Out and about in Darwin

Its all about Crocs up here

We have been getting up early each day and heading out to look around.  Its quite hot and humid.  Arnd 30-32o and we just arent used to it.   Our day starts early, ends up back at the park by arnd 2-3 then in the pool for 2 hours and then Happy Hour drinks.  Its soooo hard to take!!   Have visited the City, the City Mall (shabby) done a Heritage Walk around Town, the World War 2 Museum (great), the World War 2 Underground Storage Tunnels (amazing feat), the scenic East Point, Fannie Bay Jail, the Cullen Bay Marina for fish n chips (think the rich, mega houses on the canals with their yacht moorings) beautiful ocean views etc., did the Jumping Crocs Cruise down the Adelaide River, Fogg Dam, which is actually just a massive wetlands filled with thousands of birds.  You could walk across the dam wall until a croc took up residence, and they cant catch him. Have done three Markets, one of which was advertised as a Flea Market and we thought "Trash and Treasure" but it was actually in the Asian sector of town and consisted of 80% stalls selling every conceivable herb, fruit and vege, most of which we have never seen before.  Lots of vendors selling hot food, mostly Indonesian/Thai/Indian.   There are 7 weekend markets here in Darwin so they are a huge thing.   Must admit a lot of the stuff we have seen at the markets we saw in Bali.  A dress I bought in Bali for $8 was at one market for $30.

I didnt know that this bird was the NT State symbol.  Couldnt work out why people were so excited to see one.  Everywhere you go here, its all about the Croc.  From Croc Parks, Croc Cruises, Croc Meat, Croc Leathergoods etc.etc.   Croc pics everywhere.  I thought the Croc was their symbol.  Definitely the thing tourists come here to see.

The Jabiru - N..T. Symbol

The color of the bay is beautiful.  Shades of turquoise to blue and as clean as can be.  Hope to do a ferry ride tomorrow across to a pub and go for a swim on the beach over there.

The view across to Dawin City

This is one of the Crocs from the Jumping Croc Cruise.  There are 3 different operators here, all vying for the $$$$.  Each has their own lot of crocs that recognise their boat and come out to be tempted to jump.  They are amazing to watch and when you see them up close they are actually quite a spectacular looking beast.   Loved every minute of this cruise, saw so many really big intimidating crocs.
The top picture was from Crocadylus Park,  Its basically a croc breeding park with zoo animals thrown in.  There must be at least 500-600 crocs at this park.    Lots of pens with breeding pairs and then lagoons with literally 100s in them, ranging from little tackers to mega size.  I assume they are bred for their meat and skin.  You could buy croc handbags etc. or croc bbq meat packages here.  I didnt take too much notice of why it was here.  It was just mind boggling to see so many.   We did see an actual croc farm while out on a drive and they have 10,000 on the farm, all bred for meat and skin products there.

Last Sat night we had a great night out.  It had been 32o during the day, hot and sticky.  We headed out at 5pm with a picnic.  Dressed in shorts/singlets/thongs.  The evening was balmy with a huge full moon.  Absolutely perfect weather for   -  The SPEEDWAY.    Darwins speedway was a pleasure to go to.  A huge night of racing.  Starting at 5.30 to 9.30.  30 races, barely a minute bet. racing.   Excellent venue, lots of lovely green grass to sit on ,a bar, you could buy anything from stuffed potatoes to Asian to Ricks fav. the Wog Sausage.    The racing was great, just no big crashes which we all love to see.    Cost to enter $5 p.p. What a bargain.