Bumpity bump bump

That's the sound of a 12-day roadtrip full of potholes, typically Australian animals, and lovely landmarks.

I had my last day at the audit office (yay!) and went straight from the office to the airport, and Marcus and I hopped onto our 5-hour plane ride to Darwin amidst seat-kicking, screaming children. Certainly not the best flight of my life, but we made it to Darwin and had a ride waiting for us. Roommate Bec's friends, Brooke and Tara, let us crash while we were in Darwin.

Day one consisted of picking up the campervan and wandering around town, which in all actuality is quite small. We started out with the Tree of Knowledge, the Chinese Temple, Parliament, WW2 plaques (before coming here I had no idea how big the second world war was for Australia), then we walked out on the wharf to look out over the ocean while it mocked our inability to swim in it. Apparently there are all kinds of poisonous jellyfish, not to mention saltwater crocodiles, so although it's humid and incredibly hot in Darwin, the ocean isn't exactly hospitable. We hit up a museum, then went back to the girls' house to sit after a day full of walking. The next day we headed out to Litchfield National Park to see some gargantuan termite mounds, and to gawk at and swim in some waterfalls and rock pools. Absolutely gorgeous.

At this pool, as soon as we entered the water, we were surrounded by these little black fish..that got bigger...and bigger...they were about 10 inches big and apparently not afraid of human interaction. I must have brushed them a time or two. Kinda creepy but a cool experience. We also got to swim under the waterfall and get in a smooch, which was fun. :)

The next day we set off on our official road trip and left Darwin. First we stopped at a little place called "Windows on the Wetlands" which was sort of like a kids' museum that explained about the natural habitat of the swampy wetlands of the area. All kinds of pictures, puzzles and other things that keep those of us that are sensorily inclined amused. Next we went to the tour that I was most looking forward to on the trip--the jumping saltwater crocs. As if crocodiles aren't scary enough as it is, apparently these ones will jump out of the water to catch their prey. Yikes. So we went on the muddy river cruise, sitting on the top level (the first level was glassed off for obvious reasons) and we saw, from frighteningly close, crocodiles jumping up to catch the meat being dangled at the end of a string in front of them. This is obviously a habit for these particular crocodiles, as this particular tour operation has been operating for some twenty or thirty years and they've fed the same crocs probably the entire time. Fun facts we learned:

• only 20% of crocodiles born are male
• some tiny percentage of crocodile eggs actually hatch and become fully-grown crocodiles (I think this was one out of twenty eggs?)
• crocodile fights over territory are not uncommon...and apparently they can live for a good, long life after losing limbs during these fights
• crocodiles can grow up to (and over) 6 meters--think around 18 feet! (we saw two that were 5.2-5.5 meters long...scary!).

Quick pics of some scary, jumping crocs:

I made sure to keep a good grip on the hand railing.

They also fed some falcons and white-bellied sea eagles (whose name was changed from "white-breasted" in order to be politically-correct). I have to say, the love lives of different animals we saw was interesting. We have the crocodiles, for instance, a species that live in male-dominated colonies. With around 20 females per one male, those large, pointy-teethed, predatory and violent creatures live in a world where territoritorial fighting is the norm which leads to colonial ousting, injury, shortage in limbs, etc. It could be described as a violent dictatorship where the leader gets to have sex with any of his subjects any time he pleases. Yikes. On the other hand we see a female-dominated society in the termite world where all of the queen's subjects work in a calm, orderly fashion to build these giant mounds to house all of the colony, and in so doing they are nature's own little eco-friendly recyclers of the materials they use. In this case we see a functioning communist society where all members contribute to achieve their end goal together. Interesting...

But my favorite? Let's circle back to the white bellied sea eagles. These quaint creatures partner for life and when one of the two dies, the other partner doesn't live for much longer, dying soon after (as they say) of a broken heart. These charming, monogamous birds share everything...except their food. :) It's nice to learn of animals that choose just one other of their kind to spend their lives with...it's very romantic, and, well, I'm a sucker for a good love story!

We arrived in Kakadu

and spent our first night sneakily using a pool at a resort and trying to remain discreet while parking our campervan in their parking lot. We ran from the pool back to the van and shut ourselves in, escaping from the insect-fest that was going on outside. Unfortunately, it was a bit warm inside and the four small windows that had bug screens just didn't let in quite enough air (especially when they were covered with the curtains because we were trying to stay unnoticed!). Add the propane stove and a boiling pot of pasta, giving off steam in the already sticky air, and you end up with two red-faced, sweaty kids, one sprawled out on the floor in order to get as far away from the rising heat as possible, the other hovering around the stove trying to stay as far as possible away while simultaneously making sure the noodles don't get stuck to the bottom of the pan. That will certainly go down in the books as one of the hottest nights of my life. :)

In the morning we woke up to hundreds of tree ants on our car, courtesy of the trees and plants we parked right next to in order to shield us from prying eyes. It was a bit too close, though, and we spent the rest of the day trying to rid the car of all the stupid ants! Oh joy. :) Other than that, the morning was gorgeous. We woke up at 6:00ish to go on a sunrise cruise of the Yellow Waters billabong, where we saw more monogamous birds, lovely water lilies, and a 5.5 meter crocodile that nudged its dead catfish towards the boat. As it got closer and closer to the boat, my butt made its way further and further onto Marcus's lap. The croc was literally two feet away from my feet, and while other people on the cruise might have gotten a good chuckle out of that, I was certainly not going to stay so dang close to the side of the boat. I saw those frickin' things jump out of the water the day before! There was no way I was going to sit idly by while the tour operator tried to tempt me with his dead catfish (since that's apparently one of their wily hunting ways--using the dead carcass of one animal to attract other live animals which they will eat). Clearly no harm done, but this girl wasn't taking any chances.

Next on the agenda we went to a cultural center to learn more about the local aboriginal tribes and their way of life, then went on a short hike to see some ancient cave paintings.

This is the sign for that last guy:

Err.....hm.

Well, I think that's about enough for now. To be continued!