Day 45 - February 17, 2025 - Monday - Darwin Australia

It was a beautiful dawn this morning as we were nearing Darwin.  I am hoping the day will be mostly dry, a rarity in Darwin during the wet season.

Darwin s the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. The city has nearly 53% of the Northern Territory's population, with 139,902 at the 2021 census. It is the smallest, wettest, and most northerly of the Australian capital cities and serves as the Top End's regional center.

The Australian Northern Territory is nearly twice the size of Texas, but only has the population of about 225,000 compared to Texas's 30 million, that's less that 1% of Texas's population in twice the area!  With over half that population in Darwin, the territory is very sparsely populated.

 Cyclones in Darwin are so common the City Council actually has an annual pre-cyclone "clean-up", from the Council's webpage   "City of Darwin’s pre-cyclone clean-up is an opportunity to tidy up around your yard and prepare for cyclone season. The free service helps Darwin residents to dispose of unwanted items that may become hazardous in a cyclone and are too big for the relevant kerbside wheelie bin."

Darwin and the north of Australia have felt the force of a cyclone on a number of occasions – the worst being in 1897, 1937 and 1974. In each case more than 70% of the city was destroyed.  Add to this it's destruction in WWII, Darwin has been almost entirely rebuilt four times in a little over a century.

On February 19, 1942, Darwin was attacked by the Japanese, just like Pearl Harbor two months earlier.  The actual attack was larger than Pearl Harbor with more bombs dropped, but unlike Pearl Harbor there were many fewer casualties, but a tremendous amount of damage was done.

I am excited about visiting Darwin, this will complete my visits to all of the Australian States and territories except Tasmania.

The Darwin Skyline

The pier awaits us.

We had an early tour planned today.  We are going to look for saltwater crocodiles on the Adelaide River.

The trip to the river from the port was about 35 miles.  On the way we passed several large mango orchards.

After turning onto progressively smaller paved roads, we eventually turned onto a dirt road for the last few miles.  We finally arrived at the "Spectacular Jumping Crocodile Cruise".  According to Google Maps, this is only one of several croc cruises is this stretch of the Adelaide River.

The Adelaide River is well known for its high concentration of saltwater crocodiles, along with other wildlife including white-bellied sea eagles, whistling kites, freshwater crocodiles, bull sharks and black flying-fox.  It is estimated by the Australian government that there are over 100,000 saltwater crocodiles in the Norther Territory.  Many of these are in the Adelaide River.  Our guide said you can find one croc about every 100 meters along the river.

This is a boat similar to the one we were on.

The river is beautiful!

Here come a croc...

During our one hour on the river, we saw numerous crocodiles of various sizes.  We did not see any I would consider small.

Our boat captain, and river guide was quite a character, a real "Out Back" type.

Here, he is displaying a crocodile tooth.  A saltwater croc can exert a force of up to 4000 psi with its bite.  In contrast, a human has about 200 psi and it only takes 2500 psi to crush an auto.  Lesson - don't get bit by a crocodile...

The black things you see in the trees are black flying fox bats.  These North Territory Australian bats  grow to an average weight of 1.6 pounds and have a wingspan of 39 inches.  Although their size is intimidating, they are fruit eaters, not Vampires...

This was the best photo I was able to get.

Here is our guide "demonstrating" how the bats, who spend most of their lives hanging upside down,  go to the bathroom...  this photo is curtesy of Carl.

This photo was taken by the Crocodile Cruise building.  This is not the river but flooded flatland.  I bet you could find a few crocs there too (as well as some snakes.)

On the drive back to Darwin, I got this photo from the coach with my phone.  

If you look closely, you can see the "slabs" standing in the woods.  These flat slab like structures are magnetic termite mounds.

A stock photo of a mound up close.

From the Litchfield NP website (near Darwin). "Up to 100 years old, these structures are unique to the northern parts of Australia, including Litchfield National Park. These enormous magnetic compasses, with their thin edges pointing north-south and broad backs facing east-west. This aspect thermo-regulates the mounds for the magnetic termites inside, who prefer high humidity and stable temperatures, but for one side of the mound to remain shaded so they do not overheat."

Contrast the magnetic termite mounds with the cathedral termite mounds below.  The cathedral mounds can reach over 20 feet tall and are some of the tallest non-human  constructed structures on earth.

Photo of cathedral termite mounds I took in Queensland AU in 2005.

After we returned to Darwin, Janet, Kay and I left the coach in the downtown area for a little exploring of the area.  We walked thru Bennett Park and viewed the Parliament building and the Supreme Court.

Northern Territories Parliament Building.

An interesting feature of the building, which represent an architectural salute to the site on which Parliament House stands is the falling "bomb".  This area was devastated during WWII.

My Bird Of the Day

This fellow, who looks like a white bird who fell in a bucket of black paint, is Magpie-lark.  Noted for their noisy and aggressive nature, often attacking their own reflection in car mirrors and windows.  The grass color was not enhanced by processing, it is really that green!  Our guide told us earlier, that if we come back in the dry season, everything is brown.

A view of our ship from the Esplanade in the Bicentennial Park

After a fairly short but hot walk, we made our way back to the Darwin Terminal Building.

We were fortunate that the weather was good for entire tour and early afternoon walk.  After returning to the ship, some rain showers did come ashore and in the early evening Kay and I sat on the veranda and watched the lightning show on the distant horizon.  

This is NOT a photo I took, it is from professional Australian weather chaser Mike O'Neal.

Darwin is considered to be one of the most lightning prone cities in the world.  This quote is from the ABC Australia News :

"The Top End attracts storm chasers and meteorologists from all over the world, desperate to be there when a big bolt cracks open the sky. They come for the incredible frequency of thunderstorms; during the wet season — from November to April — they emerge seemingly out of nowhere almost every afternoon.  Just one of these storms can produce thousands of bolts, each one many kilometers long, hotter than the surface of the sun and harboring an electrical current of up to 30,000 amps.  And many locals and visitors agree: there’s no better show on earth. "

In closing, I just want to acknowledge the great crew we have serving us on this cruise. 

Our room stewards Aldrin and Ujjwal are absolutely the best.  Our meals are attended to by a number of excellent servers, Aqil, our table water in the evening has become like family.  He has been assisted by Vivian, Danu, Simran and many others who all do an excellent job.  In the mornings we have had Peter and now Mariez as well as others.  They are all outstanding.  In addition, they are led by the fantastic Restaurant Manager Antonio, who seems to be everywhere and is aways smiling.  In addition there are  many, many others we see daily in the halls and the lounges who always greet you with a smile and offer their assistance.

We now have two sea days crossing the Timor Sea to reach our next destination,  Komodo Island, Indonesia.