The Top End

We arrive at what the Aussies inventively call “The Top End.” The city of Darwin was a remote outpost at the end of hundreds of kilometers of rough, unsealed road until WWII when the U.S. came to the aid of Australia and the bombed wreck of Darwin. They paved the road in record time, saving Oz from becoming Japan-South and enabling us to visit 65 years later. A major thing that people of The Top End do is try to stay cool. We fall into this custom like a couple of pros. The whole region is dotted with crystal clear limestone pools and waterfalls. Here you see photographic evidence of our diligence in inspecting as many as we can.



BUT…… Don’t swim just anywhere! Another featured creature of this area is the formidable, not to mention huge, saltwater crocodile. Salties live quite successfully in fresh water as well as salt, and they swim far up rivers in search of dinner. Dinner is anything they can clamp their jaws around, including unwary humans. There are freshies, too, but they’re more reclusive, smaller, and only capable of inflicting serious wounds, so nobody worries too much about them.

By now we have so many photos of the riot of birds that we could dazzle you for days. Instead we prefer to just tantalize you with one or two at a time. The expressive Frogmouth was surely the inspiration for Oscar the Grouch. And when was the last time you saw a flock of geese hanging around in a tree TOP?



Termite mounds continue to abound. How would you like to have this one for a neighbor?



Distances between inhabited areas are vast and the land is pretty flat. To transport goods most efficiently the Aussies have developed the “road train.” They transport everything from gravel to cattle to jelly beans. Of course these guys can’t stop on a dime (or even several dollars), so we give them plenty of space.

Tomorrow we will point our compass west, leaving the town of Katherine for the no-man’s-land of Western Australia. Stay tuned for further exciting encounters and challenges.