Sailing around the World ( Presently in Darwin , Australia )
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Mon 30 Aug 2010 23:40
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SATURDAY
28th August 2010
06.30hrs Aileen and Stephen set off in a pre
arranged taxi to town on their way to a 3 day tour
of - Kakatu National Park, Katherines Gorge,
and Litchfield National park, -
The tour was in a 4X4 Toyota land cruiser and our
guide for the 3 days was " Max" , an australian white man.
There were 4 others in the jeep besides
ourselves, 2 OBE's ( as they referred to themselves, and means " over
bloody eighty " ) two
ladies from Melbourne, and a mother and daughter
from Rome,
One of the OBE's was " Fay Daniels" who's
forefathers came from Ireland and her brother in laws wife was a " Kathleen O
Flaherty "
from Tralee and was one of the original " Rose of
Tralee " girls. small world ,
The day was beautifull yet again , but less
humidity than in the past few days,
Our first call was in the wetlands, out along the
dam, where we were a few days ago, but it was still amazing, the pelicans, the
ducks, the geese,
the snakes, the wild pigs, the finches were there
in their thousands, the noise was just wonderfull.
9 years ago, on a trip to Cairns , we were told
about a frog that was introduced into the Cairns area to combat a weavel that
was attacking the roots
of the sugar cane plants, however the frog did
nothing to the weavel, but adapted to the climate of Australia very well and
spread like wildfire.
The blinking frog was poisinous and anything that
eat it died rapidly.
Now this frog has spread up as far as Kakatu
national park and is having a devestating effect on the wild life
here,
Frogs are a major food supply for snakes, crocks,
and lots of birds, but its the snakes are hit worst , and their numbers in the
area
have reduced significantly in the last few
years.
We then travelled to the - South Alligator River
- a big, big river, and we were now 100km inland and it was still
tidal,
here we met Donna Cullen from Armagh in
Northern Ireland, and a couple of Yanks from " 17 mile drive " in
California,
Our Margarets brother in law lives in -17 mile
drive- and is the home of " Pebble Beach " golf club.
We did a cruise up the River, and our guide
for the trip was " Natasha " who's father is Aboriginal and her mother was
white,
She was excellent and was able to explain all about
their hunting techniques, and living habits. with
practical demonstrations of throwing
spears.
Eventually after an interesting day, we retired to
the designated hotel, this was an interesting building, built with corrigated
metal,
( as most buildings are built of this material out
here, ) and coloured green, but it was designed in the shape of a
CROCKADILE.
The hotel is owned by the Aboriginals and operated
by " holiday inns "
In fact, the whole region of Kakatu and the
Northern territories were handed back to the Aberoginal Clans about 40 years ago
and
are jointly developed and promoted by the
governments and the Natives alike.
This was a great idea, as the natives have a great
respect for their land and look after it properly,
they still retain all their normal hunting methods
and their aboriginal laws are extreemly tough.
We had dinner in the Hotel,, a great buffet, with
as much food as you could eat.. and at about 35euros each represented good
value.
We had an early night,
Neil, remained in Darwin and did some local
exploring and enjoyed the day,
That it.
Signed :- Stephen
Hyde, ( skipper )
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