That night we stayed again in Darwin in the same hotel we had before. It seems that all flights in this area leave bright and early in the morning.

This link will take you straight to the page about our stay in Oak Beach by Port Douglas.











In Litchfield park, there are also many unusual Magnetic Termite Mounds. These are several meters (that is 10+ feet) tall and are all oriented in the same direction, hence the name. The termites build them so that they can find a nice warm spot early in the morning and that there are cool areas in the middle of the day when it is very hot outside. The first picture below shows a field with many of these Magnetic Termite Mounds. The second picture shows a different type. The Cathedral Mounds have a fan shape (to increase cooling) and can be very high.
On day 6 in the Northern Territories, we started to move back in the direction of Darwin. About an hour or 2 north of Katherine are the Douglas Hot Springs. This is a spring with very hot water. But a little down stream, this hot water flows into a cold river. If you sit in just the right area, the two streams mix and you have really nice warm water. On our way back from the spring, some of us saw a wild kangaroo. Amazingly this one turned out to be the only one we were going to see during our trip in Australia. That night we stayed at the Rum Jungle Inn. Nothing special, but the only conveniently located place. Basically, we stayed in a mobile home. What was nice here was that every evening they feed the wild birds. And they came in crowds. Beautiful Cockatoos and all kinds of very colorful birds.

Our last day was spent in Litchfield Park. This is where the locals from Darwin go when do want to leave town. There are many waterfalls and swimming holes. Below you see one of them. The boys actually went in the water, but it was too cold for the grown-ups.
During our day in Katherine, we visited Manyallaluk. This is an Aboriginal village that tries to give outsiders a view of their everyday life and at the same time create opportunities for the local people to make a living. Other than dealing with the tourists, not much seemed to happen. Quite a couple people were just sitting around. They gave us a little tour through the 'forest' and told us about the use of many plants and trees. The highlight of the tour, that nobody will ever forget, was when they found green ants and got us to eat them. They do indeed taste like lemon. After lunch consisting of Kangaroo tail and other more standard fare, they showed us how they weave baskets, throw spears, and paint.
After the cruise, we had to drive a couple of hours to make it to our hotel in Katherine. However, we did stop at Edith Falls for a swim. Many of the waterfalls here have dug out a swimming hole in the course of the centuries that is filled with crystal clear and ice cold water.
On our drive to the town of Katherine, our first stop was the Yellow water marsh where we took a sunrise cruise to see the wildlife. The only way to see much in this environment is to be there in the early morning when all the wild life wakes up. We saw mostly birds, but a few crocodiles, wild pigs, and fish. It was definitely very pretty, but it was also much colder then we were prepared for.
By late afternoon, we checked into the Crocodile hotel.

The next day we took a one-day organized tour. Most of the aboriginal areas are not open to outsiders traveling on their own. You need to have special permission to enter these areas and the easiest way is to take an organized tour. Ours was a small tour run by an Aboriginal named Yuri. They showed us around Arnhemland and through the Kakadu National Park. Such a small tour company can take you places where the big busses do not go. Moreover, they do it in a less hurried fashion. The upper picture below shows you Arnhemland during the dry season. During the wet season, this is all under water. The lower picture shows one of the many pieces of rock art we saw. This one was not hard to see for a change.
After the Crocodiles, we drove on to Ubirr rock, one of the top two Aboriginal art sites in this area. It is very hard to take picture of the rock art, because the color nuances are sometimes very small. However, just climbing around on the rocks looking for the rock art can be fun in itself for the boys.
The next morning we took off in our rental car. The first stop was a tiny village called Humpty Doo, where we had breakfast in an old pub. After breakfast, we drove east on a day that started with visits to some of the nature preserves along the road. One such preserve was the
Fogg Dam conservation area with a large educational center. We then looked for jumping crocodiles in the Adelaide River. Or were they looking for us? These Crocodiles are monsters growing to around 6 meters / 20 feet in length. Killing a human requires no big effort for them. When you cruise on the river in a boat, they know from the sounds of the motors which boat has food on board. Therefore, they come closer to see what they can get. The pictures below can not really capture the size of these monsters. The first picture shows an old guy who has lost 3 of his feet in fights, but gets along just fine in the mud and water. The other picture shows a little croc.
Our 2001 Vacation, the vacation of a lifetime (page 4)

Australia's Northern Territories (Darwin)
There are two reasons why the Northern Territories of Australia are visited by so many people. First, there is still a lot of the Aboriginal culture alive and accessible here. There are areas in Australia where it is even more authentic, but they are very hard to reach. The second reason is the nature. There are many special natural areas here and a wide variety of wildlife.

When we arrived in Australia, it was still dark. We were the first ones off the plane, and that was good, because otherwise we would have spent the whole morning in customs. To get into Australia everybody had to open every piece of luggage for inspection, confiscation, cleaning, etc. Customs confiscated the little pieces of red coral we found at the beach of Club Med and one of our shells. Supposedly these dead items are protected and they told us they were going to throw them back in the ocean. Our shoes had to be washed, because they were concerned about the mud traces on them containing who knows what bacteria or bugs. Then they went through all our Bali purchases one by one and picked out the things we could not bring into Australia. They did not like the painted eggs because things could be growing inside and they did not like anything with a trace of palm leaves on/in it. If we had been Australians they would have destroyed these items, but in our case, they offered to ship them to the US, if we paid shipping and handling. We spent more than an hour getting through customs.

On our first day (July 26), we just stayed in Darwin. After the red eye flight from Bali, we did not do much. We had a nice hotel (although it could use some paint) and the first thing we did was get some sleep.  That afternoon we hung around the ice-cold pool. Apparently in Australia they do not heat pools at all. The spa was cold too. That evening we had dinner at the Mindil Beach Market. This market takes place once a week and consists of innumerable stalls that sell food and all kinds of things you do not need. There are also the typical street entertainers trying to earn their keep. As you can see from the picture, Stephanie had no problem finding her seafood platter.
The next morning we took off in our rental car. The first stop was a tiny village called Humpty Doo, where we had breakfast in an old pub. After breakfast, we drove east on a day that started with visits to some of the nature preserves along the road. One such preserve was the
Fogg Dam conservation area with a large educational center. We then looked for jumping crocodiles in the Adelaide River. Or were they looking for us? These Crocodiles are monsters growing to around 6 meters / 20 feet in length. Killing a human requires no big effort for them. When you cruise on the river in a boat, they know from the sounds of the motors which boat has food on board. Therefore, they come closer to see what they can get. The pictures below can not really capture the size of these monsters. The first picture shows an old guy who has lost 3 of his feet in fights, but gets along just fine in the mud and water. The other picture shows a little croc.
After the Crocodiles, we drove on to Ubirr rock, one of the top two Aboriginal art sites in this area. It is very hard to take picture of the rock art, because the color nuances are sometimes very small. However, just climbing around on the rocks looking for the rock art can be fun in itself for the boys.
By late afternoon, we checked into the Crocodile hotel.

The next day we took a one-day organized tour. Most of the aboriginal areas are not open to outsiders traveling on their own. You need to have special permission to enter these areas and the easiest way is to take an organized tour. Ours was a small tour run by an Aboriginal named Yuri. They showed us around Arnhemland and through the Kakadu National Park. Such a small tour company can take you places where the big busses do not go. Moreover, they do it in a less hurried fashion. The upper picture below shows you Arnhemland during the dry season. During the wet season, this is all under water. The lower picture shows one of the many pieces of rock art we saw. This one was not hard to see for a change.
On our drive to the town of Katherine, our first stop was the Yellow water marsh where we took a sunrise cruise to see the wildlife. The only way to see much in this environment is to be there in the early morning when all the wild life wakes up. We saw mostly birds, but a few crocodiles, wild pigs, and fish. It was definitely very pretty, but it was also much colder then we were prepared for.
After the cruise, we had to drive a couple of hours to make it to our hotel in Katherine. However, we did stop at Edith Falls for a swim. Many of the waterfalls here have dug out a swimming hole in the course of the centuries that is filled with crystal clear and ice cold water.
On our way out of Edith Falls, we saw a group of wild horses near the road.
During our day in Katherine, we visited Manyallaluk. This is an Aboriginal village that tries to give outsiders a view of their everyday life and at the same time create opportunities for the local people to make a living. Other than dealing with the tourists, not much seemed to happen. Quite a couple people were just sitting around. They gave us a little tour through the 'forest' and told us about the use of many plants and trees. The highlight of the tour, that nobody will ever forget, was when they found green ants and got us to eat them. They do indeed taste like lemon. After lunch consisting of Kangaroo tail and other more standard fare, they showed us how they weave baskets, throw spears, and paint.
On day 6 in the Northern Territories, we started to move back in the direction of Darwin. About an hour or 2 north of Katherine are the Douglas Hot Springs. This is a spring with very hot water. But a little down stream, this hot water flows into a cold river. If you sit in just the right area, the two streams mix and you have really nice warm water. On our way back from the spring, some of us saw a wild kangaroo. Amazingly this one turned out to be the only one we were going to see during our trip in Australia. That night we stayed at the Rum Jungle Inn. Nothing special, but the only conveniently located place. Basically, we stayed in a mobile home. What was nice here was that every evening they feed the wild birds. And they came in crowds. Beautiful Cockatoos and all kinds of very colorful birds.

Our last day was spent in Litchfield Park. This is where the locals from Darwin go when do want to leave town. There are many waterfalls and swimming holes. Below you see one of them. The boys actually went in the water, but it was too cold for the grown-ups.
In Litchfield park, there are also many unusual Magnetic Termite Mounds. These are several meters (that is 10+ feet) tall and are all oriented in the same direction, hence the name. The termites build them so that they can find a nice warm spot early in the morning and that there are cool areas in the middle of the day when it is very hot outside. The first picture below shows a field with many of these Magnetic Termite Mounds. The second picture shows a different type. The Cathedral Mounds have a fan shape (to increase cooling) and can be very high.
At the end of the day, we visited one more waterfall and swimming hole. This one was quite hard to reach. You absolutely needed a four wheel drive car to get there because we had to go though creeks and over very loose sand roads.
That night we stayed again in Darwin in the same hotel we had before. It seems that all flights in this area leave bright and early in the morning.

This link will take you straight to the page about our stay in Oak Beach by Port Douglas.