Our days at Darwin are drawing to a close. I think we are ready to move on, though, of necessity, we must leave a few things to see another time. People drive straight up from Melbourne and Adelaide and just stay here for winter. There seems to be plenty of things to do at night, so they try to keep the locals happy. Our temperatures are 20 to 32 each day. The 20 actually feels quite cool though I’m sure some of you would love to see 20 right now. We know some are experiencing some pretty wet and windy weather.
Last night I learnt how to choose a gum tree with a termite nest up high, where the termites are eating out a branch. The right branch can be stripped of its bark, the termites removed, smooth it over, add some bees wax mouth piece, put a coat of bondcrete down the middle of the wood to seal it and there you have your didgerie-doo. They made one in front of our eyes in 30 minutes and my, it sounded great. Now I’m always looking for possible didgerie-doo timber up in the trees.
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| Burning off - to avoid bushfires in summer |
Yesterday we went to Berry Springs to find a Wildlife Park. We turned in a bit soon and found ourselves at the Berry Springs reserve, where the refreshing cool springs simply spring forth from the ground and turn into a series of very large pools of fresh water, joined together by several narrow and shallow waterways. The pools were as large as regular swimming pools and there was plenty of room for everybody to swim in any pool they chose. The proprietor of the Kiosk told us the water was 16 metres deep in its deepest part. I was wearing my goggles and could see the beautiful sun’s rays reaching down deep into the pool. It was totally refreshing and made me think of the water flowing out from the throne of God, what a fountain that one must be. I asked the Kiosk man where the springs went to after they left the reserve (he was a historian) and he told me how they join the Darwin River and head out to the coast, mingling the salt and fresh. We have been told that due to the 3 metres of rain Darwin received in the wet this year, that the massive rivers are mostly fresh water and not salt, even though they are coming in from the coast.
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| Berry Springs |
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| Berry Springs |
The history he shared was tantalizing, I’ll have to look into it further. Darwin used to be called Palmerston when it was just a dot on the map and had a wharf where ships could off-load cargo for the gold fields. The gold field towns were huge in those days and the materials needed by the gold seekers were floated down these huge rivers from Palmerston, way inland to where the bigger gold towns were. There are quite a few fantastic books on all the history.
After our swim, we went next door to the Territory Wildlife Park which was beautifully done and served wonderful fresh food. The hosts were well trained and very helpful. Little “trains” take you around to all the different “stations”. There was so much to see, birds, aquarium and coral, wetlands, ponds with fish, native wildlife hopping around, nocturnal houses and a wonderful indoor aviary that went on and on forever. We had a great day. We hope you enjoy our photos.
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| Dingo |
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| Birds of Prey demonstration |
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| Feed time after the games |
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| Pygmy Geese |
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| Forest Kingfisher |
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| White breasted Woodswallow |
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| Golden Tree Snake - safely in its cage! |
Graeme picked up a new compact camera today (Canon G12 to use until the lens is fixed) after he got the car serviced and then we had a swim and did some shopping. We are getting ready to hand all our fresh food over as we come in to Kunnunnara in WA in the next couple of days.
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