Chris finally meets his match: a giant Cathedral Termite mound in Litchfield National Park
Hi all! Time for another non-work-related blog post from me. This one is about the “adventure days” that CUER have had whilst in Darwin. I personally have had three great days off, though not all in a row, don’t worry.
DAY 1
Firstly, the whole team took a trip to Litchfield National Park, thanks to Nathan (the production manager at BOC) who showed us around. We started this day with a trip to Florence Falls, which Nathan told us was his favourite of the places we would visit. I think at the end of the day most of the team thought the same. Here we went swimming in the pool at the base of two falls. It was very beautiful, and we spent around two hours here swimming. For me it was great, there were some fish, the water was very clear, and it was my first time swimming under a waterfall. Very cool.
After that we moved on to the Buley Rockholes, where stones in the falls have whirlwinded around in the water making neat round holes, that are deep too, and perfect for jumping in to (see the Yu Chao belly-flop for further details). And finally we went to Wangi falls, a pair of absolutely stunning falls, with a spa just up the rock face that some team members climbed up – this was not recommended though, as the rocks are sacred to the Aboriginals. It should be noted that none of the electrical team climbed the rocks, so if everything on the car but the electrics fails then we know why!
Wangi falls
DAY 2
Chomper the croc has his lunch
The second exciting thing that I did on my next day off was to visit “Crocosaurus Cove”. It is right next to our hostel, and we in fact have a lizard (Morphius) in our reception on loan from the Cove. The Cove is home to some massive (and old) Saltwater crocs – the dangerous ones! One of the highlights here for me was to see “Burt” who is an 80 year old croc, but, more importantly, is the croc that appeared in the movie “Crocodile Dundee” and is thus responsible for a large portion of my opinion of Australia.
Lucy makes a new friend
There was loads of other cool things to do here as well: we held a baby croc, fed the juveniles, and there was also a reptile house and an aquarium. This meant that, as well as seeing the big crocs get fed, we also saw the reptiles get fed, and managed to handle some of them too!
DAY 3
The third exciting trip was to the Northern Territory Wildlife Park. This is a short ride out of Darwin, and situated near Litchfield National Park. It is largely just areas of natural land, that has had paths put through, in the hope that you can see the wildlife in its natural habitat. There are also a selection of housed animals - just to make sure that you can spot something! For instance, there is an aviary and a nocturnal house.
Rufus Owl
Our trip here started with a visit to the Flight Deck to see the raptors (as in ‘birds of prey’ – not dinosaurs). This was probably the highlight of my day. There were many other brilliant things though. At the watering hole there was a huge selection of birds, and I think I spotted an osprey, though I have to check my photos more thoroughly, and against an Australian bird book.
Forest kingfisher
In the billabong there was a freshwater croc, and some pelicans. In the forests we saw Blue Winged Kookaburas, Rainbow Pipins, Black Cockatoos, various Finches…the list goes on. The aquarium had a good selection of swimmers, including a load of turtles, some crocs, prawns and even a few reef fish.
We also saw forest kingfishers, whiprays, dingoes and wallabies (both wild and tame). Check out the mass of photos!
Mike goes for a softer, fluffier and altogether less lethal friend
This was a great day out, and with a student card was only 14 dollars - a very good deal in my opinion and worth every cent of it 
- Mike
Ed: watch out for news and photos from the rest of the team about their Darwin adventures – coming soon!
