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A 9-day adventure by skip's retirement travel Read more
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  • skip's retirement travelNorthern Australia
    Day 3

    Darwin

    May 10, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Northern Australia (officially the Northern Territory) is often referred to as the Top End, and Darwin is it's capital. The harbor was 1st identified by the British by a surveyor who was on Charles Darwin's famous voyage. Hence the name.
    Darwin is probably best known for its outdoor opportunities and it's world war 2 history. Examples of the outdoors of the Top End are in other posts. This looks at Darwin itself.
    The 1st 2 pictures are of different parts of the harbor. The commercial port is nearby.
    The 3rd picture is one of several street gardens in town. The building almost visible through the plantings is the old territory administration building.
    The 4 picture is State Park, so called because the Territory Parliament and Supreme Court are a bit visible through the vegetation.
    The 5th picture is also in State Park where an aboriginal woman was working on a traditional painting.
    Darwin is strategically located, making it a target for the Japanese in world war 2. Part of that is it's logistics operation, specifically oil storage. The 6th picture is in one of the extensive tunnels built at the time to protect the resource from bombing.
    The 7th picture is the Anglican Christchurch Cathedral. The 8th picture is the ruins of the old town hall, destroyed by a cyclone in 1974. The 9th picture is a reproduction of the old Brown's Market to give a sense of the town before the war and the cyclone destroyed Darwin twice. The last picture is an example of the street art here.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelNorthern Australia
    Day 4

    Ubirr Rock Art

    May 11, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Native rock art, some dating to as much as 5,000 years ago, is one of the reasons for Kakadu's UNESCO status. I'm told there are many such sites in the park with some of the best preserved rock art in the world, but most are sites sacred to the aboriginals. So they are off limits to the rest of us.
    The rock art is stunning and worthy of it's reputation as a big reason in itself to visit the park. I took dozens of pictures. I've chosen to post here a combination of pictures of just the art together with pictures of art plus interpretive signs. I realized early on that I couldn't do an adequate job of interpretation. So I chose this approach, hoping you find it helpful. For us lovers of trying to learn about and understand other cultures and their history, this site is extraordinary for it records the early aboriginals' interaction with their environment.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelNorthern Australia
    Day 4

    Kakadu National Park

    May 11, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C

    Kakadu National Park is UNESCO world heritage site in Australia's Northern Territory. It is almost 20,000 SQ km, and is mostly owned by local aboriginals who jointly manage it with the parks agency. Interestingly, the park surrounds in existing uranium mine.
    The park is ecologically rich, with woodland Savannah and wetland/flood plain ecotypes prominent. It has a long aboriginal history exemplified by the extensive rock art (see another post).
    The 1st picture looks at the woodland savannah. If you look in the background, you'll see smoke. For thousands of years, the native folks have managed the area with controlled burns at the end of the wet season which is now. That is what the smoke is.
    The next 2 pictures look out from the top of a rock outcrop. The 2nd picture looks over some woodland savannah while the 3rd looks toward the Alligator River floodplain.
    The remaining pictures are of a cruise on the East Alligator River. The 4th and 5th pictures are a look at the river. The 6th picture is of an interesting rock formation. You might make out several facial profiles. I think the most obvious looks like ET.
    The 7th and 8th pictures are taken in Arnhemland. This is a closed aboriginal land accessible only by invitation. The 7th picture look back along the river. The 8th picture has our aboriginal guide demonstrating a spear thrower, much like what the Aztecs called an atlatl.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelNorthern Australia
    Day 6

    Nitmiluk National Park

    May 13, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Nitmiluk is another national park in Australia's Northern Territory that borders Kakadu (see another post) to the south. Nitmiluk is best known for a series of sandstone gorges on the Katherine River, collectively known as Katherine Gorge and for Edith Falls.
    Like many of these lands in Australia, the local aboriginal people are the custodians of the land, and they manage it in cooperation with the Australian parks folks.
    The 1st 7 pictures are in the Katherine Gorge. We visited on 2 of the 13 gorges as they are separated by rocky cataracts that the cruise board can't navigate. Note the cave in the 6th picture that usually floods in the wet season, and some more rock art on the side of the gorge.
    The last 2 pictures are at Edith Falls. The 8th picture is of the falls where they drop from the upper pool (not visible through the Rick cut) to the lower. Both pools are open for swimming. The last picture looks downstream from the lower pool.    Read more

  • skip's retirement travelNorthern Australia
    Day 6

    Pine Creek

    May 13, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Pine Creek is a small former mining town for the gold rush in this part of Australia. However, that's not the point of this post.
    The Lazy Lizard is a pub in Pine Creek whose claim to fame is its construction. The bricks used in this building are made from termite mounds. The material is a natural insulator that keeps the termite mounds within a narrow temperature range. It has the same effect when used this way. An interesting and effective use of local natural materials that I haven't seen beforeRead more

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