The Top End

After a bit of a blogging hiatus, I'm back.

Day 11 (this is now the 29th March), and we met the Stevenson's at Crocodylus Park. This is a crocodile park and research venue and houses in excess of 15,000 crocs. We had promised Tom even before we left on this trip that he would get to see a crocodile close up and probably even handle one....this was his day!

There are about 20 breeding pens which house 1 male and 1 female...these crocs have mainly been taken from the wild due to either injury or being a rogue croc. The males were ENORMOUS. Most of them were over the 500kg mark.

Keeping a safe distance

Tom and the baby croc - how pleased does he look with himself??!!

At the end of the croc tour, 2 baby crocs (2yos) were bought out (mouths suitable taped shut) for you to hold and take photos/video. Tom was right in there, which surprised me as I thought he would be reserved when the time came. In fact, it was Biddy who didn't want a bar of them and I thought she'd be the one wanting to hold them.

The rest of the park was set out like a mini zoo with both Australian and exotic animals on display. The kids got to see emus, dingos, wombats, variety of birds, lizards and snakes, lions, tigers, monkeys, and ostriches.

After the Park visit, we headed off for a late lunch before heading back to the caravan park with the Stevos for a swim and a BBQ tea of croc snags, kebabs and hamburgers!

Day 12 was a serious tourist day with Deb and I taking my 2 kids into town to do some souvenir shopping whilst Mark and Stevo went to visit a WWII museum. A fishy lunch on the wharf before heading back to the caravan for some relaxation time.

Deb mentioned that there was a local garden supply place that happened to have a heap of lifesized statues of various animals on display that the kids would love. Tom thought it was great because there were DINOSAURS!!! So day 13 saw us spending a good hour and a half at this place having a look at the various displays before having some lunch in the surprisingly fabbo cafe.

Yes....Mark found a dairy cow in the Top End.....albeit fibreglass!

We then headed off to a waterpark not far from our caravan park which was almost the highlight of the trip for the kids (both small and large!) This park was absolutely free and was so well equipped. There was an enormous water adventure playground complete with a number of small slides, various water fountains, and a huge bucket that filled and tipped a cement mixer worth of water on you in one go. There was a huge pool that was made to resemble a beach (it got deeper as you waded out into it) and there were 3 really big water slides. One you went down in a tube, the other 2 you just sat down and sped through. Tom didn't quite make the height requirement, but at the right time, he stood on his toes and passed muster. After a number of goes, he did get sprung for being on the short side and was stopped from going up again. Nearly broke his heart. Mark had some definate views on that decision for the lifeguard! Nevertheless, Tom had a ball on the slides and I doubt that any swimming pool in any caravan site is ever going to match up again!!

Who is the bigger kid?

Day 14 (April 1st), and we are rapidly approaching the time when we will have to leave Darwin. Sigh....our holiday is almost half over. Today, Mark and I took Tom and Biddy to the Territory Wildlife Park in Berry Springs (south of Darwin). This is sort of like Desert Park in Alice Springs, only it is tropical based. The highlight for Tom was the birds of prey show because the lady called them raptors and this is just too close to being a dinosaur for Tom. After the show, we got to go up and get a really close look at them. Beautiful.

Wedgetail Eagle

Barking Owl (Tom was particularly taken with this one!)

The lowlight for both kids was the enormous spiders that inhabited the area. These are orb spiders and are very big (maybe the size of my hand). Both kids got a fright at various points during the day - Biddy nearly had a melt down when I made her walk under one (I didn't think she'd saw it) and Tom got a huge fright when he was looking into a display and one ran nearly right under his nose! From then on, he was on spider alert!

Just for those that are interested....me at 30 weeks and 2 days. Suffering a little in the humidity!

Day 15 (halfway point) and it is Good Friday today. Nothing much open, which is just as good as we took the opportunity to start to pack up surplus stuff and get some serious washing done. We took the kids around to the Stevos for dinner and to say goodbye. Not for long though as Deb and Stevo are planning to return to Colac (for good) just before Christmas and will be parking the Big Blue Bus at the farm until they can move back into their house. Biddy has taken to Laura and follows her everywhere calling her "Lola". Tom thinks Will is pretty good too.

Biddy, Laura, Will and Tom

Sam and Deb

Day 16 and we leave Darwin headed for Katherine. Darwin has been great and once you get a bit used to the heat and humidity, I would fully recommend visiting in the wet season. Mainly because there are just so few tourists around and you really can have your pick of things to do without fear of missing out due to overbookings. Sure, some things aren't running and some things are closed, but you can always find something to do. So we headed south for Katherine and lobed into the Low Level Caravan Park. This is a very nice park - very shady and quite a bit out of town so you tend to not get the riff raff. We have booked in for a cruise of the Katherine Gorge tomorrow and have elected to do the 9am cruise which goes for 2 hours (to miss the heat of the day). So an early start tomorrow. Afterwards we'll see what else there is around here to do that may interest the kids. After all, when the kids are happy, I am happy!!