. We both had steaks and the food was very good, but not exceptional. Kids ate for free on Wednesdays, so we bought Ro a croc-shaped sippy bottle for his lemon bitters.

Sherry kicking back at Outback Jack's

We had to pry Ro off the video games, but we made it back to the Crowne Plaza in time to catch the end of the manager’s reception for Priority Club members. Can you say free booze? The staff were very nice, and even had a Sprite (his favorite) sent up from the bar for Ro. Since the reception was on the mezzanine, we removed ourselves a small distance from the party and took a seat at the top of the stairs leading down to the lobby to enjoy our drinks, as Ro entertained himself. One thing we’ve noticed in both NZ and Oz is that strangers don’t particularly care if kids are loud or climb all over things, as long as they’re happy. But let a kid start crying and a hundred dirty looks will turn your way…lol.

Ro finds the simplest things amusing

Sherry thought this painting in the hotel looked like a spinal cord. What do you think?

After a long day, we plopped Ro in the bath and tucked him in early since he was still adjusting to the time change, winding down by letting him read stories in bed for a while. More of our Oz adventure tomorrow!