Woman drought in Darwin

Before we made it to Crocosaurus Cove today, we were given a persoanlised key ring with a list of randomly selected seat numbers in the bus for the ten days of the trip(in the interests of fair seating arrangements). Nice touch. Good thinking, except...the numbers in the bus were themselves random, all over the place (weird). Some of us had numbers that did not appear on the bus. So we have to resort to counting down the seats from the front to find our allocated seat. Not that it matters, there are plenty to spare.

Salt water crocodiles are long, wide and heavy. The 'film star' in residence at Crocosaurus Cove in Darwin is Burt who featured in the film, 'Crocodile Dundee.' Now 80 years old he lives in enforced retirement in a tiny villa of concrete and glass, with a pool of course. With enormous jaws, and teeth poking up and down out of their mouths, the 'salties' look comical but their reputation tells you otherwise. When you read the bios of the crocs in residence there you realise them most of them are criminals, put in soliltary confinement to protect society!

They are mean and they are everywhere. If you are thinking of coming to the Top End to frolic in the ocean, forget it. According to Bushie, our bus driver, if the salties don't get you, the sea snakes will. If they don't get you the sharks will. If they don't get you the jelly fish lurk in large numbers in certain seasons to give you a very nasty sting.

In Darwin, city planners channelled sea water into an artificial lake in which the locals can swim safely, after putting a barrier across to keep the nasties out. It's called Lake Alexander and is well landscaped with lawn, barbecue areas and shade.

During our tour of Darwin, Bushie told us the average age of Darwin dwellers is 28, young compared with 38, the average for the Northern Territory. Could be that on census day, Darwin was full of backpackers who make up the largest proportion of the tourist industry.

We managed to prevent a mass exodus from the bus when Bushie told us there were 5 men to every 2.2 women! Those seat belts are good for something.

Have run out of time for this date's blog. Watch this space!

Goody goody. found a hotel with wirleless internet access! 2nd half of blog continues

Our bus tour included a stop at a lookout depicting the bombing of Darwin on Feb 19 1942. The town suffered 88 air raids in 18 months, had more bombs dropped on it than Pearl Harbour. After Sydney had suffered the incursion of a Japanese mini sub into their harbour, army engineers sought to prevent such an occurrence in Darwin so constructed a boom net 5.5kms wide across the mouth of the Harbour.


The other major disaster to hit Darwin was Cyclone Tracy. No respecter of Western Cultural traditions she hit town on Christmas Day in 1974. The cruel thing was people who thought they had ridden out the storm safely got hit by the back end when the eye of the hurricane passed. The wind was so strong it broke the wind measuring equipment. Eighty per cent of the town was wiped out, prompting the only mass evacuation of people in Australia’s history.

My travelling companion Kit, remembers getting the call at St Margaret’s Hospital in Sydney, to help out with the evacuated babies and children. They went to Kingsford Smith airport to meet them. A Boeing 747 (newly acquired by QANTAS) landed with 888 women, children and babies, some of them orphans. The plane’s capacity was 200 plus but it didn’t matter, the passengers had no luggage.

They rebuilt houses with flat roofs, and we passed a house where the occupants live underground. Bushie calls it the ‘upside down’ house. But what about the high rises? Water supply is by gravity and power supply is still unreliable. In the event of another big cyclone the penthouse dwellers or anyone above the third floor would be in trouble, trapped without light or water.

After spending the afternoon in a fruitless search for a Commonwealth Bank (there is one in Darwin) we arrived back at the hotel just in time to avoid a rain storm. We’d seen it hanging around and seen one or two locals referring to it so had an inkling it was an unusual occurrence. After all there are two months to go before The Wet.

Mercifully it had well cleared before our sunset cruise on Cullen Bay. We gussied up for a dinner that did not live up to it’s name although the prawns were good. Cold meats and salads made up the bill of fare. Our aqua group had fun however and we had a photo taken for our benefactor of the handmade farewell card and bottle of champagne.

With swollen aching feet, (it’s the heat and the sitting) we limped back to our air conditioned rooms by 9pm