i had an aussie adventure (part iii: darwin)

the adventure continued...

so we left ayers rock and were darwin bound. unfortunately fate had other plans. there was some massive outage for qantas and flights all over australia were f'd in the a. translation? we had an unexpected 6 hour layover in alice springs. i almost cried. literally, i almost cried. the gal at the qantas desk felt bad for us and comped us free food at the airport lounge. but as im not too keen on rubbery chicken and soggy fries, we decided to bail and go check out alice springs instead of rotting in the terminal with heaps of angry travellers. my sweetie called a taxi and we were off!

it was a sunday afternoon so it was pretty dead in town, but we managed to find an open pub (thank god) and had a few beers. we were at the red ochre. it had an awesome patio and a relaxed vibe. turns out, beers are an excellent way to drown any travelling sorrows. 

we finished our beers and headed back to the airport. i can safely say that an afternoon in alice springs was just right. our plane finally took off and we were headed to darwin. apparently we booked our trip during territory day (which is the only day fireworks are allowed in the northern territory) so when we were making our descent into darwin, we got to watch a nice firework show from the plane window....and hear lots of loud bangs and cheering all night from our hotel. haha silly aussies. 

we stayed at the illustrious travelodge. it was a middle of the road hotel. we didnt really feel like splurging on a fancy hotel in darwin, but we picked this one because it had a cool pool. and after our freezing cold time in ayers rock, we were so So SO excited for the warm weather in darwin! the first morning we set out in search of more cold medicine for me, and for some tasty breakfast. shane was excited when he found stott lane on the way. so we did what stupid americans do. took a photo by it. 

we had an amazing breakfast at this place called the moorish cafe. if youre ever in darwin, check it out. and it was such a nice day and the sunshine felt so good, we just held hands and wandered around the darwin cbd. we walked past this building that had been destroyed by the japanese bombing during wwii. crazy to see the remnants of it just left like that. 

 

we walked down to the port and saw all the cruise ships and people milling about, it was pretty cool. and since we were beat from travelling and the weather was so amazing, we decided to spend the afternoon at the hotel pool...basking in the sun and drinking cocktails. it was FANTASTIC!

sidebar for those of you who dont know...the northern territory is known for its abundance of crocodiles. CROCS! (no, not the shoe). so naturally, i planned a majority of our itinerary in darwin around seeing crocodiles. hey, cut me some slack. im from america. utah to be exact. we dont gots no crocs lol. i found an exceptionally cheesy tourist brochure for a place called crocosaurus cove in downtown darwin and i begged shane to go. he relented after seeing that they had something called the "cage of death". but im getting ahead of myself here. while en route to crocosaurus cove we came across the most magical homeless man ive ever seen. he had a womens bra on his head, a flip flop on one hand, and an empty water bottle in the other. he was dancing to his mini boom box and playing the water bottle on an overturned shopping cart. it was brilliant!

 

see the video here. can you spot him?

naturally we tipped him generously.

oh, and i found my way to sexy land! woohoo!

okay. back to crocosaurus cove. it was AWESOME! it exceeded all my wild tourist fantasies. i excepted some zoo type place with sprawling grounds, but nope. its like a big building in the middle of the cbd. totally crazy. if you cant tell from my blog posts, im a bit of a weirdo. so its only fitting that i wouldve been a little weirdo when i was a kid. where am i going with this? oh yeah. so one of my favorite movies as a kid wasnt a disney movie or some other mindless drivel...it was crocodile dundee.! maybe ive always had a thing for rugged bushmen, or for accents, or for crocodiles. whatever the case may be, i got to meet (yes, meet) the crocodile from crocodile dundee! 

o.m.g.

i squealed with delight and pawed at the cage barrier. so without further ado, let me introduce BURT :)

pretty cool eh?

crocodiles are inherently lazy. the movies would have you believe that they are constantly lurking and waiting for prey and chopping various animals in half with their jaws of death. but nope. they mostly just bask in the sunshine. which brings me back to the cage of death. crocosaurus cove has this big plastic cage that you can pay an insane amount of money to get inside, and then the cage is lowered into one of the croc tanks for a death defying experience. in reality? we got to watch heaps of jafis flail around inside this plastic cage yelling and splashing at crocodiles who did nothing but sit there. in the sun. it was quite entertaining. 

luckily enough, we did get to see some action while at the cove. it was spurred by bloody chunks of meaty flesh. no, a tourist didnt get into an unfortunate accident, it was FEEDING TIME! man, with the prospect of a meal those crocs got really active! check out the video below. 

and they had baby crocs! look how cute! little meat eating monsters!

we topped off the entire experience by holding a baby croc named fluffy. (yes, i waited in line with small children so i could hold him. yes, im aware im not a small child) i dont know what i was expecting, but crocodiles are so weird to touch. their backs are all tough and hard like a lizard and their bellies are super soft and leathery. we got this fancy commemorative photo that was conveniently a post card, so we sent them off to america to our families. so much fun!

in order to top off my crocodile high, we left crocosaurus cove and walked next door to this amazing outdoor pub called the tap (click on the link to hear an excited aussie tell you how cool the pub is lol). we ordered my favorite aussie beer, fat yak, and nibbled on hummus and pita bread, grooved to good tunes, and got to watch loads of interesting people walk by. america is seriously lacking in hip outdoor pubs like this. 

after lunch i consulted my nerdy guide book (lonely planet's discover australia) and it told me that i had to check out mindil beach. it also included a side note warning us that we shouldnt swim in the ocean during certain months unless we wanted to be seriously injured by box jellyfish (which are apparently highly poisonous) and to be aware that crocs are frequent visitors in shallow water like those off beaches. riiight. that sounds safe...

so we hopped in a cab and headed there. 

the beach was beautiful and it was cool to stick my feet in the timor sea. the only downside was the copious amounts of garbage littering the beach. im not sure if it is an everyday thing, or just leftover garbage from territory day celebrations. anyway....during our cliche barefoot hand-holding beach walk we stumbled upon the glittery beacon that is the sky city casino. for those of you who dont know, shane and i LOVE gambling! we had cocktails at their beautiful outdoor bar....

...and then liberated the casino from several hundred dollars. hey, what can i say? we're lucky at roulette. we topped the night off with dinner at the very highly rated and critically acclaimed hanuman restaurant (thai/indian fusion food). we were overwhelmed by the menu so when the server arrived we asked for their most popular appetizer and two of their most popular entrees. the appetizer was this delicious medley of oysters in a magical sauce. shane (bless his heart) tried one and made the FUNNIEST face ever. it was like a bitter beer face with a grimace combined with the look you get right before you barf lol. he said it tasted like a san  francisco wharf and he wanted no part in any more of it. haha, which meant more for me since i thought they were amazing. the main dishes were so tasty and we ate ourselves ra-tarded. 

okay. next day. the guide book said we should also check out one of the northern territory's most famous national park, kakadu. since it was like 3 hours away from darwin and im a terrible navigator, we decided to book a tour and let them make the all the decisions for us. they picked us up in a small bus bright and early (ahem 6:00 am) and we set out. we had a nice aussie breakfast of coffee and meat pies at a roadhouse along the way. more driving....and then we arrived at our first stop: yellow water billabong. i could paraphrase it but why do that when i could steal it from the website?

Yellow Water Billabong, Kakadu's most famous wetland, is located at the end of Jim Jim Creek, a tributary of the South Alligator River. The river system, which is the largest in Kakadu, contains extensive wetlands that include river channels, floodplains and backwater swamps.

About one third of Australia's bird species are represented in Kakadu National Park, with at least 60 species found in the wetlands. Whistling Ducks and Magpie Geese are the most abundant. Our guides run a competition between themselves on who can find "the big five" on one cruise - all five species of kingfisher that can be found in Kakadu. One species is only 2 cm tall. There are plenty of crocodiles in their natural habitat, and buffalo on the floodplains. A huge Jabiru's nest is nearby, and depending on the season, Brolgas can be found dancing.  

this was an amazing experience. we hopped on these old pontoon boats and set out in search of crocs in the wild, snakes and fancy birds

lucky us! our first croc of the day was this giant male. our guide told us that males claim a territory, fight to defend it against other males, and let female crocs in on the condition that he can have croc-sexy-time with them at any time. these pics dont do him justice, but he was ENORMOUS! so crazy to see one just out in their natural environment. 

our guide also told us that the week before we got there they got to see a crocodile get chomped in half! i guess a smaller male came in and tried to battle the ole general and lost. i couldnt decide if i was bummed out that i missed a crocodile bloodbath or glad that i missed the carnage...

either way. the billabong was beautiful! it was such a magical place. i was overwhelmed by the sounds and the smells and the exotic vegetation. but the best part was being on croc patrol! if  you spotted one, youd shout out to the guide and he'd steer the boat over to it. 

check out this lazy female

and this sneaky lurker female....

water lillies!

this was the most amazing part. we got to see a female swimming in the water and she came within a few feet (a meter) of the boat!

i was snapping all these pics with shanes iphone and just after this photo shane grabs my arm and tells me its dangerous and to keep my hands inside the boat. inside im going "awwwe, he's worried about my safety and doesnt want the croc to chomp off my arm". so i praise him for being such a kind and safety-conscious boyfriend. he gives me this confused stare and then blurts out "i wasnt worried about your arm, you were dangling my iphone over the edge and i thought you were gonna drop it in the water!" ahaha. he was worried about about the technology, not me. after he realized that he just dug himself into a hole, he goes "ahh shit. i couldve totally avoided that one and gone along with what you said". lol yep. but i just laughed and teased him for the rest of the day. 

we left yellow water and hopped back in the bus and drove to ubirr. ubirr is an area famous for its aboriginal rock art. i was excited for this for several reasons: 1) im a nerd and an archaeologist and i love rock art, 2) i was allowed to see this rock art (i wasnt allowed to see any rock art when i was in the field for my job. women are taboo), and 3) it had the potential to be upwards of 50,000 years old. HELL YEAH!

the aboriginal rock art is so unique and beautiful. i was in awe.

so, besides the rock art bonanza that was ubirr, the other cool thing about it is....that it was featured in the crocodile dundee movies! its like i was on an unofficial crocodile dundee tour lol. but i can totally see why theyd use it for a movie. the jagged rocks, the open sky, and the green landscape. so pretty.

our drive to kakadu was so long, but totally worth it. the northern territory was just as magical as i imagined it to be and im so glad we stopped here on our australian journey of wonder. they say you learn who someone really is when you travel with them on vacation. well, we were wrapping up week one of our trip and all i can say was that i was even more in love with my sweetie and enjoying every minute of our adventure. we started week two by jetting off to cairns in tropical northern queensland. stay tuned :)