Wet in Kakadu

I found an Internet int he middle of nowhere!!!

But first a detour: "happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Deanne, happy birthday to you" (just imagine me singing).

Now on to how I spent my last two days...

I left for my tour of Litchfield and Kakadu parks with six other people from Sweden, France, and Australia. There was one couple (Sweden), but everyone else is traveling alone and doesn't know anyone, like me. Coincidentally, three are from France - this means I hear as much French as English, since there is an equal number of both, including the guide.

There first thing we learned was to throw out the itinerary. It was written for the dry season, and right now is their wet season. During the wet season, dirt roads get rained out and paths become too wet. According to the guide, you can't know which places are open for sure until 6-8 hours ahead of time.

The downside of it being the rainy season is that you are always wet - whether because it's currently raining, just finished raining, you sat on something wet from the last rainfall, or your stuff just refuses to dry due to the humidity. The benefits are worth it though: no crowds and, best of all, the waterfalls are bigger - and we are seeing tons of waterfalls.

We see termite mounds everywhere. Many are similar to those I saw in Peru, but two types of mounds in Litchfield are different: the cathedral, which can be more than 20 feet high, and the magnetic, which are thin like tombstones and are built facing east and west to deal with temperature fluctuations. What I did not know is that not all termites eat trees (or maybe I just forgot). They have grass eating and "scavengers", as well as the tree eating kind.

Today and tomorrow we go around Kakadu. We drove over the South Alligator River, which starts in the park and flows north into a gulf. Well, sometimes...when the tide in the gulf is high, then the currents switch direction and flow south.

This morning we hiked around an aboriginal art site, Ubirr (pronounced U-beer). To get there we drove through two flooded sections of the road, each 1.5 feet high. Our biggest risk was getting stuck if the flooded areas rose to over 3 feet before we returned (there's only the one road in and out). Luckily, the rain held off until afternoon - although we did get a great view of the storm coming in across the park.

The rock art was very cool, but I will admit to having a difficult time distinguishing some of the more complex pictures - I took photos of the art and the signs with the descriptions so I could figure it out on my computer monitor when I get home.

Oh, by the way, I have needed the sleeping bag, but we're staying in permanent tent camps, which means solid floor and beds with mattresses. I am actually finding them nicer than some of the places we stayed on the Brisbane leg. Other than that, it's a camping type of thing with a big tent to cook and hang around in. Everyone kicks in to help with dinner and clean-up, although our guide does a lot of the work. Tonight we had kangaroo and buffalo meat.

Interesting fact day 19: there are more than 1,000 species of flies in Kakadu (and I think every one is after me). Seriously, ants have been rampant in Australia (from tiny ones that are always in the vans to ones over one inch long). But I have decided they are not nearly as annoying as the flies in Kakadu. At one point, I looked down and had eight flies on my shirt alone. They tried to go up my nose, in my mouth, and I think it will take a while for the sound of their buzzing to leave my ears.